A celebrity hairdresser, bedridden with Crohn's disease, describes feeling "blessed by angels"after a member of a Middle Eastern royal family offered her a five-figure sum to colour the hair of five princesses.
Catherine Boden, a 42-year-old colourist from Oldham, is known for her signature "Hollywood Colour Blend" technique.
She had cultivated an impressive client list over her 20-year career, including actors Michelle Keegan, Helen Flanagan, and Kym Marsh.
However, in June 2024, a severe Crohn's disease flare-up, the first in a decade, forced her to stop working for six months.
Ms Boden, who boasts 60,000 Instagram followers, feared for her business.
But as the year drew to a close, a life-changing phone call from a Middle Eastern princess offered a glimmer of hope, requesting Ms Boden fly overseas for a royal appointment.
“I got a call and she said ‘I’ve followed you for four years’. It was one of the princesses,” Ms Boden said.
Now, Ms Boden travels to the Middle East every month or two, accompanied by a salon assistant and her 10-year-old son, Max, to style the princesses and their mother.
Now, with her salon flourishing, she is focussed on the future, grateful for the unexpected opportunity that saved her career.
Ms Boden’s career began at Toni & Guy in Manchester, but she almost abandoned hairdressing in her 20s due to dermatitis, a reaction to hair-washing products.
During this time, she trained as a makeup artist, specialising in bridal hair and makeup.
Upon recovery, she returned to colouring, opening a small salon in her mother's garage, eventually building her reputation and clientele to its current celebrity status.
Inspired by the colour theory she had learned as a make-up artist, Ms Boden developed and trademarked Hollywood Colour Blend – a technique similar to balayage which involves bleaching hair then applying a range of dyes to create a natural-looking multi-tonal look that needs to be redone only around every six months – and began charging £250 per appointment in 2010.
Over the next few years, word spread about her expertise and wealthy clients began to “fly in from all over the world”.
She was able to raise her prices to between £400 and £500 per appointment and opened her first standalone salon in 2016.
She coloured the hair of celebrities including pop star Tulisa and Coronation Street stars Helen Flanagan and Lucy-Jo Hudson.
She also became the go-to colourist for many of the WAGs of Manchester, including Michelle De Bruyne, wife of Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne, and Phil Foden’s fiancee Rebecca Cooke.
Business continued to boom and Ms Boden hired a friend to manage a second salon in Ashley, Cheshire, but when the pandemic hit and lockdown rules meant neither salon could operate, Ms Boden decided to close the Ashley site permanently and bring all her staff under one roof, upsizing again in 2023 to a converted farmhouse in the Cheshire countryside.
The following year, she had a “dream come true” moment when she coloured actor Michelle Keegan’s hair for the National Television Awards.
Ms Boden suffered a huge flare-up of Crohn’s disease for the first time in a decade starting in June 2024.
Inflammation in her colon, bleeding, and pain “like childbirth” left her bed-bound.
She had to visit hospital every eight weeks to receive a drug infusion which produced “crazy” side effects.
“You put on loads of fluid weight, you can’t stop eating because your appetite goes through the roof and you can’t sleep because of the steroids,” she said.
“(The doctors) don’t know how long I’ve got on these drugs because they never know when your body’s going to reject them or build antibodies.”
The mother of one was unable to work for six months as a result, and her salon business was going “further and further into debt”.
But towards the end of the year, Ms Boden received a life-changing phone call from a Middle Eastern princess – Ms Boden asked that their country not be named – asking her to fly over for work.
The princess offered to fly Ms Boden out to the Middle East, “business class, all expenses paid, plus a massive fee to go and do their hair”.
Determined to save her ailing company, Ms Boden agreed to travel to Dubai for her first royal appointment, despite still being severely ill.
“I ended up in hospital because I was that poorly, but I needed to go and get that money for the next month’s rent,” she said.
“I was literally wheelchaired through Manchester Airport because I couldn’t walk. But I was saved. I didn’t have to close the business down.”
When she travels to the Middle East, there is a hair salon in the palace, a “massive banquet” is laid on each time and she is provided with five-star hotel accommodation.
“Because they know I’ve got Crohn’s disease, they put me up in a wellness retreat spa, where they do fresh juices every morning for me,” she said.
“They properly look after me. Thank god I’ve been blessed by angels.”
At the moment, she is symptom-free and feeling optimistic despite the many setbacks of the last few years.
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