When the Alist hairdresser Gianni Scumaci was looking for a model to star in his latest creative project, he advertised in a glossy title not usually known for its on-trend cover stars — Horse and Hound magazine.

Scumaci, you see, wasn’t looking for a run-of-the-mill size-zero princess. His requirements were offbeat — a voluminous mane of hair, shoes a little sturdier than your average Jimmy Choos and (tricky, this one, even with human models) a candidate who could be relied on not to kick the hairdresser.

Placing the ad was risky. He didn’t want to incur the wrath of devoted horse lovers across the land. “I kept things very vague. If I’d put ‘Hairdresser wants horse for tattoo shaving and hair-extension modelling’, I don’t think I would have had many replies,” he says.

As it was, he received 700 e-mails in response to his mysterious “horse wanted” plea. Soon he had filled an entire wall of his house with photos and had become, by his own admission, “a man obsessed”.

So, just how did he come up with the idea of using equine models to show off his backcombing and blow-drying skills? “I was standing in the middle of a field. I glanced over and saw this beautiful horse, and that’s when I had my brainwave. It was crazy, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

Scumaci, who trained in his father’s City barber shop, had never been near a horse in his life. In order to get a closer look at the animals, he started sidling up to police horses. “They’re really the only horses you see on the streets of London,” he says. “The mounted officers gave me some really funny looks when I was studying their manes and tails. I just insisted that I was admiring their beautiful animals.”

In total, he went to meet 21 horses. “It was like going on a series of bizarre blind dates — not all of them took to me,” he says. He was so petrified about being kicked, he bribed them with sweets. “One horse spat half a packet right back at me. He didn’t get the job.”

He finally met his muse in Birmingham. Just like all the best supers, his model is known only by its Christian name, Sandokan. A pure-bred Lusitano, he (yes, he) has a to-die-for chestnut mane and, at 17 hands, is impressively tall, even by model standards.

From the outset, Sandokan proved every bit as temperamental as any catwalk diva, stamping his feet and demanding supplies of carrots and Polo mints. Several brands of shampoo were rejected, including anything fruity or floral. “He only liked the super-macho musky scents,” laughs Scumaci.

He was also fussy about music. “He hated anything by Muse,” says the hairdresser. “His favourite was The Joshua Tree by U2, which always put him in a great mood.” Indeed, perhaps too good a mood. On one occasion, Sandokan became rather, ahem, overaffectionate. “I was working with the only gay horse in the village,” says Scumaci.

Somehow, over three days, Scumaci managed to create three different looks. One transforms Sandokan’s mane into the full-on Wag blonde, complete with that “just been attacked by straighteners” gloss. It took £1,000 of extensions, made, ironically, of human hair, and five hours of stitching.

He also created this season’s must-have Mary Quant bob, a tough task involving pulling the fringe between Sandokan’s ears. “That was tricky, because horses hate you touching their ears,” he says. “There were a few hairs out of place, but I didn’t dare do anything about that.”

The third look was inspired by the backcombed 1980s goth style of the Cure’s Robert Smith. “We basically gave the mane and tail a shampoo and set, using large metal shapes in place of rollers, and then we just backcombed like mad.”

So, has there been a knock-on effect for the shoots he usually works on? “I haven’t given any models a mane and tail just yet,” he says. “Although bridles are a different matter.”

Images of Sandokan appear in the April edition of iD magazine

Times recommends

• How I lost the gift of joy for a while
• How to get Coleen Rooney's post-baby body
• The A-Z of winter style rules