The Albert Hall is awash with Up-Dos. Here’s Lady Helen Taylor looking distinctly slim and soigné in grey Armani, a teensy Alice band, her hair swept fetchingly on to the top of her head; and here’s the editor of InStyle, the tiny but perfectly formed Trish Halpin, worrying about whether her own Up-Do looks a little, well “Bet Lynch”; it doesn’t. Both look terrifically chic. And who should be next up on stage at Fashion Rocks but our very own Lily Allen, for Chanel, with a neat fringe and a French chignon?

Forgive my tardiness. Up-Dos are not an emerging trend, they are a full-blown, full-on fashion statement. And what are they saying?

Well, for starters that a bog standard blow-dry is no longer all that is required for a black-tie event. An Up-Do says that you’ve taken a little more care and, frankly, that you’ve been to the hairdresser.

“Going to the hairdresser no longer has the stigma it once had,” says Luke Hersheson, creative director of Daniel Hersheson and London’s Up-Do king. “There’s a whole generation of women who don’t remember their mum’s rollers, tongs and ‘helmet hair’.” Hersheson should know. Last year, he opened a blow-dry bar in Topshop, since when he says his staff have been “banging out over 100 Up-Dos a week”.

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• Video: watch a beehive made

BACKGROUND

• The growth of grey hair

• Bardot — or big and bouncy?

These are not Up-Dos as we knew them. No, they are soft, undone, even messy. Customers can choose from two styles – the B52 or the Bardot. Both are £21 and are modern, messy takes on old classics. This sort of deshabillé can take a lot of work. Hersheson contends, though, that you can effect an Up-Do yourself with a Mason Pearson for backcombing, a can of Elnett and some bobby pins. Apparently, the trick is to split the hair into two and create two French pleats that roll towards each other. “If some pieces fall out, leave them,” urges Hersheson, “but make sure you have some height at the crown of the head. It’s great for highlighting cheekbones.”

Nothing is more stylish than an Up-Do. Reflect on the great style icons of our times: Audrey, Jackie, Sophia, Bridget, Liz, Gina, even Marilyn, they’ve all had Up-Dos. The Up-Do has also long been a symbol of female empowerment (the premise being: the taller a female appears, the more dominant she is). Elizabeth I had an impressive Up-Do. Recently, there’s been Dusty Springfield, Debbie Harry, Sarah J-P, Jennifer Lopez and those Olsen twins.

No piece about up hair is complete without a metaphor, especially where the extension of the Up-Do – the beehive – is concerned. Apparently, the more insecure Amy Winehouse feels, the bigger her beehive. To my knowledge, neither Kate Moss nor Madonna has ever been seen sporting a beehive. You don’t need to be a shrink to figure out what that says about their self-esteem.

coolhunter@thetimes.co.uk

Hershesons Blow-dry Bar at Topshop: 020-7927 7888

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