By RUTH ARMSTRONG AND JOHN GIBSON
HIS internationally-renowned salons have been graced by celebrities including Catherine Zeta Jones, Cherie Blair and supermodel Jodie Kidd.
But it has now emerged that the Dalai Lamaalso owes his haircut to Capital-based stylist Charlie Miller.
The exiled leader of the Tibetan Buddhists was given a pair of clippers by Mr Miller ten years ago to keep what is arguably the planet’s most famous bald head clean-shaven.
And on a recent visit to the Dalai Lama’s home in India, the city hairdresser learned the Buddhist leader still uses the clippers.
Mr Miller, who has been interested in Buddhism since childhood, said: “Around ten years ago, he was at the Samye Ling monastery in Eskdalemuir in the Borders and I gave him a set of clippers in a little tartan bag.
“I gave them to him because I couldn’t offer to cut his hair as it’s an important job carried out by monks. When we were over in India visiting the Dalai Lama recently, I said: ‘Your Holiness, you need your hair cut’, because it was looking a bit stubbly and I told him I’d given him these clippers.
“He said: ‘Yes, I’m still using them’. I was astounded – I hoped he still would be but I thought he might have given them to one of the other monks.”
Mr Miller visited the Dalai Lama at his home in exile at Dharamsala along with Hibs owner Sir Tom Farmer.
The pair expected a maximum of 40 minutes with the Dalai Lama, but their audience lasted one hour and ten minutes.
Sir Tom said: “His Holiness, who we’d met on his Edinburgh visit last year, found us most receptive to what he had to say spiritually and politically but it wasn’t deadly serious. There was a lot of laughter.
“He said he’d enjoyed Scotland and that he’d like to come back, preferably on holiday to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the far north and Western Isles.”
The Dalai Lama visited Scotland last year and hosted an audience in the Capital’s Usher Hall, which Mr Miller and Sir Tom also attended.
He met First Minister Jack McConnell and addressed MSPs in the Scottish Parliament, as well as meeting Lord Provost Lesley Hinds.
Mr Miller, who recently opened his fourth salon, in Harvey Nichols, also revealed that His Holiness commented on the crimper’s own hairstyle while he was in India.
“I’ve got a goatee beard and a moustache and when I was saying goodbye he took a hold of it, shook it and said: ‘What’s this?’ I said it was my wee beard and he burst out laughing.”
