Director/Hair Stylist
Sejour

Shaun H

00:00:01 My name’s Shaun H and I’m a hairdresser. Currently, as I say, I’m, you know, the owner of this salon. So, as well as actually doing hair day to day, it’s also to make sure that the day to day running of the salon, we have the right amount of products, the right form of etiquette towards the clients that we have, and of course employing members of staff, new members of staff. There’s quite a few roles to actually cover, so I mean, a day is one of many things I suppose.

00:00:32 For me, when it came to a crucial time I think as far as my education was concerned, which was quite young, probably six, my father passed away. So at that point I was quite distracted by everything that was going on around me. Therefore I think that’s where I kind of fell off the education ladder. I started doing this job at 13 years old as a Saturday job just helping out my brother really. It wasn’t something I really ever imagined that I’d be doing for a profession or for the rest of my life. I suppose like many things, when you get into something, it’s not quite what you imagine it to be once you’re actually on your way.

00:01:06 When friends of mine understood that that’s what career path I was going to take, actually they thought it was quite funny. Because as you know, it’s not particularly seen as a macho job. I suppose I was one of the more robust types at school who generally done more macho things.

00:01:24 At the time, my hero I suppose was my brother. He said, ‘if you go for the best company’, as far as he understood hairdressing to have, ‘at least it shows mum you tried. So you have to go for the interview. You probably won’t get in because really, you know nothing about hairdressing’. So off I went to Vidal Sassoon for an interview. I there met a vast array of individuals that I’d never have come across unless I went to that interview, not realising that in meeting these people, that actually I’d almost found my vocation, which was actually meeting people. I love meeting people. And I realised really, it’s a window…this world you can meet so many different kinds of people that really you’d normally never meet.

00:02:11 I got a letter through from Sassoon’s saying, ‘we’ve accepted you. We think you’re great. We hope you have a long, successful career at our company’. The studies were fun as far as I was concerned. I mean, how people couldn’t pass exams, I couldn’t quite understand it again. So this told me as I looked back at it that actually, I was just loving what I was doing. The challenges were challenges that I loved actually doing.

00:02:33 Normally, the strangest highlights are the biggest challenges that you’ve faced, that actually you’ve just managed to get over, which while you’re actually going through it, is no highlight whatsoever. Even actualising, getting the business together is a nightmare putting the whole thing together, but the fact still stands is now it’s here, it’s a highlight, it’s a base, it’s a trophy of…that stands for what you actually put together at a moment in time

00:02:58 You know, the highlights are many. It’s very difficult to put your finger on one particular highlight. I mean, when you go to, I suppose, AFN and buy yourself a brand new Porsche and put the keys in the ignition and drive out, that can be classified as a highlight, but really it’s not. Those…that kind of highlight is short-lived. The highlight is when you actually tuck into bed at night, put your hands behind your head and say, ‘that was a great day I had today’.

ENDS