A Blast from the Past

On a personal note, I was working on my website and my phone rang, Mandy was asking if I knew a lady who said she worked with me when I was a lecturer at Calderdale College, she is Sandra (Dark-Haired..not bad-looking...good at knitting)....I said put her through...Sandra and I worked, taught, demonstrated and laughed till it hurt. We both were part of Arthur Oddy's team in Halifax's College (Percival Whitley), re-named Calderdale College.

After several minuets of reminiscing over competitions, knitting and 'what are we up to now?' Sandra asked me if I would be interested in attending 'Olympic Week' at Taylor Training Ltd, to inspire, motivate and chat to the hairdressing students about the career of hairdressing and it's diversities. She said I came in to her mind and with the power of the Internet, she found me in moments !!

So.....I am thrilled to be invited, but where do I start? The word Passion comes to mind, because without this, I would not still be within the profession of hairdressing after 45 years. Once I started to make a list, the notes just flowed. I intend to chat about how to create the styles of the 1960's....70's....80's....90's....20's as I have worked throughout all those decades, and I am sure the students will be delighted to hear about working with fellow passionate stylists in

*Paris
*Stuttgart
*Munich
*Dusseldorf
*Rotterdam
*Amsterdam
*Brussels
*Antwerp
*Luxembourg
*Zurich
*Verona
*Dublin

So it is now a mission to hunt down my photographs, write down a few notes and happily share my experience as the former World Cup Team Member, British Champion, British Junior Team Trainer and International Juror.........will let you know how it goes

2002/3

The Whitney Wig from Rene of Paris...Lace-Front and 100% Hand-Tied...coming soon

During this time of wondering what my future would hold for me, I went to college to learn IT skills, this was the first time I was back in Education since I left school in 1967, but computers and websites were the way forward. My husband was a website developer and as a change of career, I supported his business by marketing and selling our business to the end user, encouraging business people to have a website was not easy, even though they had heard of the 'Wonder Web' as someone called it, we hosted the town's website and we were there before others .....it is so different now as everyone looks to the web for advice, buying, holidays, you name it and the Internet since 2002 has exploded.

One day a close friend came to me and asked me to get her a wig as she had developed Breast Cancer, she did not want to go to a shop or Salon, she wanted this done privately and as I had links with Trendco and others, I could supply and style it for her. Whilst the wig was on order we started looking for wig websites....on the 'InterWeb' thingy as another person called it......there was none of any standard and three in USA that was not bad, so...............the idea was born, I said to my husband, instead of making sites for everyone else, I think I would like one for myself.

So I became involved in the design,look and feel of it and wanted to control this as a small cottage industry.......little did we know how this would grow and grow to today, where we have the largest online wig business in the UK.

After 2004 we knew the business was flying, so we had a professional web designer, Leigh, design a first-class site for us as image is so important. We still have Leigh to do our design and we take advice and listen to him when he advise a change of look......keep it simple and easy to navigate with clean lines.

Now I have caught up with the years since 1963, I will update my blog and publish tips, offers, new designs etc on a regular basis. I will be happy to explain the difference between monofilaments, lace fronts, hand-tied and wefted wigs....back soon

1994 .........

1994 - I decided that I would threw myself back in to Salon-based work and quit all the demos, I had bought a bungalow with Andrew and it was time for change. I cannot recall a great deal regarding fashion or new - looks, but I was satisfied to work and enjoy the salon, this phase was a complicated one, it entailed divorce, well-being of the children and trying to do the right thing....this continued up until 2002, that was the year I was 50 and it was on my birthday I decided to sell the salon. I returned from the Caribbean and announced to my staff that I was selling up after 35 years back-breaking but thoroughlly enjoyable career of hairdressing.

It did not take long for the staff to realise what a goldmine this could be to them as it had been for Marcia and I. Liz and Caroline, were my two proteges, liz was the most naturally talented apprentice I had seen for years and Caroline was the most willing apprentice and just loved hairdressing, a great team that developed in to great hairdressers, they eventually bought the salon and I had retired....so I thought

1993 onwards

As I was a single working mum, I felt very torn at times trying to do the right thing, but somehow I managed, Kate often came to work with me after school and as she had grown up in the Salon environment, she was a natural with customers. Fashions in the hairdressing industry had veered to colour, perming was on the way out, therefore the cut was even more important. I would like to say that it was my 'Forte', I loved it, I was the most awkward cutter to look at as I held my scissors between my thumb and first finger, this was due to teaching myself to cut hair at 11 years old, I must add that I did teach all my juniors the correct way......only Stephen Jones of Manchester cut the same way as I did, and we both were in the world cup team.

Marcia and I were still with Tresemme, but cut backs were showing, eventually Marcia and I decided it was time to 'move on'.....back in to the salon - full-time. This was the winter of 93/4 and some days we had to travel to the Lake District or Newcastle and back in one day so our decision to leave Tresemme was the right thing to do for us. Marcia and I had both met our future husbands at this time (although we did not realise this at the time), we wanted to be at home on a weekend, Marcia with James and myself with Andrew.

Time for Change

After 1992 I felt 5 years of competing had started to take effect on my life and business.....during this year, my husband and I had separated, which was coming for a long time. I had two children to singularly bring up, earn money and try not to appear distant or changeable from their former family life. I had great friends....Kate was only 7 and this worried me a great deal, as the guilt is always present.....Adelle was 16 and seem to understand that myself and her father were now two very different people. I had been approached by Tressemme to demonstrate their new colour creations tint range, Marcia and I discussed this at great length and realised that between us it would be an addition to our well-established business.....the money was great and the fact that we went in to other salons to educate stylists was quite a challenge, though often at times, tiring. The most tiring part of this was the fact that at our salon, we were so precise and educated, Marcia and I found it quite strange that other hairdressers were not as knowledgeable. Our work was greatly appreciated and that made all the difference.

We appeared in shows, seminars, at Wembley.....Earls Court.....the stage was our oyster....I loved it, I had the confidence to know I could perform, with great models, knowledge of colour and with Geoff, Chris and the TTT's behind the scenes supporting us, we moved onwards and upwards. The work was tiring, I know I was only 40...but I knew I could only do this for a couple of years or so.....which I did! The technical team from Tressemme were all over the country, it was a fabulous way to meet other stylists and learn the art of teaching colour and demonstrating. Marcia and I worked demonstrating on a Monday so as not to affect our Salon clientele and demand.

After the Paris Championships, I was invited by the NHF (National Hairdressers' Federation ) to train the youth team, I accepted as this was a real honour for me and I loved working with with juniors. My business partner, Marcia Clayton was a member of the team as well as two students from Halifax College (Calderdale College). So the training was 'Yorkshire Based' although we did travel to various towns and cities to train the youth team.

The youth team worked with mannequin heads and had to create their styles, shapes and re-styles on their head. Prior to competing, we had worked out the colours of the season, the style and the drap to be accross the shoulders. We trained hard, but follwed the ladies line of bad luck and failed to pick up any medals. Paris was not lucky for us.

At this time I was also a lecturer at Calderdale College, as well as running the Salon.......oh and giving private demonstrations / seminars to hairdressers at various wholesalers. My life was very full, which was a good job really as my marriage was on the brink of breaking. As the Queen said of that year 'Orrible Annus', and Prince Charles and Prince Andrew and I all split that year. So I kept myself very busy with Tresemme as they launched their new tint 'Colour Creations'.

I did a lot of soul-searching and decided that as it was now time to end the unhappy marriage we were both involved in, so I was facing a single life at 40. I deided to have a Black Tie Dance for my birthday, so I hired the local Town Hall, and invited 250 for a fun-packed evening.....details to follow soon

Paris - The European Championships

After the World Championships in Rotterdam, it was back to the drawing board to create a 'new design' for the UK team, this was in Christofer Mann's and Colin Lewis' hands, our manager and trainer. I remember being in a training session in Birmingham and watching Chris' hands work almost like a conductor with a Baton, Liz Shipton and I looked at each other and mouthed the words "what's he doing?".....Chris said will someone pass me an A4 piece of paper and a stapler please, this was the start of the creation. Up until now the hairpieces in the Gala section of the competition was placed within the hair at the crown of the hair, but now, this new shape was to sit in the central nape, and almost plaiting and twisting towards the front. We still only had 35 mins to convert the model's hair from the previous day style to the glamorous evening style. This was hairdressing at the very best that you can imagine, hairpieces had to be unique, individual and match the models hair so it's continuity was almost un-noticed.

The pieces were hand made with a monofilament base, we then stripped the base to a single layer of monofilament, then trimmed the base to the exact requirements that the competition rules requested. Each piece of hair was then colour matched, lightened and shaded with tint. We then razor cut the piece to reduce the density to a workable piece of art, after moulding our piece on a cork board, we then pinned it in to shape and sprayed Elnett on to the piece and as it dried I lightly stroked my fingers over the piece to smooth down any stray hairs. This process was repeated several times until my mastepiece was to my satisfaction. I then stuck minute diamontes to the edge of the piece and followed the pieces' movement with jewels. The piece was then placed to a poly head and placed in to a hat box for transportation.



We were all happy with this new design and after our training session, we went to our homes all over the country to create our masterpiece. Liz Shipton & Tino lived in Wales, Chris was in Scotland, Julio, Mark and I was from Yorkshire, so as you can imagine from the areas we all travelled, we were a dedicated team. We travelled to Paris, yet no matter how hard we practised, the Ladies' team never picked up a medal, where as the men's team, were still finding Gold.

Mark Hill was the most artistic in the Gala Style in our team, but even Mark was left disappointed. We all went back to our Hotel exhausted, gradually all hitting the pillow, except this particular evening Mark 'hyperMark' Hill, asked if someone would go for a stroll, go on then I said as Mark and I were good friends and Paula was exhausted...just a bit of fresh air he said, infront of us seemed a very small Arc de Triomph, 4 miles later we reached the Arc and just as he was about to walk back, he shouted 'come on Ang', this won't take that long, I stood until I got a taxi of which he joined me.....boy did I sleep well that night, the night the Arc got bigger and bigger.

The next day we all met up for lunch before a quick trip up the tower, Everyone was ordering their meal safely until Bob said "I am having the Beef Tartare".......little did he imagine what was coming to the table, the Raw Beef and Raw uncooked egg was presented to him by the waiter of which Bob yells out "Is the cooker broke?.....has the chef walked out?.....we were all in fits of laughter as he thought he was ordering steak with Tartare Sauce, I'll never forget the laughter from everyone that lunch time in Paris.