In this episode Nathan Plumridge is joined by Lorraine Hume, a salon owner and the reigning L'Oréal Colour Trophy champion – one of the biggest competitions in British hairdressing. The pair talk about her experiences, colour trends and what it’s like to run a busy hair salon.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We streamed the L'Oréal Colour Trophy Awards live in a bar/restaurant with mine and my team’s family and friends. We didn’t expect to win anything, we just wanted to have a nice time and celebrate getting to the finals, especially because of all that happened with Covid. When they announced we’d won it was insane! There was something really special about having the people there who support you day in and day out and know the graft that you put in, it wouldn’t have happened if we were at the ceremony in London.

• Sometimes, people get an idea on a mood board that they need to cut a certain style or colour a certain way and then look for a model, but if you find your model first you know what cut and colour will look good on them

• You have to stay true to what you want to do. A lot of people go with what they see is popular in Instagram and that if they’re not doing it they’ll be frowned upon. As hairdressers we see lots of hair on Instagram because we follow lots of other hairdressers, I don’t thin our clients see that all day. If your content is engaging and clients can learn something from it then the content is good. As long as you do what you like to do and stay consistent at it you’ll enjoy it, but if you’re doing it to keep up you’ll start to resent it.

• When we first opened the salon we hit the ground running, we had to add four more chairs, and then Covid hit. Now we’re back it feels like groundhog day, we’re so busy, though things have started settling down again now. The training I want to do with my staff has been affected. I couldn’t give them the training I wanted to, but in the new year that’s what I’m going to focus on because education is important to me.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Winning the award feel very surreal, like an out of body experience. Even our clients, even those who don’t really know what it means, know it’s a big deal to us and they’re bringing in gifts and sharing it on their social media’

‘Videos on social media are massive now, especially on Reels or Tik Tok. Being a hairdresser’s not good enough, not you have to be a photographer, a videographer and an editor.’

‘You become attached to people, when we came out of lockdown our clients have opened up to us about their struggles. We turn the chairs round and have a communal conversation which I love.’

‘Some people want to be employed and do a 9-5, others want to be self-employed, run their own hours and not have a boss. Both are fine and I think salons need a mixture of both.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lorraine Hume is the owner of the Lorraine Hume Hairdressing salon, which she has been running on Randalstown high street, Antrim, Northern Ireland for three years, though she had been self-employed before that.

Instagram: @lorrainehumehairstylist and @lorrainehumehairdressing

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife