Stephanie —glad to lose the grey
EAST Belfast author and mother-of-one Stephanie Mckittrick (35) was counting down the days until her hairdresser re-opened.
“I’ve been quite fed up in lockdown,” she says. “I started writing another book, I studied quite a lot and threw out a lot of stuff from my house.
“I am dark brown naturally, but I have been blonde now for a while.
“But once they shut down the hairdressers, there’s no way you can lie; we are all left with this big band of truth with a little pebbledashing of grey hairs.
Once you have roots it’s obvious, and I’d be talking to people and could see them looking at them. It’s like they were talking to my roots and not to me. I was very conscious that I had this big black band at the top of my head.
“I was in contact with my hairdresser Paul Meekin Hair during the entire lockdown to see what was happening and if there was any chance of them opening up again. He messaged me straight away when the green light was given and I was one of the first ones in.”
Stephanie’s visit to the hairdresser this week was markedly different: “Everyone has protective gear and visors on. All the staff were wearing masks and we had to wear masks. Paul would have always had his two little dogs in the salon and that gave it a lovely homely feel, and there was always loads of chatting and the place was always packed. But when I was in there were only four chairs that were in use instead of the normal eight and it was difficult to understand what anyone was saying with the masks on. It was still an amazing experience, and they did a great job in adapting... and the head massage was out of this world.
“The girl who did my hair, Kerryann, told me she’s working for the next seven days in a row to try to accommodate everyone.
“It’s like they say, if you’re heading into a new change and a new season, then a new hairdo sets you up to take on the world. We’re coming out of lockdown and getting ready to embrace this new normal and you need a new do to go with it.”