Nigel Kenny
Hair by Nigel, Kilkenny
“Born and reared” in a village in north Tipperary called Gortnahoe, Nigel was an underage inter-county hurler with Tipperary, and knew very early on what his career would be. “There was never going to be another lifestyle choice other than hairdressing,” he says. “From the age of eight years old, it was all I wanted to be, even though I was slagged by my friends for playing with my hair because it was so girlie and feminine. As a teenager, I was a trendsetter with my look, and when I graduated to bleaching my own hair, I was never short of female attention. I saw the effect that hair had on me and others. My father encouraged me, saying that if I could make a living out a hobby, I would never work a day for the rest of my life.”
Nigel started training in Peter Mark in Kilkenny, then spent a few years in Dublin with the same company, and his work now brings him in “lots of directions”.
“My main base is my salon, Hair by Nigel in Kilkenny,” he says, “which I am proud to say has picked up many awards and accolades.”
What does he love about it? “I never get bored and I love the effect we have. People never forget the way you make them feel. We can change people’s perception of you, which is crucial for building relationships, creating employment, and most of all creating happiness and peace of mind.”
Describe the customer-stylist relationship? “It comes in many forms,” Nigel says. “We depend on the salon guests as much as they depend on us. We will laugh together, cry together, speak about almost anything — sports, kids, love life, church, boob jobs — but there is a line that you can’t cross. You need to learn about boundaries too.”
And, of course, not everyone gets that. “A long time ago, I had a lovely lady who came to me for years,” recalls Nigel. “Before she left for Australia, she confessed to me via a letter that she had fallen in love with me, which wasn’t ideal, as she was married with kids and planned to never return to Ireland again. I was totally surprised. Then she rang me in work to tell me she had made it all up, just to imagine the look on my face. I laughed it off, but to this day, I still don’t know whether she was joking or not.”
And how did Nigel get involved with the show? “All my Christmases came at once when I got a phone call to invite me in for an audition,” he says. “I was working in France on a day trip at the time, and felt it was a wind-up, but I did my research and saw that it was legitimate. I went to Dublin very clueless about what to expect, but thinking, ‘I have nothing to lose’. I originally felt it was simply an honour to be in the room, but then I realised that this was all my dreams come true. Doing what I do on-screen was like a fantasy, something I always wanted but never really knew how to achieve. Getting the email to say I was in was the definition of happiness and achievement.”