Lifestyle brought me here
THE TIMING COULD NOT HAVE BEEN WORSE FOR OPENING A HAIR SALON BUT DIARMUID CROWLEY IS LOVING LIFE IN SLIGO
OPENING a new hair salon is a challenging task at the best of times, but try throwing open the doors for the first time in a year when a pandemic grinds the world to a halt.
This was the reality that greeted Diarmuid Crowley very early on in the journey for his new hair salon, O’Cruadhlaoich on Market Street in Sligo.
A professional with a wide variety of experience across three continents, Diarmuid’s Sligo venture began in the middle of February when O’Cruadhlaoich opened for business. A month later, the ‘new normal’ forced the closure after a little over four weeks.
Undeterred, hair salons across the country reopened their doors over a month ago and O’Cruadhlaoich, which is likely to be renamed, Diarmuid says, is back open.
“I opened in the middle of February,” Mr Crowley told The Sligo Champion.
“We only had four or five weeks and then we had to close again. The name is O’Cruadhlaoich at the moment, which is Crowley in Irish, but that is a bit hard to remember so I am hoping to change the name to Gruaig, which is Irish for hair.”
The Sligo departure for Diarmuid is the latest move in a long career, which spans almost 25 years. During that time, he has worked both here in Ireland and abroad, with stints in New York and Australia offering contrasting lifestyles to what he was used to growing up on the Limerick-Tipperary border in the village of Birdhill. As well as new life experiences, he was afforded opportunities to develop his career with some of the best in the industry.
“Prior to opening a salon of his own, Diarmuid was well-known for his work with Rossanos who have salons in Sligo, Donegal and Ballyshannon.
“We’re talking 23/24 years,” Diarmuid says of his career to date. “I’ve worked on three different continents - here in Ireland, I was in New York and I spent seven years in Australia.
“I suppose along the way I wanted to highlight how I take on hair - thinking about face shape, personality and having some consultation about it as well. It’s about wanting something different.
“I have been with Rossanos for 2/3 years in Ireland, and I’ve managed two different salons - one of them was a flagship store for Oscar Cullinan in Australia. I met him in New York and I would have worked behind the scenes back stage at the New York fashion week.”
Cullinan, who has established an unrivalled chain of salons across Australia, is considered a world leader in the hairdressing industry. Diarmuid says he is the person who gave him real confidence to go and develop his own skills.
Having spent seven years down under, the move home to Ireland took Diarmuid to Cork. The loss of his father saw him move home to Birdhill, before taking the plunge and moving to the North West coast, where he reconnected with his love of surfing having taken it up in Australia.
Diarmuid explained: “I moved up to Bundoran six years ago. I am originally from a place called Birdhill on the Limerick-Tipperary border. When I came back to Ireland first I moved to Cork and worked in a salon there.
“My dad passed when I was in Cork and after that I moved home to spend some time with my Mum and give her some company. After a while, I had gotten into surfing in Australia.
“So I did a course for six months learning how to teach surfing and I did six months in Bundoran.”
So what attracted Diarmuid to move to the other end of the country?
“It’s really the scenery and the way of living here. What brought me here was the availability of the lifestyle I wanted.
“There’s an energy off the the coast and it really is quite humbling.”
The return to the salon has been enjoyable, if initially demanding for Diarmuid.
Nonetheless, the opportunity to further develop and build his business offers a chance to develop what he refers to as a ‘destination’.
“If I was ever to do my own thing, now was the time to do it. But I’d a great time with Rossanos - it was a great platform to show what hair I can produce.
“I’d two weeks with 13 days straight to start,” he says of the reopening at the end of June.
“We had a good spell then over the next two weeks when it was quite good but since that it has dropped off.
“We’re at about a third of capacity. But when I was talking to friends who are not in the industry, they were pointing out that a lot of people are unemployed so when you put it in that context, it’s not too bad.
“The initial wave and madness of the first couple of weeks has calmed down. I’ve got two stations, which are two metres apart, on the first floor of what was David Martin’s salon. It is kind of a destination for me to build.”