Salon in safe hands

A veteran hairdresser with a 50-year career is confident her Palmerston North salon will be in safe hands as she enjoys her retirement – she trained them herself.

Judy Wright is handing over the scissors at The Right Cut Hair and Beauty Retreat on Broadway Ave to her first apprentice, Shelley Lane.

The new owner was the first of 19 apprentices Wright mentored at the salon, and Right Cut’s first employee when it opened 20 years ago. ‘‘I know I’m leaving clients and the staff in good hands, which is great, because 10 hairdressers is quite a few girls to keep happy,’’ Wright said.

During her career, Wright alternated between running salons and teaching pre-apprenticeship courses at the Palmerston North Hairdressing College, which she’d do for a year or two each time she sold a salon.

That’s how Wright first met Lane, who was in her 1996 class. When she opened Right Cut the following year, she offered Lane a place as her first apprentice at the new salon.

‘‘I’ve always said I took the best student with me, and she helped build the salon into a successful business.’’

Wright said she was proud of Lane, and the rest of the apprentices and staff.

‘‘That’s given me the most satisfaction, watching them grow into mature and successful women.’’

Wright said 64 years old felt like the right time to pass Right Cut on to a new generation, as she retired to the Marlborough Sounds with her fiance.

Lane said she felt privileged to take over the business.

Wright had been a huge influence, a great boss and a solid friend for 20 years, she said. ‘‘I was just this shy, young teenager at hairdresser’s college. She really brought me out of my shell. She taught me everything I know.’’

Lane said she hoped she could be half the boss Wright was.

Wright didn’t just support her staff in their careers, but their personal lives too – like when Lane took five years off to start a family, and Wright helped her set up a home business so she could spend time with her young children.

‘‘She treated us all as equals, and she has gone above and beyond for me [and the staff] over the years.’’

Lane felt she was being entrusted with keeping that tradition going.

PHOTO: MURRAY WILSON/STUFF Right Cut owner Judy Wright, left, is retiring and handing the salon over to Shelley Lane, the first apprentice she took on when Right Cut opened 20 years ago. Right: Wright and her then-apprentice Lane not long after the Right Cut salon opened in 1997.