Ex-accountant goes from there to hair
As a corporate tax accountant, Pierre Ashton enjoyed a high salary, VIP tickets to All Black tests, and an expensive house in one of Auckland’s exclusive beachfront suburbs.
But the 50+ hour working weeks came at a price to his health, marriage and quality of life.
Burnt out and divorced after years of sifting through company tax returns, weathering death threats and tax avoidance scams, Ashton, 49, switched careers to cutting hair.
Little did the New Plymouth hairdresser and apprentice barber know he was about to meet his biggest challenge.
‘‘For the first time in my life I had to start talking bull...t to people for 20 minutes,’’ he said. ‘‘It was really hard to do and a huge change to what I knew.
‘‘When I was working in tax I could just close the door and get on with my work.’’
Ashton is one year into a twoyear barber apprenticeship at the central city Brougham Hairdressers and Gifts, owned by his wife Wendy Northcott.
It was a chance meeting with his future partner that set him on the path to cutting hair, he said.
The pair had first met years before in Sea Scouts and a relationship soon developed.
With fulltime accountancy work hard to find in Taranaki, Ashton made the shift to Northcott’s family hairdressing business. ‘‘I started helping out at the front of the shop selling gifts, taking payments for the cuts, and doing the GST returns,’’ he said.
It wasn’t long before Ashton was wielding the scissors himself.
Learning how to converse with customers played alongside mastering the skills of hairdressing and barbering.
‘‘I was a closed-off person before. Now I’ve become more relaxed talking to customers,’’ he said. ‘‘I usually ask them about the weather, or sport, and sometimes act as counsellor to their problems.
‘‘The haircuts I charge; the counselling is free.’’
Ashton now works five-anda-half days a week and has no thoughts of going back to his old job. ‘‘My oldest clients are 99 and 97 years old. They have life experience and wicked senses of humour.
‘‘Changing career has changed me. I feel more confident and outgoing, and I work with my best friend.
‘‘It’s really cool.’’