Michelle Devereux and Erick Villiger
Michelle Devereux, 60, is a makeup artist who started her skincare range
The Edit two years ago. She also owns Devereux & Villiger, a Hamilton hair salon, with her husband Erick Villiger, 60. The couple have two sons, Cale, 28, who is studying in Australia and 23-year-old Noah who manages an Auckland restaurant.
MI was born and raised in Cambridge and all I ever wanted was to be part of the fashion world. I’m 5ft 1in (155cm), so clearly I wasn’t going to be as a model! Instead, I worked in hair salons which got me into makeup and beauty treatments.
I was only 17 when I met Erick. It was 1978 and I’d moved to Auckland but came back to Hamilton for my friend Gary’s 21st party. Erick was really funny but I didn’t think anything of it as I was there as Gary’s date.
A year later I was headhunted back to Hamilton and who should be one of my colleagues but Erick? By then the thing with Gary had fizzled out. Erick was always lots of fun and I felt comfortable around him.
I pierced Erick’s ear one night but got the piercing gun stuck. His ear was bleeding and I thought I was going to faint. If you can still be friends with someone after they’ve mangled your ear, then you must be a nice person.
Erick wasn’t really my type – I was into slick older guys – but he was a laid-back surfer. I did love his style though, plus he was tall and had good hair!
We’ve had lots of adventures together – we moved to Australia for a year, which turned into 31 years. We owned our own salons in Bondi and Byron Bay. We also spent a year in Milan freelancing, working for amazing clients such as Italian Vogue and having a fantastic time.
Back in Australia, Erick announced that he wanted to be a macadamia farmer! He was tired of salons and wanted to get back to his rural roots. So we moved the kids to a 20ha remote block south of Bryon and were macadamia farmers for 10 years.
We like doing big, risky things. We’ve flipped a few houses and we’ll never be rich because we’re suckers for falling-down old places, but we work well together and have exactly the same taste when it comes to interiors, fashion and art.
Erick is a big-picture person. I can get tunnel vision but he’s the one saying, we can do this, we can work this out. He’s also incredibly supportive: he knows I’ve wanted to launch my own skincare line for years and has supported me to follow my dreams.
Erick can do annoying things like leave towels on the floor or food in the plughole but really, those things are so unimportant in life.
The key to our relationship is that he lets me be me and I do the same to him – I’ve never tried to change Erick but accept him warts and all.
EI’d come out of a two-year relationship when I met Michelle so I wasn’t really looking for anything. I was also saving madly to go to London so most of my time was spent working late night shifts at two Hamilton salons.
When I first met Michelle I thought she was fun but didn’t think about her in a romantic way because she had a boyfriend. Was I physically attracted to her? To be honest, as a hairdresser I’ve always been obsessed with women from the shoulders up – their bone structure and their hair. As it happens, Michelle had an incredible face and fantastic blonde hair.
I know it’s a cliche but I’ve learned over the years that beauty really is on the inside. I’ve worked with lots of beautiful models who aren’t very nice people, which can make them ugly. But Michelle is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.
To be honest, I thought I was punching above my weight with Michelle! I was surprised that she was interested in me.
When I was at hairdressing school, we had to write a five-year plan. One of mine was that I would be cutting hair and surfing in Hawaii; I didn’t quite make it to Hawaii, but I did cut hair and surf in Byron Bay. Michelle always had the same aspirations as me, to make a success of our lives and make our clients look and feel good.
Some people ask how we could live and work together, but we’ve done it for years. We give each other a lot of space and because we have different roles – me hair, Michelle makeup – we’re not getting in each other’s way.
We also try to keep work separate from home. You need to be able to switch off and live in the moment.
I’m in awe of how organised Michelle is. She’s also hugely creative and has a style I’ve admired ever since I met her and she was wearing head-to-toe op-shop clothing. We’re on the same page when it comes to creativity – we watch those television renovation shows where one partner is a minimalist and the other likes clutter and we’re thankful that isn’t us.
Michelle can sometimes be a bit blunt and says exactly what she thinks. She’s also a nightmare when she leaves the house and has to come back five times either because she’s forgotten something or has one last thing to do. But she’s an amazing person and we have a basic respect for each other and for our work. Marriage has its ups and downs but you need to embrace them, believe in each other and keep going.