HOW A CHANCE MEETING
email A Scots stylist has become the toast of the art scene in super- trendy Ibiza… after swapping his hairbrush for a paintbrush.
Jeff Thomson walked away from a 25-year career in hairdressing in his home city of Dundee to move to the Balearic clubbing capital after a chance encounter with island legend Tony Pike.
His hotel was the venue for Wham’s Club Tropicana video and Freddie Mercury’s 41st birthday party and the charming owner convinced Jeff he wasn’t too old to make a new life in the Med.
Jef f, 44, repaid the favour by painting the great man before he died.
He said: “I was in Ibiza on holiday with a mate and he announced we were going to Pikes hotel, which I didn’t realise then is an institution and where the biggest stars in the world stayed.
“Tony, who built the hotel himself over years, bit by bit, ended up standing with us after we arrived. We got talking and he gave us a tour of the place and told us his amazing life story.
“I was already thinking I loved the island and would fancy living there but thought at 41, I was too old.
“But he told me he arrived in Ibiza when he was 42, so I realised then that from a business point of view, I could make a go of it.
“I didn’t need to be 18 to make a fresh start there.
“I met Tony in August 2016 and the following April, I moved over, so he was a huge part of the inspiration for the move.
“That chat was the reason I now live in Ibiza, so it was an honour to paint the great man once I’d stumbled into art.”
Jeff had been a successful hairdresser in Scotland but had become jaded and was ready for a change.
He said: “Around 2009, it got so hipstery. I had to get out of the industry as it became a fame game with Instagram chasers. I felt I was past this stuff. So after 25 years, I’d had enough.
“The whole Ibiza idea for me was born from a TV advert. I was sat at my mum’s and an advert for discount holidays came on.
“I was bored and had never been, so thought ‘ Why not, I’ll book it’.”
Jeff came good on his promise to himself to move to the island, leaving Dundee behind in April 2017. It wasn’t a glam start to Balearic life.
He said: “The first bed I got was in a garage which I rented from my friend Karon, a legend on the island in her own right. “From there, it got tougher, funnier, wilder, better. Everything you imagine.
“Ibiza is the place to test your mettle, the reality is the opposite of what you think it’s going to be like. I still haven’t truly ‘settled’. That would be boring.”
He quickly established himself as an in- demand hairdresser working with visiting stars.
He said: “Through meeting another island legend, Charlie Chester, I ended up cutting for the likes of Conor McGregor and Eva Longoria.
“Surreal is an understatment. Conor was exactly as you’d expect, I have no interest in fighting, so we chatted about whisky, Ireland and Scotland.
“It was amazing to get the opportunity