Rhys gets festive with Pride-inspired display
CHRISTMAS is the most magical time of the year, when houses and shops are decorated to the nines.
But a salon in the heart of the Valleys has become particularly known for its extravagant festive decorations – and this year is no different.
The theme of this year’s Christmas display at Vanity Hair Lounge in Gelli is Pride in support of Welsh LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall Cymru.
Salon owner Rhys Jones, 34, had his creative wings clipped during last year’s lockdown and only managed a candy cane window display to avoid people touching the decorations and being unable to sanitise them due to the coronavirus pandemic.
So this year he wanted to go bigger and better.
Christmas-mad hairdresser Rhys first came up with the idea of a unicorn flying over a rainbow and that’s where the theme for this year was born.
He said: “We wanted to do something really inclusive, we are a salon that stands for equality so we just wanted to push that and show people what we’re about.
“Coming out of the pandemic, the last two years have been really tricky for a lot of people and we’ve really noticed a shift in people, which is why we wanted to do the Pride theme.
“You would think Covid would have made people more caring and empathetic but I think it’s had a negative impact on people. People have become quite reserved and a bit less caring.”
In the past Rhys and the team have done Alice in Wonderland and winter wonderland themes which attracted visitors from near and far.
But this year has topped previous efforts, both for its meaning and for raising money for LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, says Rhys.
They plan to fundraise through a variety of customer donations and an equaliTEA tea party and are also going to have all the staff wear a different colour of the Pride flag.
The main feature of the decorations include a unicorn flying over a rainbow, a 9ft tree decorated in the colours of the lesbian flag, and transgender flag trees in the window with Pride themed snowflakes.
There is also a huge tree decorated in the colours of the pride flag and a rainbow light on the back wall of the salon.
Rhys wanted to get the installation of this year’s display in this week as a celebration of Transgender Awareness Week (November 13-19) which is a week-long celebration that remembers victims of transphobic violence.
In previous years Rhys estimated he had spent £3,000 on his decorations for the Alice in Wonderland theme but this year didn’t really have a budget.
He said he left the decorating quite last minute, adding: “This year we haven’t planned as much and as far in advance as I would like because we weren’t sure what would happen with Covid, and I didn’t want to spend thousands to go into lockdown again because I won’t use the same decorations twice.”
Rhys is usually joined by his family for the installation of the decorations, but with his sister testing positive for Covid the day they planned to decorate he managed to rope in some of the salon girls to help.
“The customers’ reaction has already been amazing”, said Rhys, “Their response every year is just ‘wow.’”