Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Salon Stories

In this True North film, we take a privileged peek into women's lives through their weekly visits to the hairdressers - and once on that stylist's chair they're free to chat about anything - and everything!

30 minutes

Last on

Wed 15 Jul 2015 22:40

Salon Stories

Salon Stories

In this warmly accessible film, we get a privileged peek into women's lives at two very distinctive Belfast salons :Paul Meekin and Isobells.

He's in the East. She's in the West. He's got a glossy website. She's on the phone. He does high-end Vera Wang fashion shows and front covers, has chairs that'll give you a back massage, and last year his salon won the Irish Tatler Readers' Choice Award. She describes herself as more than a hairdressers - she's a "drop in centre" on the Falls Road, where everyone's a VIP, the tea is on tap, and you could, confesses one client happily, "spend hours here yarnin'."

Between them, though, there's also much in common. Each hairdresser is respectively adored by their firmly loyal customers. And hairdressing aside, their secret talent is simple. People. With three decades each of experience behind Paul and Isobell, for example, they've seen and heard it all - and then deliberately forgotten it on behalf of the client. Paul says a good hairdresser really listens and properly empathises: if you're false, it comes across. For Isobell, it's about trust: being able to listen and not repeat. Being almost, she says, a kind of psychiatrist.

Because here, on these stylists' chairs, the client is uniquely free to chat endlessly about herself and what truly matters to her - and does, sharing secrets she'd never tell to anyone else and unburdening her soul about what really matters to her. And they're of all ages and backgrounds.

Both Paul and Isobell have second and third generations of families coming to sit in their chairs for 'me' time, even for a brief while. They come in for high days and holy days, times they're living through family tragedies or illness, or 'forever day' moments of dramatic importance like weddings and christenings. And then sometimes they come just to be there, and feel listened to. "I take the journey with them", says Paul. "It's got to that stage where I know everything about them."

Credits

Role Contributor
Producer Maeve 脫 Cath谩in
Executive Producer Paul McGuigan

Broadcasts

  • Mon 13 Apr 2015 22:45
  • Wed 15 Jul 2015 22:40