Behind the Uniform: Beauty and bravery combined

Rachael Utumapu says the vast difference in her interests makes for a well-balanced life. Photo / Supplied

The Herald is this week profiling some of our emergency service heroes who have hidden talents or other jobs.

New Plymouth-based fire fighter Rachael Utumapu is as much at home in the hairdressing salon as she is contending with blazing fires.

Utumapu started her hairdressing apprenticeship at just 15 years old and for the next 10 years did hair and make-up for salon customers, brides and catwalk models before she took up a teaching role.

It was during her time at the Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki (WITT) teaching hairdressing that she decided she wanted to get more involved in the community.

"One day I heard the sirens and thought it might be quite cool to look at firefighting so I rang the local station and did a ride along for a day," she said.

"I had always been quite physical anyway and had done a lot of sport and grown up on a farm. I was no stranger to that kind of hard work and I really felt like I needed to be out there in the community and helping people more.

"After that ride along I was absolutely hooked so I applied to join the fire service and away I went."

Being the first female fire fighter at the New Plymouth station presented its own challenges.

"In the first couple of years that I was in the fire service I really immersed myself into the role. I left all of the hairdressing industry and that image behind and just focused on being a firefighter, but after a few years I missed that side of me," she said.

It was when Utumapu learned of the Look Good Feel Better (LGFB) charity that she found a way to combine her two passions.

"An aunty of mine was going through cancer treatment and had been to a Look Good Feel Better workshop and I thought that was something I might like to do.

"Straight away I jumped into the LGFB tutor role and the cool thing is I have brought it to the fire service because a few of the firefighters' wives have become volunteers."

Utumapu also subsequently started a not-for-profit company, The New Hair Project, providing wigs for cancer patients.

"Being a firefighter is such a varied job and we get to see so many things that other people just wouldn't see; you might go to a car accident or a normal old fire alarm going off, but there is always something unusual that happens in our job," she said.

"But the reason I like these other projects is because it is so hugely removed from what I am doing at work.

"I have my family which is a haven, I have Look Good Feel Better and The New Hair Project which are also havens, and then I have got my fire service work.

"Because they are all so different, I reckon I have a fantastic balance in my life."