Kay Deakin: Hawke’s Bay hairdressing queen retires after 56 years in industry

Kay Deakin has become synonymous with Hawke's Bay hairdressing over the past six decades. Photo / Gary Hamilton-Irvine

When Kay Deakin told her high school headmistress she had ambitions of becoming a hairdresser, the response was far from supportive.

“My headmistress called me into the office and told me I had too many brains to be a hairdresser,” Deakin recalled.

“I decided I was going to prove her wrong about hairdressing ... and made a huge career of it.”

Her impressive career has spanned 56 years in the hair and beauty industry in Hawke’s Bay.

She bought her first hairdressing business (which she named Kay’s Salon) at the age of 19 in Hastings and has owned and operated eight hair and beauty businesses.

She retired on Saturday, sharing drinks and memories with her large staff team at Meche hair salon in Taradale (formerly named Visage), which she started in 1996 and has sold to new owners Stacey and Sheldon McEwen.

Reflecting on her career, Deakin said the hairdressing industry hadn’t changed dramatically but there were some notable differences since she started in the 1960s.

“You don’t smoke in salons anymore ... during my apprenticeship, the ladies used to sit under the drier and smoke hard out,” she said.

“Colouring has become far more a part of everything that we do as opposed to cutting and styling, such as back in the day of perms.”

Highlights of Deakin’s career have seen her train hundreds of hairdressers (including her granddaughter), start and run successful hair and beauty businesses, and also represent New Zealand at international competitions as a hairdresser.

That included a trip to Las Vegas in the 1980s to compete at a world cup - a decade she ranks as her favourite for hairstyles.

“That was one of the best decades. The 80s was really exciting, there was just so much happening,” she said.

“What we were wearing in the salons was a lot of perms in those days, but when we were doing competition work it was very structured and quite beautiful, it wasn’t avant-garde and in your face, there was a lot more skill in creating the styles.”

She said the most rewarding part of her career had been the people she had met and formed relationships with.

“When we work together as a team in the business to help grow the young ones, and see them succeed, whether it is in competition work or whether it is in developing them as a person, has been probably the most rewarding - watching people grow and develop and do well.”

Deakin shared advice for people considering hairdressing as a career, the same career path that brought her out of her shell as a shy teenager.

“You have to work hard and obviously love people, and love what you do, and you can make an amazing career,” she said.

“It is not just a job that you do for money, you have to love it, or else you won’t last.”

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.