Title-winning hairdresser is a cut above rest

Former Masterton salon owner Cathy Davys refuses to rest on her laurels after this year capturing her greatest industry prize to date.
Ms Davys, who still styles hair three days a week in Wellington, beat out 16 of the top stylists from Australia and New Zealand in September to win The Oceanic Hairdressing Master Award.
Davys Hair Design and Day Spa, which today employs about 30 people and comprises capital business sites along with two franchise operations, claimed the title of Overall Winner at the contest in Tasmania as the top-scoring competitor at completion of both Part One (cut) and Part Two (conversion to couture style).
Ms Davys said during a Wairarapa visit on Friday the awards embrace the ideals of exemplary hair design and have gained industry recognition as the premier transtasman event on the hair fashion calendar.
Ms Davys, a former Miss Golden Shears contestant who grew up on a Dalefield farm and attended Kuranui College, counts herself lucky to have won prizes both in and beyond the industry since starting as an apprentice in the 1970s at the then Fantasia Hair Salon in Masterton.
"I won a best ball gown award when I was in Miss Golden Shears. I still have the sash somewhere."
Ms Davys opened a salon in the town after completing her apprenticeship, establishing the business next door to the Departmental Buildings in Chapel Street.
Over the same years she twice represented New Zealand at the world hairdressing championships, firstly in Paris in 1982 and subsequently in London, where she came away the top-scoring Kiwi stylist.
The latest award came with a substantial silver trophy, she said, which she is pleased to keep on display in her Wellington salon window over the coming year to capitalise on the kudos and business opportunities the win represents.
Her salon also this year won a New Zealand Association of Registered Hairdressers marketing award for online hair and beauty software, and she is now waiting for the winner to be announced on November 31 of the NZARH Best Educator Award, in which the salon is an entrant.
She is still dedicated to the philosophy of "coaching, motivating and training" her employees and has not once considered leaving the industry.
"Hairdressing has always been fantastic and a lot of fun for me. And it's taken me around the world. I'm still on the floor three days a week and I still just love it.
"It keeps you real and keeps you in touch. My forte is on the floor, and in marketing. I really couldn't imagine doing anything else," Ms Davys said.
Her company is now on the verge of seeking private investors, she said, and she is confident an expansion strategy "into a few other places" in New Zealand will be successful.
"Growing the business is my focus right now. We're at the stage where we'd like an investor or two to take us to the next level and I don't see us being just in Wellington."
Ms Davys said clients from her foundation days as an owner operator still beat a path to her salon door and she is often greeted during her regular Wairarapa trips to visit family with a cheery "remember me, you used to cut my hair".
She said there are today top-notch hair stylists in Wairarapa including Kylie Barron and Bridget Corlett, and believes the regional industry has greatly improved since she first took up hairdressing in her own right.
Ms Davys said she may return to the region "one day, to just cut hair again", but for now her eyes remain fixed on those prizes yet to be captured in the world of hair fashion, beauty and relaxation.