The pandemic has caused businesses to struggle, but one mobile hairdresser has taken a brave step and opened a new hair salon.
Keeley Green, 30, has been a mobile hairdresser for more than 10 years and her partner Craig Bailiff, 36, is a painter and decorator.
The couple are parents to their two-year-old son Louis and live in Chalgrove village in South Oxfordshire with their dog.
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For Ms Green, opening a salon has always been her dream.
Like many other businesses, Ms Green was unable to work during lockdown.
However, the pandemic did not make her cautious about opening a business.
Instead it had the opposite effect, and when she could not work she started the plans to fulfil her dream and open her own salon called Styles by Keeley.
Ms Green and Mr Bailiff discovered the ideal location on Monument Business Park in Chalgrove and decided it was the perfect place to open Styles by Keeley.
Ms Green said: “I knew it was gamble, but I just thought, ‘if I don’t do it now when am I going to do it?’”
The unit took ten weeks to transform into a hair salon with the help of local businesses, friends and her partner Mr Bailiff.
Ms Green said: “We changed the whole unit; it was completely empty. I had some ideas in my mind, and I took inspiration from online.
“People are amazed, they just can’t believe it was an empty shell.
“It was just files; it was a complete transformation – we have put water in and everything.”
The unit is now split into three rooms – one for the salon, another for the staff room and the third is set to be transformed into a beauty treatment room.
The treatment room is not finished yet, but it will be available for another budding entrepreneur to rent and offer services such as nail treatments.
After hairdressing for more than 10 years as a mobile hairdresser and in a salon, Ms Green has built up a following in Chalgrove and the surrounding area. Now many of her previous clients are customers at her new salon.
Ms Green said: “They have all followed, obviously my clientele changed when I had my son, and a lot of people did go elsewhere.
“But now, because a lot of people like the salon experience, they are coming back to me after all these years.”
Styles by Keeley opened on October 13, but the salon had to close after a busy three weeks because of a second national lockdown.
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However, Ms Green has been looking forward to reopening as soon as rules allow.
The hairdresser and entrepreneur is excited and looking forward to welcoming her existing clients, along with new ones and she will be offering her hairdressing services in a Covid-secure environment.
Ms Green said: “It hasn’t quite settled in that I have done it; it doesn’t seem quite real yet.”
Search for Styles by Keeley on Facebook to find out more.
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