A day in the life of a... hairdresser, Pat Charalambous

“I’ve not looked back”

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Pat Charalambous was born in Cyprus and moved to the UK when she was 4 years old. Her career journey to establish her own salon began when she started at age 12 as a Saturday girl. She subsequently completed an Apprenticeship, and eventually became a manager at Alan Paul. Feeling the need to grow further, Pat took the plunge and opened her own salon, “Inspiration”, in Woodford where she has worked for over 30 years. Her typical day is hectic, working long hours, and managing staff. Pat is married with 3 children and balances work, gym, and family responsibilities. Although the work is hard, Pat wouldn’t want it any other way. Outside of work, fitness is very important to Pat, and she has proudly completed 10 marathons and 6 Hyrox competitions. 

Read on to learn more about Pat!

I always wanted to be a hairdresser. How my journey all started was that I began working at age 12 in a salon as a Saturday girl. Later I went on to do my Apprenticeship in the salon which was based in Mile End. The Apprenticeship covered everything relating to hair. I used to go to college once a week and there were additional training days. I liked to do my own thing anyway when it came to hair styles. I used to just watch and go home and practice so I could become better at it. 

Pat with her family

I found I wasn’t progressing at that particular salon. Due to my young age they weren't allowing me to put into practice everything I had learnt on my Apprenticeship. As I knew hairdressing was what I wanted to do, at age 18 I went for a job somewhere else. I told my boss at the time I needed more money, because they weren’t going to increase my pay. I worked at that new salon for a year. Then another job came up at a big company called Alan Paul. This was about 35 years ago. After a while I was promoted to manager. 

Eventually I felt the need to spread my wings further. We found a little premises in Woodford, and my husband encouraged me to rent out there. I was nervous about the prospect of working for myself, but we just did it. I handed in my notice and the following week I was in my salon. It was a bit scary, but I’ve not looked back really. The biggest career transition I’ve made could be from working for someone else to owning my own business, but I’d also say that staring off small and then opening up here at “Inspiration” was a big change. Because the overheads were a lot more. So we moved from that little premises to this premises two years after I opened up. Over 30 years later I’m still here. 

Pat's salon, "Inspiration"

A typical day in my life is hectic! I’ll get up, have my coffee. Come to work and do a full day in the salon. Today for example I started at work about 9.30 and I’ll work until 6pm. On a Friday I finish at 7pm. I might go home for a little while, but I usually go to the gym after work. Gym is both my social time and my down time. Then I’ll go home. Have dinner. Sometimes I’ll go and visit my mum who’s elderly. So a typical day is full on. I own and run the business, but on a Saturday what I do now is because I’ve got staff in I’ll come in a bit later on a Saturday at 11am. On a Saturday morning I’ll go to the gym before work. I’ve learned and told myself to give myself Saturday mornings off work, otherwise there’s no point having your own business. 

“Running your own business is hard. 

It’s tiring. But it’s fine. 

I don't know any different, 

and I couldn’t work for anyone else. 

There’s no alternative for me.”

There have been lots of successes and challenges in my role over the years. I’ve had loyal customers who have been coming to see me for years. I think that’s a sign of success. Also, although I am on Instagram, I’ve not generally used any social media platforms to generate customers. I don’t particularly advertise. Instead I gain more customers through word of mouth. Another success is having the freedom that comes from running your own business. Little things like I can pop out if I need to, shut the shop if I need to. In terms of challenges, Lockdown was a challenging time for the business. Lockdown and then coming back after Lockdown. I’m still feeling the effects of it.

The inside of the salon

My personal definition of career success is that I’ve been going for 35 years, if not longer, and I’ve kept going and I’ve seen other salons come and go, but I’m still here. And I’ve had the same staff most of those years. People tell me that’s a success and I suppose it is. But it’s just what I do. I’m a worker. People might assume that because I’m the boss I can just stroll in and out, but it doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to be here and you’ve got to put the work in. Although as I said over the years I’ve learned to take a bit of time out sometimes. There’s never going to be a point where I’m earning loads of money. The overheads are getting ridiculous. But I own my own business. I answer to myself. Not anybody else. I wouldn’t want it any other way. 

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