|
|
|
|
Information
|
|
Cut out for hairdressing
|
At 16 Narelle Bray dreamed of being a hairdresser. The thought of chatting to customers all day, working imaginatively with her hands and being able to see the instant results of her creative labour, seemed like the perfect career.
Narelle’s mother thought there was no real future in it and talked her daughter out of her dream. “I was very young and still easily influenced by the opinions of other people, especially my mum,” Narelle said. With the thought of entering hairdressing on hold, Narelle drifted into her first job working for the then State Bank and then several years later, like so many young women her age at the time, she left the workforce to have children and raise a family.
Re-entering the employment market a number of years later, she found a job with a local real estate company and worked in property management for 18 years. However, with a grown daughter, Rachael, a part-owner of her own established hairdressing salon, Narelle was able to, in a small way at least, rekindle her old dream of being a hairdresser by helping out one day a week in the salon.
Midges Beauty Salon has a long-established history in the local community, its staff having cut, styled, coloured, straightened and permed the hair of many hundreds of loyal customers over the 30 years since it was opened. With Narelle’s natural aptitude, her easygoing friendly disposition and her ability to relate well to the clients, it was only a matter of time before both the staff and customers began to pester their part-time assistant to take the plunge and join the team more permanently.
Narelle believes that her initial response would be fairly typical of someone her age. Fears that she was too old for a change, too old to go back to school and too long in the tooth to have to put in “that kind“ of commitment, all contributed to her hesitation. However, paradoxically, Narelle believes that it was the voice of the inner teenager, from all those years ago that persuaded the 49 year old to put aside her fears and at last give hairdressing a go.
Narelle is very keen to encourage others who may be in her position to consider taking on a trade. Attending TAFE one day a week is certainly not the trauma that she thought it might be. “TAFE is not like school, in fact there is no real comparison. You are all treated like adults and the formal training modules that make up my Certificate 3 in Hairdressing are certainly not as difficult as I thought they might be,” she said. Looking ahead to the day she finishes her trade and will become a fully qualified hairdresser in her own right, Narelle offers her final words of advice: “Don’t give up.”
Narelle Bray never gave up her dream. |
|
|