MAUREEN OUTING – A Hairdressing Matriarch

Maureen is generally referred to as ‘grandma’ though she is only grandmother to Simi in the Salon. She’s not much like a stereotypical grandmother though as she still carries the glamour she gained from a whole lifetime in hairdressing.

Maureen started her hairdressing training on her 14th birthday, June1945 and with great trepidation, under the watchful eyes of Madame Sugar in Brixton Water Lane, South London.

Training in those days was 5 years, unlike today’s 2 years and very, very arduous.
The apprenticeship involved doing full manicures and pedicures which each client would receive as standard with any service. This included full massage, file and paint. Clients actually went into individual cubicles for modesty purposes, as men were not meant to see what women do for beauty. They also learned to give ‘beauty couture’, or facials as they’re called today.

Colours then were very limited but still had the same basic theory as today. Bleach was quite popular, but there were no highlights.

Cutting was mainly the same, techniques change all the time with fashion so like every one she was taught adaptability. There were many ways of styling - shingles, semi shingles, Marcell waving, pin curls, finger waving. Iron rods were heated on an open fire, which would never be allowed nowadays for obvious health and safety concerns!

She also had to learn to do ‘electrical perms’, called Eugene, a very scary way of perming hair. It involved a small rubber at the root to earth, a solution went on winding hair in sheep’s wool, wrapping it in wax paper and winding that onto electrical rods above the clients head. Electricity was then passed through the hair for between 5 and 12 minutes, changing the hair structure. It took 4 hours to wind and a good half hour to remove the hair from the rods. Women certainly suffered for their beauty then! As her salon was in central London, during the second world war and in the blitz, Maureen, as a trainee, was left with the clients in the salon with her fingers crossed, instead of going to a shelter, as it would take too much time to remove the client from this contraption. Luckily the salon survived and no one got hurt!

Probably her least favourite part of her training was wigmaking - which was probably the equivalent of today’s hair extensions. As much as she hated it, it was essential to pass out as a hairdresser.

But it was the products that were very different. Hair was washed in green soft soap and it was an extra 6p for a conditioner called Estolan, which was a real luxury and not many people could afford it. There were no setting lotions as we know today, they used a setting lotion which was a thick horrid gel and so strong it would last all week and would take hours to dry as there were no hair dryers. The phrase ‘doing my hair’ to get out of a date was so true. It took such a long time. This is why the manicures and pedicures where so important to fill time by the apprentice.

Apprentices then had to work 6 days a week and go to college 3 nights and stay for 3 hours every night to polish the floors with paraffin and handwash and dry all the towels for the next day. No washing machines or tumble dryers. Today’s apprentices get it very easy…..

Maureen also worked at other salons as part of a salon exchange to see how other salons work. Through this she ended up at Teezy Weezy’s. He was the first ‘celebrity hairdresser’ and one of the most respected people in this industry, with the most stunning salon in the UK. It was here that she gained the most advanced hairdressing techniques available at the time and in the City. They actually had hair dryers and rollers! Teezy Weezy put together the first technical guide for cutting and this was adopted by Vidal Sassoon and then modernised again, but it really hasn’t changed much.

She then went onto Sidney Stollar in Streatham and married in 1949, on Boxing Day, as she didn’t have any holiday allowance and it was a Bank Holiday. But she was back at work the following day!!

In 1958 Maureen opened her very first business called, predictably, ‘Maureen’s, in Acre Lane, Brixton. It was a small shop above Queens newsagents and only had two chairs and 2 dryers Her business boomed and she was able to afford to invest in a bigger, much plusher premises. In 1967 she bought another salon in London Road Norbury, still in south London which she named Lauressa after her two daughters, Lorraine and Vanessa. The Salon was a very fashionable High Street salon but she kept a real family feel with all the family joining in. Her two sons, Laurence and Robert, worked on Saturdays shampooing and sweeping, Laurence even met his wife, Jaqui, the Saturday girl, there! Lorraine worked on the reception and helped out with the books and Vanessa trained to be a hairdresser at Croydon College and worked for her mum as a stylist. Maureen kept this salon until she retired in 1982.

But this still wasn’t the end. Her customers so missed her and wanted her back (and she missed them, too!) she persuaded her husband, Ted, to convert her garage into a salon just to do her regulars, but this became as busy as ever!

Finally in 1988 and widowed she moved to Norwich for a quiet country life to enjoy her retirement and escape from hairdressing. She did a lot of travelling all over the world with 3 friends. They were nicknamed the Golden Girls.

Today she still has a few clients she has met since living in Norwich. She now has 10 grandchildren who keep her running around, filling in her time. Her daughter Lorraine and grand daughter, Simi, opened Hooloovoo last year. This has given Maureen a new lease of life and she’s is an amazing inspiration to her family and friends and gives everyone very high standards to live up to. She is an intrinsic part of the Hooloovoo Team, as it would not exist without her. She has so much knowledge to give the business, and especially hairdressing, with all the fashions she has seen over the years. Particularly at the moment with all the vintage styles this season. Fashion is always going back over the years. We are so lucky to have this great knowledge in our team.