September 2021

13 Buckden Roundabout September 2021 Support Buckden Businesses ‘ Support our Buckden Businesses ’, will be an ongoing feature. If you are a local business and are interested in being included, please reach out to the Roundabout team via the contact details on page 3. Syrupp Hair Salon What ’ s the background on Syrupp? I started the salon back in 2009 in Little Paxton and we moved to Buckden in 2012. I really liked the village and it has the passing trade and accessibility that we were looking for, so we made the move. It was actually a dress shop previously so it took a bit of work to turn it into a salon, but we absolutely love the building. It ’ s listed with nice high ceilings and loads of character which makes for a lovely bright, airy salon. How big is the team at Syrupp? Currently we have four stylists including myself. We all work part time so we ’ re not all in the salon at the same time which works well as it gives everyone that bit more space and it also means we ’ re open 6 days a week (Mon – Sat with a late night on Weds). We ’ ve got a great team of really experienced and friendly stylists, we have Kerry and Cheryl who are both Toni and Guy trained and Viv who is Goldwell trained. And how about you, what ’ s your background? I ’ m originally from Cardiff and that ’ s where I started my hairdressing training at 16. I had a link to the forces so moved about a lot and that ’ s how I came to be in this area. I didn ’ t necessarily envisage my- self opening my own salon as I ’ d been a manager and seen the chal- lenges that owners often faced, however I ’ d just got to the finals of the L ’ Oréal Colour Trophy, (a very competitive national hairdressing competition), at the salon I was at and it gave me the confidence to take the leap. It was a pretty nerve - wracking time as I was a single mum of two and I had to go all in but I ’ m so glad I made that move. What services do you offer at Syrupp? We do everything you would expect of a hairdressers … we do mens, womens and kids hair, we cut, colour, perm, do occasion hair (we have a wedding coming up this weekend), offer treatments and I ’ m Racoon trained to be able to do hair extensions. The beauty of fash- ion and therefore hairdressing is that trends are cyclical so for a stylist like me thats been in the industry for a number of years I ’ m comforta- ble with all aspects of hairdressing. We pride ourselves in keeping up to date with all specialist colouring treatments such as balayage and ombre which both create a more natural and on trend colour effect. Another trend that we ’ ve noticed recently and are doing a lot of is supporting people in moving away from full head colour. This is usually people that are either partially or fully grey that have historically had heavy colour to cover their grey that now want to embrace their natural colour more. It ’ s not some- thing you can do overnight so we work closely with the clients to cre- ate a staged plan to wind down their reliance on colour over a num- ber of appointments. It takes a lot of expertise for a stylist to do this well and it ’ s something we really enjoy. How do you ensure as stylists that you keep your skills up to date? This is something we ’ ve always taken really seriously and invested a lot of time and money in both training and also taking part in industry competitions. Training wise, I ’ m a Colour Master which is a really intensive six week course in London designed to put you at the top end of your colouring game. Just before lockdown a couple of us also attended a brilliant two day course in London at a salon called, Not Another Hairdressers, who were previously L ’ Oréal Colour Trophy Winners. Obviously Covid times have changed things and a lot of training is online now. Our main supplier is Goldwell and they provided a lot of free online train- ing over the last 18 months which has been great. That isn ’ t some- thing they ’ d done previously but it ’ s made training so much more accessible. Industry competitions are another great way to really challenge your- self and showcase your skills. They ’ re super competitive with thou- sands of entries and I ’ m really proud that we ’ ve been L ’ Oréal regional finalists twice as well as Goldwell colour finalists. Tell me about the products you use in the salon? As mentioned, we ’ re predominantly a Goldwell salon and use Moroc- can Oil and Olaplex treatments which are the best on the market cur- rently. Retail wise we stock Goldwell and Tigi products, both care (shampoo and conditioner) and styling products. Anyone can come in and buy products from us and we ’ ll be happy to help you find the right prod- uct for your hair type or any scalp conditions you may have. We offer a free, no commitment, 15 minute consultation service for anyone that wants to come and discuss their hair needs and potential- ly book an appointment with us so if you ’ re interested either pop in, give us a call or you can book online at www.syrupp.co.uk. We ’ ve touched on some of the impacts of COVID, how has the last 18 months been for you at Syrupp? It was pretty scary to start with as like everyone we had no idea what was going to happen and didn ’ t know for a while whether there would be support from the government. We still obviously had all our overheads to pay and no idea how long it was going to go on for. Once we had confirmation that we could put our employed stylist on furlough and our self - employed stylists were supported we could relax a bit more. We also received a local government grant which helped us cover our rent etc. It was also tough when it came to managing the clients as we had a full diary of appointments and didn ’ t have the clarity to know when we could rebook them for. We tried to keep in contact with clients as much as possible and did colour drop offs to our regulars so they could touch up their roots at home themselves. As unsettling as the whole experience was it did give us time that we ’ d never normally have to step back from the business a bit and assess where we could make improvements. We ended up doing a bit of a revamp in the salon and I also redesigned the website. I ’ d never done anything like that before so it took me about a month but it was a good experience! (Continued on page 15) Continuing with our quest to encourage us all to spend local where we can by profiling, celebrating and championing the local businesses of Buckden, we turn our attention to the wonderful world of hairdressing this month. We ’ re very fortunate to have two hairdressers in Buck- den, Syrupp Hair Salon and The Salon on the Green/The Barbershop Buckden. Earlier this month we caught up with Helen Roos the owner of Syrupp to find out a bit more about the salon.