Globetrotting hairdresser sets up salon in town
A HAIRDRESSER who has worked across the world is now setting up shop in Shetland with her own hair and beauty salon.
Julie Smith launched Rune and Rose on Tuesday at 116 Commercial Street in Lerwick, which in more recent times was a charity shop, bringing another new lease of life to the town centre.
Speaking to Shetland News from her new premises, the hairdresser with 20 years experience said she wanted to bring influences from the various places around the globe she has worked in, including New Zealand and Australia.
As we take a look around, it certainly has a stylish vibe – from the pink couch in the waiting area to the dark green colours, floral print and framed artwork.
Smith says she is Shetland’s only curly hair specialist, and explained that a difficult period in her life started her journey down this path.
“After I had my second child, I got diagnosed with breast cancer,” she explains.
“I was lucky and I caught it early, but it was still an aggressive cancer. I had the full works – chemotherapy, operations, everything – and also my hair fell out.
“When my hair came back in, it came back in really curly. It’s kind of gone back to its natural wave now, but it was a proper little afro. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. Being a hairdresser, it was so interesting to me.
“So I threw myself into learning about curls and what products to use.”
Fast forward a few years, and Smith – with a specialism in curly hair – is now standing proud in her own salon.
“I always like to think everything happens for a reason,” she adds.
“Although it was a horrible thing that happened to be, and it was a really dark, horrible period of my life, it put me on my path.”
Smith says the opening day on Tuesday was not without nerves – “it was weird being in here and not being a painter and decorator for a change!” – but all appeared to go well.
Rewind the years, and as a young Shetlander she was keen to learn the ropes in hairdressing – even handwriting letters and sending them to all of the salons in Lerwick asking for work.
Smith managed to land a job at Hair 2000 in Lerwick before heading to the Shearing Shed in Scalloway.
But when she was 23 it was off to pastures new, with a move to New Zealand where she continued cutting hair.
From there it was to Melbourne in Australia, where her hairdressing career temporarily came to a stop as she sought a change in direction.
“I thought I’d just do it [another job] for a year,” she explains, “then I ended up getting sucked into it…and I was in recruitment for 12 years.”
Another move was on the cards – slightly closer to home, to London – before Smith returned to Shetland and had her first child.
She worked remotely in her recruitment job from home, in Shetland, for seven years.
“It’s good if you can get out – but with my job I was tied to my desk,” Smith says. “I was completely chained to my desk all day.
“I just got really fed up with it and just decided to come back to hairdressing, a couple of years ago.
“I wanted to create my own space and take a little bit of an influence from all the different places I’ve worked at – not just salons, but the actual places.
“I was really influenced by Wellington in New Zealand. It’s really multi-cultural, it’s really funky and cool and unique and everybody has got their own style and they’re not scared to be creative with it.”
At Rune and Rose Smith is complemented by fellow hairdressers Julie Walterson and Hannah O’Rourke, with the latter her apprentice – a “curl specialist in training”.
While the hairdressing side of things is in full flow, there are plans to introduce a couple of nail stations in the backroom, which overlooks Lerwick Harbour, and there could be other services like eyebrow waxing and lashes.
The salon, which used to play host to hairdressers in years gone by, is the latest property on Commercial Street to enjoy a new lease of life.
Among the recent changes have included a jewellery business setting up in the former Swanson’s shop.
The former Sleepy Beauty salon – just across the street from Rune and Rose – has also been given a transformation under new owners and the new name Aura Lounge.
So what makes a good hairdresser? Smith reckons at the core is a keen enthusiasm for the trade.
“If you don’t have the passion for it, people can tell. And I think if you have the passion for it, everything else will follow,” she says.
“If you don’t have the passion, you’ll never push yourself to keep going further and further, because you’re learning every single day.”
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