Life has changed for many since the start of the pandemic and one major way has been in the way that people work. Whether it be that working from home is now your preference, or that you ended up taking a complete career change, arrangements have been re-jigged in more ways than one.
Even now that the formal restrictions that once shaped our lives have lifted, some situations are hard to adjust back to. Daily practices that we have adopted over the past two years are now are new norm with this new way of life even allowing us to enjoy new conveniences, despite them coming about in an inconvenient way.
This is so for Bristol hairdresser, Jessamy Frazer. Having worked in traditional salons for around 17 years, the challenges of the past few years encouraged her to try something new. Jessamy started out her hairdressing journey training at Aveda in London, Covent Garden from 2005-2015 before she made her first drastic career move, flying across the world to Bali to work in a salon near the beach for a year and a half.
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On returning to the UK, Jessamy moved to Bristol and quickly took back to her previous normalities - joining a salon in Clifton, but quickly deciding it wasn't the life for her anymore. Speaking to Bristol Live, Jessamy said: “I had a baby and I was due to go on maternity leave just as the pandemic hit.
"I took my maternity leave early because they said pregnant people shouldn’t go to work. Everything seemed to change and the idea of going back to a salon didn’t seem to work anymore. I wanted it to work with my life being a mum."
Not only did Jessamy now have new priorities as a mum to a young baby, the changes made to her industry over the pandemic also caused her to re-think her career path. She said: “The salon experience had changed over Covid, it was special to have a place that was private and 1:1 and I didn’t want to go back to working in a salon anymore."
So, Jessamy made the decision to create her own salon in her back garden in Bristol. "We’re lucky that we have the space, it’s not a massive garden but we made it work.
"It took ages to put it up, in the really long winter lockdown we did it and we opened up when I could start trading, which I think was in April last year," Jessamy told Bristol Live.
Having her back garden business has been a game changer for the hair stylist, who said she now gets to choose her own hours. "It's great not having crazy long hours or the travel to and from work.
"It's great having no commute - the working model has completely changed. It’s only me in the space so I don’t have to rush in and out and I can’t be finishing a client whilst another is at the door."
There are advantages for Jessamy's clients too, including children who find a trip to get a haircut difficult or clients who may not feel secure visiting the salon environment for other reasons. She explained: "A client from my old salon's mum didn’t want to go into a salon as she had dealt with cancer treatments and didn't want to be surrounded by the busy salon environment. The one to one experience in my salon was a safe space for her."
And while Jessamy does believe that there are advantages of working in a busy salon environment, particularly for those starting out who can learn from other creatives, she's quite convinced that her at-home set up is the future for her.
She told Bristol Live: "The thought of opening my own big salon scares me, even though my husband says I should. I'm a live in the moment person but this is good for now. But never say never."
