A well-known hair salon in Cardiff has shut its doors for good after nearly 25 years of business. On Wednesday, May 31, Ocean Hairdressing salon announced their closure on social media.
On Instagram, they posted a statement which said: "It is with great sadness that we wish to inform you that Ocean Hairdressng will cease trading at 7pm tonight! Your stylist will be in touch in due course! Thank you for your loyal support."
Speaking to WalesOnline, the salon owner Ian Davies explained that the reason behind the closure was due to rising costs, as well as his decision to pursue other working commitments. Despite its closure, the business owner said he felt optimistic about his decision and felt a great sense of achievement.
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Ocean Hairdressing salon opened near Wellfield Road in the Roath area of Cardiff in June, 1998. Since its opening, the salon has been a workplace for over 200 stylists over the years. According to Ian, opening the salon was a "really exciting" prospect and gradually developed into something "beyond [his] wildest imagination".
"Getting this place was a bit of a serendipity," he explained. "I always knew I wanted to be in this area. At that particular time, Wellfield Road had such a great reputation and I thought, I'd love to be here because there are so many independents.
"On the day I came down here, they had just put a sign up on the door. I was straight on it, had a meeting with the landlord, told him my goal for the place and so on. He literally took a gamble on me because there were bigger businesses who were more established that wanted it as well. He was an old businessman and everything was done on a handshake."
From then, the business grew from strength-to-strength with the sense of community remaining at the core of the venture, according to Ian. "There was a real sense of two-way street here, you know? The stylists loved their customers and the customers loved the stylists as well.
"We were also embedded in the local community. We did a lot of charity events, we did a lot with the local schools and got involved with the local causes here in Roath. We even hosted a small market event at the salon one evening, where small independents who didn't have a shop front could come in and we invited all our clients that could buy from them.
"I think one of my fondest memories here was the new year of the millennium. We invited a lot of the salon team, we also invited a lot of our clients to come too. We converted upstairs and the rooftop veranda into a party area and we saw the new year in together. It was such an amazing experience, it felt like we were a family - both the stylists and the clients."
In the lead up to the salon's closure this week, Ian said that he and the staff had been inundated with phone calls, emails and social media messages from past and present stylists and clients. According to the business owner, originally from Merthyr Tydfil, the decision to close the salon wasn't an easy one but he said he is excited to see what the future holds.
When asked about the reasons for closure, he said: "The industry is changing - there’s a new model and it becomes a bit more difficult then to compete. And then with the rising cost, my lease on the property has now come to an end and my landlord wanted to put the rent up by nearly 40%. That only comes off your straight bottom line if I’m being honest. With the rising costs on utilities, my utility bills for example have gone up £350 a month to £1,500 last month. It’s staggering.
"I've also got other things I want to pursue, for example, I've started my own YouTube channel called The Mindful Hairdresser which has recently been monetised and reached over 40,000 subscribers. I love educating people and I love sharing knowledge. I'm also working for an international brand, so I work for them as a consultant and I travel around Europe, Middle East and Africa with them. This has given me more flexibility to do that and set myself up now to be a portfolio stylist.
"There’s a lot of different things going on. But I wasn’t really happy to go until everyone in the salon found a home to go to, which I achieved last week - everybody’s settled and everybody’s happy. They are all really sad but they understand why, and they know they have been supported throughout the process."
Despite ending on a high, Ian also said there was a sense of sadness about closing the business for good. He added that he also wanted to thank both clients and staff that had joined him for the past 25 years. "It only hit me on Wednesday that it was all happening and that I'd be closing the door for the last time," he said. "It was a little bit overwhelming on Wednesday morning, there’s a sadness there but there is a real sense of achievement as well. There’s a sense of, I’ve done that.
"I’m a boy from Merthyr, when I was a shampoo boy at the age of 15 I had all these dreams and aspirations but not knowing how to do them. I’ve pretty much achieved everything I’ve set out to achieve, even when I was told I was never going to be able to do that."
He added: "I’ve been blessed to know the people that pass through my doors, both clients and stylists who’ve all contributed something to my journey, the salon and its reputation. They’ve all played their part. I feel so blessed and grateful for those people, I will always be thankful for them."
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