COVER STAR: NIALL COLGAN - RISING FROM THE ASHES

NIALL COLGAN’s was a life driven by fear, addiction and abuse, culminating in a night that threatened his relationship, his business and his life. Here, he shares his journey back to sobriety and success.

I started hairdressing at 15 with the Hugh Campbell Hair Group. I stayed with him for 20 years until Bellissimo in Limerick came along in 2004 and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. We renamed the hairdressing side of it The Director’s Cut. It was a success for a few years. For various reasons I couldn’t fulfil my leadership role in that company and it turned sour. In February, 2009 I was fired.

Looking back now, as a salon owner, if I had employed me back then I definitely would have taken similar action. I had to open my own salon but I didn’t know how to go about it, but when the Universe puts something in your path, you go for it. I went really high end and opened on O’Callaghan Strand in Limerick, a beautiful spot. We opened on the 11th June, 2009 and it was a white-knuckle ride from the beginning. When you are a manager or a creative or educational director, nothing prepares you for the tasks you face as a salon owner. I had no idea how to order colour, or how much to pay people. It was terrifying. I made a crucial mistake by starting with too big a team. The recession kicked in and that was crushing. I was busy from the get-go but I found myself doing all the work so I couldn’t realise anything like the money I thought I would. I stuttered along for the first few years, trying to prove to everyone that we were doing great.

My partner Melie and I had two kids and in December 2012, our older child was diagnosed with autism. I had to get through Christmas in the salon and she was grieving about it on her own. 2013 became really difficult for Melie and I. She learned everything she could about autism and I buried my head in the sand, trying to prove to everyone that I had the best salon in Ireland. I started to drink more and take cocaine again. I had stopped when I met Melie. Now, we were drifting apart. We won the Irish salon of the year at the Schwarzkopf Professional Irish Hairdressing Business Awards on the 21st October, 2013. I was obsessed with that competition, I really wanted to win it. We had won Munster Salon of the Year in 2012 and I put all of my time and energy into it. I knew we were in with a shot, we put together a beautiful entry, I had a beautiful salon and a core team that was really good. We won it and I was over the moon. It ended up being the worst night of my life. I made a complete and utter asshole of myself and I was caught, and the story travelled around. I was talked about in the industry, and I faced potentially losing my family and my salon. On the 27th of October, a week after the awards, I found myself on the Cliffs of Moher. I hadn’t told anyone I was going there. I thought to myself, my life is over. I was out of home, I was out of my family life. Melie and my brother were going to have me removed as a director of the company. My dream was gone. I woke up that morning and I felt an elation and a freedom and I drove to the cliffs. But people came looking for me and saw my car was missing. Melie’s sister was in the Coast Guard and she went to the Guards and they pinged my phone. I was eight kilometers from the cliffs at that stage. I was ready to do it. I couldn’t take it. I had caused destructive pain cycles all my life due to clerical abuse I had suffered as a child, and here I was again. I didn’t want to go on.

The Guards and the Coast Guard were at the cliffs when I arrived but they didn’t recognise me. When I got to the car park, I turned on my phone and there was 174 missed calls, 60 voicemails. My sister Orla rang and I answered. I can only imagine her fear, hearing the wind at the edge of the cliffs in the background. A Guard approached me and I was taken for a week-long stint in St Pat’s (a mental health services hospital) in Dublin. Even though I was in rehab and couldn’t see light at the end of the tunnel, it was the first time I had ever been completely solitary and it gave me time to think. I started to look at myself and where I was going in life. I realised I couldn’t drink or take drugs. After a week, I had to get back to the salon, it was in freefall. I realised you are only as sick as your secrets so when Melie came to pick me up, I shared everything with her. I told her that I would become a different person and I asked her for the opportunity for us to move on, and she gave it to me. She is a very special person for doing that. Had she not, I wouldn’t be here. Because of the things that had happened to me as a child, I had never experienced gratitude. It’s an exceptional feeling, and I have felt it ever since that day. I had to get back to work. My clientele had halved because of the drama that surrounded the awards and I had to start again. I just put my head down and began rebuilding my life and my business. I bought my premises, it’s right on the river Shannon with the most beautiful aspect. I rang my brother and said, ‘my offer has been accepted on the salon,’ and he burst into tears. ‘From the Cliffs of Moher to salon owner with a growing business in five years,’ he said, ‘I couldn’t be prouder.’

My mum got sick in January 2018. We had a very difficult relationship: I left school at 15 because I was severely bullied and as a result I was kicked out of home. It gave me the opportunity to visit with her and make things better between us. She was also an addict and an alcoholic. She was critically ill and died on the 27th February. Two days before, I visited her on my own. I sat with her and held her hand and told her that I understood how difficult her life had been, I told her about my difficulties, that she needn’t feel guilt or shame and that she could pass peacefully. She just kept looking at me and holding my hand and it was the most special four hours of my life. It was a chance to put so much of my childhood to bed. While we were there, a doctor came in and she was beautiful and mum asked her if she was a spirit. I never left her side until she passed and when she died, all of the fear and pain and insecurity that I had ever felt in my life disappeared. She took it. I stood up a different man than I sat down.

I had been a fear-driven boss, afraid of my staff: was I saying or doing the right thing? I was controlled somewhat by my team. I think ego is born out of weakness and I was very egotistical. I tried to prove to people that I was something, and it was difficult being me. But from that moment, the 27th February, it was gone. The day after her funeral I was back behind the chair and I knew my goals and visions and I was going to implement from that day.

I remembered the words that Anthony Mascolo had told me years before. I had entered two competitions and he had been a judge at both. I came fourth in one and second in another. He gave me his first preference each time. He took me aside and told me that I had something special. ‘You’ve got an eye and a vision, cut every head of hair like you are going to photograph it. If you do that, you will be successful.’ That was the end of me and competitions, and I always had that in the back of my head. But why wasn’t I imparting it to my team? Because of all the fear that I had carried around, I didn’t think I had that skill or ability until the day after my mom’s funeral.

I told the team we were going to photograph every piece of work and show Limerick and Ireland what we can do, and in 35 years I have never worked with a team so closely. Now, we are videoing my work and putting it on Instagram TV, and the messages from world-class hairdressers watching what I’m doing is phenomenal. We’ve had so much growth because of social media, my team is fully booked. But my account isn’t for other hairdressers, it’s for potential clients and we have turned so many people into clients because they see pictures of hair done today, in my salon. It’s been a game changer. The majority of my clients are from outside of Limerick and now we are flying. I have only become the leader that I always wanted to be when my mother died. Back then it was all about ego. Now it’s all about my team, building a culture and building our brand. I have 19 staff, a relatively young team, many of them Niall Colgan-trained. Thanks to our Instagram, I have a gazillion people wanting to be part of the team and I have the pick of the crop. I’ve just taken on a new manager who worked in retail for the last ten years. She has no hairdressing experience but she has the ordering, the floor, the till under control. That’s another step in the right direction. The Universe is dropping people in my lap at the moment, it’s very exciting.

I was told that the average lifespan for a male hairdresser is 45 years of age. Then things start to drop off, they lose focus, younger people start to come through and they feel disillusioned. Now, I am the young person coming through at 50 years of age. All of a sudden I have the confidence, and I have the ability and now I’m not afraid to show people what I can do. ✂ niallcolganhairdressing.ie