Barrie Stephen Hair has been announced the country’s most outward focused hairdressing business by the National Hair and Beauty Federation.
The multi-award-winning Leicestershire salon group picked up the title of Best Community Support salon at the NHBF Awards, at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London.
Barrie’s clear dedication to the local community secured the win. The last decade has seen the four strong salon business link with many local charities and initiatives. Most recently, thanks to sponsored dog walks and a ‘Barrie’s Got Talent Dog Show’, £5,000 was raised for Leicester Animal Aid following Barrie’s appointment as Ambassador for the charity. The new role for Leicester Animal Aid comes after a long period of Barrie being a trustee for the RSCPA’s Project Woodside for which he and his team raised over £25,000 through ticketed and salon events.
Partnering with the community has been a consistent priority for the business headquartered in King Street in the city centre. Over the last decade, Barrie and his team have run numerous community engagement campaigns. ‘Local Heroes’ saw people nominated by clients and team to receive makeovers in the salon. Fit for Leicestershire was all about delivering beautiful hairdressing to places where it’s not always found. Stylists went into Glenfield hospital to offer free hair appointments for ladies in treatment for breast surgery. The team threw an appreciation day for nurses from the Leicester General Hospital and LRI, they went into Women’s Aid to offer their expertise, and donated essential items for ‘moving in packs’ for homeless charity Action Homeless.
The hairdressing business has also linked with Curve for pre-theatre styling, it collaborates with DMU for their fashion show events, and regularly supports their Festival of Careers. This month, Barrie was speaker at a DMUworks Entrepreneurship Day.
“As a local business owner, I consider myself very much part of the community,” Barrie says. “For over a decade, myself and the team of 70 has blended the running of a successful salon group with charitable work for local good causes. Each salon location has its own individual market and builds connections locally for each business – and those relationships run deep. Honouring people in the community and validating what they do goes a long way.”
Barrie and his team have been nationally praised for their involvement in the local community for over a decade now, picking up nominations and awards for best local salon, and best regional salon group from hairdressing industry magazines as well as team wins at HJ’s British Hairdressing Business Awards.
