Triple CROWN

After winning Northern Ireland Hairdresser of the Year for the third time last year, Sharon Malcolm will now be inducted into the British Hairdressing Awards Hall of Fame. She chats to us about her career to date

Sharon Malcolm has been pursuing her dreams since she began her hairdressing career as a teenager. “I wanted to be a hairdresser from an early age, so I started as a Saturday girl when I was 14,” she says. “I lived in Newtownards, a small town 14 miles from Belfast, but I wanted the bright lights, so I joined a salon in the city and remained there for 16 years.”

Malcolm went on to achieve another personal goal when she opened her own business in 2000. “I wanted to move back home, and it was my dream to bring a five-star salon there. So I re-mortgaged my house, took a loan from Schwarzkopf Professional and set up Sharon Malcolm Hairdressing in Newtownards. It was a bit scary, but you never think of the risks when you want something. It’s all about having belief in yourself and what you are doing, and then just going for it.”

From a staff of four in the beginning, Malcolm now has a team of 15. “Most of them have been with me since I opened.

We’ve had our ups and downs through recessions and Covid restrictions, but we are still here, living and breathing hairdressing. I love making clients look and feel fantastic. There’s no other job that can do that.”

When it comes to finding time for both the business and her creative pursuits, Malcolm believes they each complement one another. “It’s part of my ethos to not only offer incredible customer care, but to also have an outlet for my creativity, working on shoots for awards and competitions. I don’t think about it; I know it’s what I have to do.

Winning awards is good for the salon as it excites our clients and generates new business, so the two go hand-in-hand.”

Career highs

Being crowned Northern Ireland Hairdresser of the Year for the third time last year was extra special, she says. “I won for the first time 2014, then in 2019, and finally in 2021. I shot my latest winning collection – Presence – during the pandemic after my gut told me I had to enter. Because of Covid-19, there was a lot more pressure both financially and emotionally, compared to previous photo shoots, to achieve this. It meant so much to me when my name was announced. After a difficult few years, I have achieved my personal goal to win three times and enter the Hall of Fame. I feel on top of the world now that I've done it!”

‘Winning awards is good for the salon as it excites our clients and generates new business’

Other career highs for Malcolm include winning the British Hairdressing Awards Trend Image of the Year in 2020 and in 2021, and being recently nominated for International Hairdresser of the Year at the Australian Hairdressing Industry Awards.

“And winning Business Newcomer of the Year at the British Hairdressing Business Awards in 2002, when the salon was only open two years, was a big achievement,” she says. “It’s important for me to show that you can be creative and recognised wherever you are based; you don’t have to be in a big city to achieve what you set out to do. I did all of this in my home town where I grew up, with the skills and the team I have.”

With the worst of the pandemic behind us, Malcolm is happy to have her salon open again. “We are all still recovering from what happened, but I’m so grateful to my stylists who stayed with me. We’re all on our own journey through this and have different stories to tell. There are no rights or wrongs, we’re just lucky to still be here.”

She also has a new personal goal for 2022. “I want to win Trend Image of the Year for the third year running,” she says.

“I have another project going on in the background, which I am very excited about. I will reveal all as soon as I can!”