The talented team behind Jeff Buchan Hair & Beauty recently celebrated a decade in business.
They marked the 10-year anniversary of the popular Friars Street salon with a party in the shop featuring ‘hair roulette’ transformations on two models, celebratory drinks and visits from clients followed by a pub crawl around Stirling.
And in June, owner Jeff Buchan is taking the team on a trip to Benidorm for a full celebration!
Jeff opened his salon in April 2013 – originally at 2, Friars Street before buying larger premises at number 9 four years later.
He initially trained as an accountant before moving into hairdressing and deciding to open his own salon.
He says: “From a young age, I always wanted to be my own boss although I didn’t know exactly what that would be. After an accountancy degree, fast track hairdressing training and a lot of training courses, I felt I had got to a point in my career where I wanted to open a new salon concept for Stirling doing beauty and makeup as well as hair since the salons which existed were only doing hair.”
He began working at 2, Friars Street and the business grew by word-of-mouth at an incredible rate.
Jeff says: “I quickly realised I was outgrowing the space as more and more clients liked what I was doing and were telling their friends and workmates about me.
It also helped that Facebook was a new phenomenon back then and I was the first salon in Stirling to start posting pictures of hair transformations.
To this day I still have long-term clients who first came to the salon because of this!”
In 2017, Jeff bought the shop at 9, Friars street which had four times the salon space plus a garden.
He says: “This was my single best business decision giving me a great space to work out of and I still pinch myself that it’s mine – I love it!”
Jeff works with hair stylists Chloe McShane and Alexandra Lee in the salon and has grown a loyal and diverse client list over the last ten years.
He has gained Wella Master Colour Expert status – the most prestigious colour course in the industry – and is trained in the very latest methods of hair extensions including naked weaves and nanos.
Jeff loves his job and is proud to celebrate ten years in business.
He says: “I don’t know another job where you can spend an hour conversing with a stranger – transforming their look and confidence – and afterwards they want to give you a cuddle as well as their hard-earned money and write on social media about how amazing you are!
I feel truly blessed to have found hairdressing and the buzz you get from making someone beautiful is addictive.”
Jeff describes his last decade in business as “an amazing challenge and learning curve.”
He adds: “I was extremely proud to celebrate ten years in business – good hairdressers don’t necessarily make good businessmen. But in ten years there has not been a month – excluding Covid – where I haven’t made a profit.
I do 99% of everything to do with the business including the marketing, contracts, insurance, health and safety, accounting and so on … and the most important part for me is always training so that my skills stay current with the latest looks in the industry which is so fast moving.”
Over the past ten years, Jeff is proud to have trained up women who have gone on to set up their own hairdressing businesses and to have received almost 1,000 positive reviews on Google and Facebook.
He has enjoyed working on a varied range of hairdressing skills from cutting and colouring to the latest methods of hair extensions. He is now looking forward to the next decade with future plans including a salon refit and a website update.
He also intends to travel more and is heading to Nepal in October to trek to Everest Base Camp after discovering a love of fitness and hiking during lockdown.
Jeff says: “I now recognise the importance of mental and physical health and how that impacts my performance and happiness and so having a good work/life balance and travel is my priority now.”
He adds: “I’d like to thank Go Forth Stirling for the assistance they have given me over the years including the shopfront grant to renovate the salon.
The amount of people and tourists who photograph the front of the salon or who choose to come in thanks to the salon front has been incredible.
I’d also like to thank everyone – including the people of Stirling – who have contributed to my journey over the last ten years.
I’ll be about for another 10 years or so … then you’ll probably find me abroad on a beach playing football or cutting the locals’ hair and telling them all about where my heart is – in ‘Braveheart’ country!”
More details about Jeff Buchan Hair & Beauty can be found on the website – www.jeffbuchanhairandbeauty.co.uk – and on Facebook
www.facebook.com/J.Buchan.Hair.Beauty and Instagram –
www.instagram.com/jeffbuchanhair
