Grit and talent give Anna a head start in business

It is not unusual for a teenager to tell a few fibs in order to doss school for the day. But not many do so in order to find a job.

That is exactly what Anna Forde did back when she was just 13. Instead of heading to school in Headford, the daughter of a butcher and office worker hopped on the bus to Galway City, getting off outside what was then Roches Stores.

Off she went in search of work, determined never to return to school. The first place she came to was Yourells hair salon on Eyre Street.

“Helena Yourell interviewed me there and then,” recalls Anna.

“I told her I was 16. I was probably orange all over and plastered in makeup. She offered me a job and when I went home I told my mother I had a job and was leaving school. She said ‘no way’.

” After a lengthy debate, it was agreed that Anna could work Friday evenings and Saturdays, and train on Thursday evenings – on condition that she remain in school.

She was just 16 when she got a lucky break. Yourells had paid for one of their stylists to attend a week-long course in the world-famous Vidal Sassoon School in London, but the stylist booked in had fallen ill. The £800 cost would be forfeited had nobody attended. Anna was quick off the mark, persuading Helena to let her go as long as her mother agreed to accompany her.

“Everyone else there was in their 30s. It was very strict, very precise. It opened me up to a whole new concept of hair. It was scary. At first I hated it. I wasn’t technical. This was so technical, so many rules. By the end of it, though, I loved it. I had to go and practise a lot but I loved it.”

The Easter of her Leaving Cert year, Anna went to her school principal and said she was not returning until the exams. She was told there was no point in coming back as she would not pass her Leaving Cert. That made her even more determined to succeed.

“That really annoyed me. My mum’s favourite phrase was ‘it will be no burden on you to have the Leaving’. I used to study between clients. English was the only subject I liked. I got two As, four Bs and 3Cs. The day I finished my Leaving, my mum said that was the biggest battle of her life.”

Anna immediately became a full-time member of staff at Yourells’. It was one of the busiest salons in the city and Anna felt she was at home.

When she was just 20, Anna was appointed manager after Helena retired. Her husband Philip remained on in the business for a few years. Stylist Carol Joyce who worked in the swish salon Sanrizz in Knightsbridge, London, returned to Galway to take over the salon on his retirement.

“She was like a breath of fresh air. She took the salon into a new age. I suppose London is where everything starts off, so she brought all these new ideas. Things like training, she made sure everyone had the exact same training, so everybody got the same service no matter who was working. She’s so strict, she’s like the Gordon Ramsay of hair. She brought loads of new cutting techniques, showing us how to cut for the face shape, how to colour to suit skin tone.”

For a longer version of this interview see this week’s City Tribune here