AN inclusive Oldham hair and beauty salon is celebrating its one year at its new premises.
Ventus Hair & Beauty in Failsworth, which aims to allow anyone to attend a salon no matter their background or mental health, moved to its new location in 2021.
Rachel Hill, 32, is the owner of the salon.
Working in Failsworth since she was 18 years old, Rachel decided to move to her salon’s new location after the first lockdown – when people tried twice to break into her shop’s previous spot.
Speaking to The Oldham Times, Rachel said: “Obviously, no one prepared us for Covid and what that would bring.
“We actually had nine months of the year of Covid closures – which as a business is just horrendous.”
The shop marked its one-year anniversary at its new location this month – but Rachel says it feels even longer: “I feel 10 years older today than I did last year.”
Rachel, who lives in New Moston, is open about her experience with bipolar disorder.
She said: “I do suffer with mental health. It was only in 2019 that I basically had a nervous breakdown and found out the extent of my illnesses.
“I had been ill for years but didn’t know about the whole bipolar thing, which when you’re 29-years-old is massive. It’s a bombshell.”
Based on her own experience with mental health, Rachel strives to make the salon accessible to everyone
She said: “I know that salons can be really daunting anyway. We want salons now where if people don’t want to speak, it’s totally fine. If people want to talk, totally fine.
“We do salons where we close the shutters for people that feel uncomfortable or insecure about being in a salon environment so they can just relax – it’s totally private. They can bring someone to support them.
“I have ladies that are in their 80s, I have girls that are 18. We do a mixture of people – we do a lot of work for the LGBTQ+ community – we even help drag queens to get ready, which is great. There are all kinds of people from all different kinds of backgrounds.
“We have ladies of faith that wear hijabs – if they want to take it off, we can put the shutters down, so they’ve got total privacy.”
When lockdown hit and the business had to close, Rachel took the opportunity to move premises to a larger location and transform the space.
She said: “It used to have holes in the wall – it was literally so different to what it is now.
“It was quite a worrying time because I wasn’t earning any money and it was going to cost a lot of money.
“I begged, borrowed – painted myself, learned how to put floor down. There wasn’t anything where I didn’t try to have a go. We upcycled everything just to save money.”
More information about Ventus can be found on their Facebook page.
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