Peter Prosser started in hairdressing aged just 15. “It was my father’s idea,” says Peter. “He was in the motor trade but suggested hairdressing as a good career choice as people would always need a haircut.” So an apprenticeship was sought and he trained in a Hereford salon on a three-year, 100 guinea apprenticeship.
After gaining some experience, Peter’s dad then funded Peter to go into partnership with another Hereford hairdresser, a business which successfully developed into seven salons over three decades.
The millennium then saw Peter deciding to go it alone in business with his wife. Working out of one of the partnership’s original Hereford sites – a first floor salon – it wasn’t long before Peter took over the ground floor premises – a dress shop – reconfiguring the business to create the salon on the ground floor, the colour department on the second floor.
Fanatical about staying ahead of the game, Peter consistently honed his cutting and styling skills by attending top Sassoon and manufacturer courses – a strategy which paid dividends as 2004 saw him winning the coveted title of Midlands Hairdresser of the Year in the British Hairdressing Awards., an award he is again nominated for in 2011.
It was around that time when Peter re-appraised his business. Recognising the need (again) for yet more space, and being unhappy with the local training provider, a new branch of the business was developed in Hereford’s Commercial Road, functioning as a school at the beginning of the week and a salon for the remainder.
Built from scratch, it presents 18 dress-out units to facilitate internal staff training as well as offering year 11 pupils, college students and enthusiastic learners the opportunity to study hairdressing and achieverecognised NVQ qualifications. Plans are in hand to develop a second floor to the premises to expand the training further.
Peter Prosser phase three presents itself as a men’s salon, situated right next door to the main salon in Church Street, to which it now connects via a first floor doorway.
“I’d always admired the property,” says Peter. “It was a beautiful, traditional tobacconist shop, very Victorian in design with luxurious curved front windows and rich green glazed tiles. We were so pleased to be able to acquire the shop which we’ve sympathetically converted into a fabulous men’s salon, with four styling units at the front and a backwash area towards the back.
“Much to out delight when renovating the property, we found a boarded-up original Victorian wrought-iron spiral staircase, now restored for all to see. It leads you in style up to the first floor, where we’ve created a men’s colour department, parallel to the ladies’ colour floor. Hugely successful, business in our men’s salon shows an annual increase of about 38% year-on-year, so there’s every chance of us opening another men’s salon in the local area in the near future.”
The ever professional Peter averages 12 clients a day, five days a week; 65% of his clientele has hair colour and his average bill is under £100. What a trouper...