With 193k followers on Instagram, you may have seen Casey Coleman pop up on your feed from time to time. Here, we chat about his career journey, mental health, and biggest achievements...
“We were stood in the middle of the sea on this private island at nine o’clock at night, looking up at all the stars, and Ashleigh Hodges turned to me and said: ‘Can you believe this is our job?’ That was just a mic drop moment,” Casey Coleman shares. Which is kind of ironic for someone who never planned to get into hairdressing. Let’s rewind…
“In the beginning, I was studying fashion design, I wasn’t initially going to become a hairdresser, but I passed a hair salon, asked for a job and it just happened.” However, as an apprentice, Casey had some bad experiences with toxic bosses, and decided to leave the industry. But at 19, he went back to college as a full-time student, completed his Level 2 and 3, and got a job in a local salon in Swansea. “My boss was lush, she was really bubbly, energetic, and on the ball – quite a big contrast from the bosses I’d previously had.”
Next came working on photoshoots all over the country, before moving to Cardiff and working in a salon for eight and a half years. “During those eight years, I was part of the NHF Inspire Team, I entered competitions, I built my knowledge, I got a job with an international brand where I worked all over Europe including Holland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Norway, and it was incredible.” Then came winning a competition that took him to Australia, working with global hairdressing legends including Richard Ashforth, Sally and Jamie Brooks, and Robert Lobetta.
Soon after, came the beginning of Chair Salons. “I noticed a gap in the market. In London there were gender-neutral hairdressers popping up, but that wasn’t the case in Wales. So, in 2018, I opened the doors to Chair Salons – Wales’ first gender-neutral salon.” With a small team of three at the time, they became notoriously known for creative colour in Cardiff. “We were doing shows at Salon International, heading to awards all the time, we were a very busy salon,” he tells us. Not to mention the brand trips! “Myself and Ashleigh Hodges went to Mexico with Benefit Cosmetics and Cloud Nine, and standing in the sea, I just realised how insane of an opportunity this was.”
But then COVID hit, and Casey decided to utilise his time to grow his social media platforms by posting educational content. “I invested a thousand pounds in a bunch of colour and 10 dolls heads.” When it came to reopening the salon, the queue was so big that BBC Wales caught wind! “I’d strategically asked clients to come in for a skin test before we opened up because we didn’t know how colour was going to react if someone had had COVID, so we had to redo skin tests on all of our clients, and the queue was up the road and around the corner. People were taking pictures, we were on the news, it was wild.”
Casey soon realised that he wanted to focus on his social media and changed his business from Chair Salons to Chair Studio. “For those four years I worked in Chair Studio, I won around 12 awards, including British Hairdressing Business Awards Social Stylist of the Year and was the first person to ever be entered into the Hall of Fame for that category.”
But in 2021, Casey went through a nervous breakdown – which he describes as his biggest challenge, resulting in having to cut down his TV and film work. “I was working with Netflix on Sex Education Season three and four. I worked with Disney, Amazon Prime, ITV, BBC – I was working for all of these TV companies, and it all had to stop because I was working on rebuilding myself personally.” After therapy, Casey soon realised that he hated working on his own. “I just couldn’t stand it. I was in a little room in a salon doing clients and it just wasn’t right for me, so that’s when I decided to reopen Chair Salons this year.”
A typical day in the life now? “I’ve just launched my first online class which has been a global success. I only work one-to-one with clients, so I get to really enjoy my clients and be there for them during the day. Obviously with salon work, you leave your work at the salon, but with social media you’re carrying it around in your pocket.” To help balance this, Casey splits his time working three days a week in the salon and only posting three times a week on social media. “I make sure to balance my time and that I have days where I’m not doing either of those things. I’ve definitely learnt how to put myself first – as they say on any flight you get on, you’ve got to put the mask on yourself before putting it on anyone else and I think that really relates to hairdressers, because if we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t do our clients, we can’t do what we love.”
Looking back at his journey though, Casey feels pride. “I think just being content in my job, having clients that I’ve been doing for 15-16 years is quite an achievement. Having those people stick by you, it makes me feel like I’m doing something right and I’m a good person – it makes me feel like I’m on the right path. There are so many things that I’m very proud of, but I’m proud of putting myself first and having good relationships with my clients.” Another mic drop!
