Hair Technique: a happening place

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This article was published 14/04/2015 (4018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Laughter, happy voices, the buzz of hair dryers and music fill the air as I step into Hair Technique, in Unit 3 at 1295 Pembina Hwy., on a Friday afternoon.

Every chair is taken and hair stylists are busy cutting, washing, styling, and blow-drying hair.

Manager, stylist, and makeup artist Desiree Tessier is just finishing up with a young customer who proudly walks out with a trendy man bun.

Tessier has been doing hair for 12 years and in this location for the last three.

“I love it here,” she says. “I love this location. We have quite an arrangement of different people. Every day is different.”

What Tessier has been doing lately is “lots of crazy colours and pastels.” She says her clients have been very spontaneous. In the middle of a haircut she will suddenly ask, “Do you want me to shave the underneath side of your hair?” and the customer will go for it.

“It’s all about confidence.”

Another trending fashion Tessier says is the gray movement.

“Silver and grey hair is coming back with a vengeance so everybody grow out your gray and silver hair and you’ll be trendy.”

What initially got Tessier into the hair business was an aunt who had a salon. She grew up surrounded by the hair business atmosphere, whether in her aunt’s shop or the salon down the street. It was a comfortable place to hang out and at the same time help by sweeping up the hair and folding towels.

She exhilarated in everything — from the smell to the bustle of customers coming and going.  

“It ‘s been my hobby and my passion since I was a little girl. If I wasn’t cutting my Barbie’s hair, I was cutting my friend’s hair or dying hair with food colouring, Kool-Aid, or bingo dabbers. I can honestly say this was in my blood. This was it. I love it with every fibre of my being.”

The love for her work shines in Tessier’s face and exudes from her energetic voice as she talks and laughs with customers and co-workers. It is the perfect job for a warm people-person such as Tessier.

Her colleague Erin says “This is like a second family. It’s one of the best places to work.”

Helen Lepp Friesen is a community correspondent for Fort Garry. You can contact her at helenfriesen@hotmail.com