New mum defies pandemic and grows Bourne hair salon The Cutting Room with West Street move

A hair salon owner has defied the hardships of the pandemic and challenges of becoming a new mum by growing her Bourne business.

Kirsty Woods took the bold step early last year to invest and move the Cutting Room into bigger premises at the former Sandall Butchers shop in West Street.

The first national lockdown soon followed, closing salons across the country for much of the next 12 months, but that was not the final hurdle Kirsty would face.

“During lockdown I fell pregnant and then my stylist told me she would be leaving as well - I thought ‘what am I doing?’”, she said

“I’m going part-time and I’ve taken on a bigger project!

“But I thought I can’t back out now - I don't want to live with regret.

“If I walked past this place in five years and saw someone else doing well here I would kick myself for not trying.”

Kirsty, who started her business in Crown Walk 12 years ago, took on the lease and received a big helping hand from the landlords who paid for an overhaul of the building.

Her dad Richard played a major role in converting the building and now has babysitting duties for grandson Hadley, who came along on January 10.

“The landlords have been really good and I’m very pleased with it,” Kirsty said.

“If it wasn’t for my dad being retired and helping out as my project manager I don’t know what we’d have done.

"He decorated the whole shop, did maintenance work and sorted the heating."

The new shop has room for five chairs instead of three, a new beauty room to rent, and a staff area.

Kirsty has been reunited with former colleague Hayley, while Sarah has joined them from Markey's Wee Barbers Shop to complete the team.

Business has been brisk post-lockdown, with Kirsty booked up into June.

"I wanted somewhere with a room where we could go between clients and have a coffee," she said.

"With the beauty room, we wanted to give the opportunity for someone to come in and have somewhere nice to work.

“It has obviously been a larger investment but being in the salon for 12 years I was ready for it.

“It’s somewhere for me to be until I retire. I want to be in there for the rest of my career.”