The PM should have praised the genius of hairdressers - writes Mary Killen
In 1997, newly elected Tony Blair declared that he aimed to deliver a university education to over 50 per cent of school-leavers. He didn’t want anyone to feel they had to ‘settle for being a hairdresser’. ‘What on earth is wrong with being a hairdresser!?’ raged my intellectual friend Anne. ‘Hairdressers can double as psychotherapists and it can be an incredibly well-paid job.’ I think of her words each time I visit my own good-vibes-emitting local hairdresser Serena. I reflect on her trajectory from unmotivated teenager who left school at 16 to prosperous salon-owner by the age of 30. Serena was amazed when her mother told her, the day after school ended, that she couldn’t just sit around at home and she needed to get a job – any job. But it was the days when people obeyed their parents and so, faute de mieux, Serena, who had no interest...
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