Pupil goes back to his roots with new salon

Jacob McFadden has taken over the training salon at St Vincent College in Mill Lane, Gosport, and is now welcoming the public in.

The 31-year-old from Gosport studied hairdressing at the college in 2012 before moving on to another salon.

But when the chance came up to run his own business at the college, he jumped at it.

The business – called T7 Salon – has now been relaunched and a party was held to mark the occasion.

Jacob said: ‘I’ve always wanted to own my own salon.

‘I found it hard to get opportunities in hairdressing, partly due to my age, but I wanted to set up a salon where I could train other people and give them opportunities that I never had.’

Jacob first got into hairdressing while he was working as a pub manager in London. When his usual barber was busy one day, they offered him some scissors and that ignited his passion for hairdressing.

He returned to his home town of Gosport and decided to go back to college to follow his dream, completing a Level 2 NVQ in hairdressing.

He got hands-on experience in the salon, which used to operate solely as a teaching salon, and was part of the team that won the Training Centre of Excellence category at The News Hair and Beauty Awards in 2012.

Jamie Martin, Jacob’s former teacher who now works at the award-winning Barbership in Southsea, was at the salon’s official opening.

He said he was proud to see one of his pupils do so well.

Jamie said: ‘It is great to see. What you hope when you teach is that your pupils will do well and succeed, otherwise there’s no point.’

Jacob has hired Ella Waite, 21, from Rowner, and Katey Finlayson, 18, from Gosport, to work alongside him in the salon. They will be offering colours and cuts, and all aspects of modern hairdressing for men and women, as well as wet shaves.

The salon will stay as a classroom on Monday. For more call (023) 9260 3592.