Dennis | Hunters Corner
“My name’s Dennis, and Hunter’s Corner is where I live. I’ve been a hairdresser for some 37 years here in Ōtara, but my main accomplishment?
I worked for Fashion Week, where I was doing hair for the fashion designer and I was talking about my accomplishments as a hairdresser; that I was the first person to put in highlights, and they had somebody collapse, and they were panicking, and what I did at the show, I managed to resuscitate them. So, I brought somebody’s life back. So, I was happy about that, that’s my accomplishment. I saved somebody’s life which they were grateful for. They actually ended up passing away December last year. Apparently, they had a very bad heart condition, and they didn’t know about it.
Well I grew up in, well they would say Ōtara, but I grew up in East Tāmaki just up the road there, and I’ve been in this place for 57 years, working in the salon just across the road there. Ōtara; this place had a bad rep since they had the beheading. I don’t know if you heard about the killings back in ’97? There was a beheading just out here, and this is when Ōtara started getting its bad name. This place is not bad, but over the years that I’ve known it, this area is basically, I would say dying. As you can see here, this is the busyness of this area. But it was a good place to be brought up in. A lot of famous singers and all started over in the OMAC over in the corner and it’s just recently over the years everything started moving away from here.
I love hairdressing. Hairdressing has brought me my enjoyment because I’ve done quite a few people’s hair. I’ve done Rachel Hunter, when she was starting out in her modelling career, Angela D’Audney who was a New Zealand presenter, Kiefer Sutherland when he was here for a film back in the early ‘90s. I got most of my training here, and then I moved into Auckland in ’84 where I learned about the first highlights that were ever made and I was there to hold it. February 14th, 1984 at 10:30, and the very first client was Denise Nobilo of Nobilo Wines. I worked there for four years. Then, I went to Ponsonby. Then, I went into Auckland again, and I worked for Rodney Wayne. Then, I worked for Cut Above, the Atrium on Elliot, taught a few people hairdressing at the tech over here, and I’ve really enjoyed it. I love it. I keep up to date in today’s hair-dos. It’s changed since I started, because, everybody was shaving their hair off, and under-cutting and bleaching, and it was heated, and yet now the hairstyles that I did 30 years ago are all back in. The lady I did today, I’ve done her hair for nearly 36 years, and she’s had the same hairstyle from the time I did it, to today. Which is really short and left long on top. I enjoy it but I think most of the people today, the stylists, they’re a bit too much on the money. They’re not into how their clients are. They just want to get the money and go, but to me, I enjoy the time getting to know all my clients and the individual colours that I do.
Since I’ve hair-dressed, I’ve been told that by psychiatrists, that a hairdresser gets more out of their clients than the psychiatrists get with them as a patient. They get to learn more. But today it’s not like it was, say 15 years ago. You walked in the salon. You were treated well, and so forth, but now, everybody’s doing their own hair. Cutting their own hair and there’s too much competition in areas like where I live. There’s like, nine hairdressers and they compete against each other. So to me, they should limit so many hair salons to an area.
I find that I’m famous around here. I can go leave here, but I’ve been from the top of the North Island to the South Island, I’ve been recognised in the little outback saying, you’re the hairdresser that did my hair when I was five, six years old, and now they’re 30-something. So I enjoy it and I’ve been trying to get back into it again, but you know, basically you’re too old so if I ever did get back into it, I’d love to come back here, or be in this area by mobile, my enjoyment is to see people happy through my work.”
