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Lou-Lou’s Hair Salon celebrates its 10th anniversary in town

September 16, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

It is an oft-told tale, of people coming to Canada, putting their faith in the country and themselves and finding success. Such a story was celebrated last Saturday, when Lou-Lou’s Hair Salon, owned and run by Lorna Casey, reached its 10th anniversary last Saturday, September 7. 

As part of the celebration, Ms. Casey included a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s research. “We raised $1,275 for the Alzheimers Society – about 50 people came to our event and I was pleased about that. They were clients, friends. We let people know about it on Facebook. My friend, Radeana helped me with a lot of the social media stuff; she was really good.”

Ms. Casey’s parents, Linda and John, arrived to Orangeville 28 years ago.

Said her mother, “We came here to Orangeville from the U.K. to visit my sister on holiday and loved it. We went back to England, applied to emigrate here. My sister found a house in Orangeville and we bought it without even seeing it, while we were still in England. I still live there.” 

Some of the family came, too, and some stayed behind, but among those who came was Lorna, with her 11-month-old child, Mollie. 

“I have two children,” she told us, “Mollie and Aaron. They’re both great people.

“I came here with Mollie 24 years ago,” she continued. “I’ve been a hairdresser for 34 years. I was already trained as a hairdresser for 10 years in England when I moved here to Orangeville and I worked for Daniel’s [now Universal] Hair Salon for 14 years.”

It was a simple matter to fit to the business of hairdressing here, as there is little difference in the way hair is treated between the two countries.

“You just pick your own way of doing hair but I had to have a licence – had to apply for it when I got here. I’ve never done anything but hair-dressing, all the time here in Orangeville.”

She commented, “I love Orangeville actually. I do try to go back to England every other year, to see family and friends there, or people come here.”

A tenth anniversary is long enough for memories: it was easy, the only thing, really, to fall into the hairdressing business, working for someone else. It was harder, especially as a leap of faith, for Lorna Casey to go to work for herself.

She took a generous space, big enough for growth, on the third floor of the Lord Dufferin Centre. 

“It was a mirror and one chair to start with – honestly,” was Ms. Casey’s description of her early days. “And here I am now. I’m very happy to be in the same space with a steady business and two more hairdressers, Cindy and Sasha, who rent chairs from me.

“I don’t plan on working anywhere else. My aim is to make people feel better about themselves – this is not a job – it’s a passion. My life is just to come to work and do my job – this is my social life too.

“I have values and morals. When you have new staff, you have to learn to work together. Sasha is new but Cindy has been with me nearly a year. I used to have staff. We all work four days a week and we’re open Tuesday to Saturday. So there are two stylists five days a week. We always welcome new clients. We use KMS Goldwell products. 

“We just do hair,” she clarified. ‘Not nails or facials and thing else.

She told us, “Only about ten percent of my customers are from the Lord Dufferin – everybody else is from outside. Some followed me when I moved here

She went on to talk abut the owners of Lord Dufferin. “We called her Mrs. B. She was Donna Howell’s mother and Donna and Dave Howell were the owners of the Lord Dufferin but Donna passed away and, then, so did Mrs. B. She was wonderful and kept us all in line…” (Dave Howell is still the owner of the establishment.)

On her days off, “I try to walk, relax, go to appointments – and house work. Mollie lives at home ‘my creature in the basement, I call her. 

“We have all sorts of people come in. My eldest client is 104. I’m happy to do whatever a person wants. My two favourites to do are colouring and cutting because then you’re kind of creating then. I usually love my job and I’m not in competition. To be honest, I’m not really in it for the money but I have to still pay my bills. 

“I like people feeling good about themselves, it’s all I can offer. I’m such an introvert; giving back to the community, I do it the way I can do it – by helping people feel better.” 

Ever modest, “I was Readers’ Choice two years in a row for my little salon – I think we’re doing quite well.”

This tenth anniversary is special in another way too: “Someone once told me I could never succeed. So, this day is a big deal for me.”

Lorna Casey added, “People are very kind in Orangeville – people really come together – I’m very grateful that I live in Orangeville. There are some amazing people – that’s all I can say.”

Lou-Lou’s Hair Salon is on the third floor at the Lord Dufferin Centre Retirement Residence at 32 First Street, in Orangeville. 

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