Joe-Anne Gorman
Business Owner at Brookland Barbers and Babes
We love a good story and Joe-Annes pathway to owning her own business is one of those stories.
Joe-Anne started her hairdressing career in the toilets of Villa Maria cutting and dying her friend's hair by experimenting with food colouring at the age of 16 years old. This was all well and good but things took a turn for the worse when she arrived at school with a self-designed and coloured mohawk. Sister Anne hauled her over the coals and suggested to her parents that Villa Maria was not the school for her and that she should take up a career in hairdressing.
However, Joe-Anne was ahead of the game and had already bunked school, came into the city by bus, and gone into a number of city salons looking for a job. Some you may even remember, such as Ian Nicholsons on High Street, Paul Davis, and even Farmers Hair Salon.
Lois Ray who was the president of the Canterbury Hairdressers Association and manager of the Farmers Salon took her on a two-year apprenticeship and showed early talent by winning apprentice of the year.
After her apprenticeship, Joe-Anne went out on her own and opened her first salon called Hair on Worcester Street at the age of 18. Joe-Annes career has not just been defined as a hairdresser with at one point taking a one-year break to be sponsorship relationship manager for Canterbury Rugby, but also a polytech tutor teaching colour and style educator and rep for one of the big hairdressing suppliers.
Having opened the first Brookland Barbers and Babes in Wanaka six years earlier and swearing never to open another business, Joe-Anne is back in business and celebrating the salon's first year birthday this week. She had walked past the empty building for some time and had said to herself, I will probably open my next salon here. Isn’t it funny how life goes.
What do you like doing in your spare time?
I like to dance and attend classes at Ballare Dance Studio about four times a week. It is a lot of fun and Sharan and Michael along with their colleagues have done a lot for the Christchurch dance.
What are some of your favourite places in the city?
I love going to the Art Gallery, Hagley Park, and the Otakaro Orchard on Oxford Terrace. You can see lots of Rabbits around the gardens getting a free lunch. I sometimes even practice my dance routines in the Band Retunder which makes a great dance floor space.
Do you have any favourite restaurants?
King of Snake is my favourite restaurant but also Himalayas Restaurant and if I forget to bring my lunch, Mr. Wolf has the best hot dogs and now have Desert Dogs.
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