About David Popham
"As a fifteen-year-old school leaver, I was on my way home from a rather clipped meeting with the careers guidance officer, who on seeing I had no education, recommended the factory-line. My Dad had told me "if you want to get a job, get a haircut”, so I dropped into the local Ma and Pa salon where the newest trainee told me what a wonderful time he was having. While I could not quite see what the attraction was, still, it seemed better than going on the line with everyone else at the packing factory – seemingly my only other option.
I got home and my Dad, upon asking me for the third time, "are you sure you want to be a hairdresser son”, suggested I should advertise myself in the Hairdressers Journal. My advertisement read "School leaver seeks apprenticeship”. I got one reply from a salon in the West End and took it, and that, in 1964, was how I became a hairdresser.
From then on I stumbled through a few less than sparkling West end salons, including a longish spell off Carnaby Street where it seemed so normal; Bands having to be locked in to prevent the hoards of girls mobbing the salon for a glimpse of their pop idols, my boss selling supposed locks of rock star hair to unwitting fans. I still wonder about all those now older women treasuring their own fragment of the swinging sixties stars, not knowing that it was just my boss’s slice of that new mad prosperity.
I decided to move on, and was waiting for my interview at a posh West End salon. While waiting, I listened to the staff laughing about the front page news of some nutter on Bond Street who was cutting everyone’s hair off, suggesting they did not come back for six weeks! "He won’t last without weekly sets and mid week comb-outs” For some reason I got up and left and applied with Vidal Sassoon, the so-called "nutter” in question.
I was told my work was "Rubbish, but we like the way you move”, I was given six months to retrain in the Sassoon precision cutting and geometry, and I got the job. The Sassoon passion for design, Bauhaus, and function-first, hit the zeitgeist of the moment. Women wanted freedom, and hair that was functional and sexy, I was hooked. I went on to work for Sassoon through the late sixties and seventies, in London, then Toronto, and New York.
I decided it was time to do my own thing and moved back to the UK and settled in Oxford for the eighties.
I opened my first Oxford Salon in North Parade in 1981. The business grew and we opened a second in the city centre on the crest of eighties prosperity. I married Shirley, who had worked with me for some time, we sold up to explore a world beyond hairdressing, there had to be more! It took me some time to discover that the more I was looking, for was with us all along, I just had not noticed.
I was inspired to return to hairdressing, not least by Lars Christiansen, our children’s orthodontist. I was envious of his ability to provide a space for being with people, where they got more than just straight teeth.
We opened the North Parade salon, where it remains my passion, to help change the way our clients feel about their appearance. At best, hairdressing is like cosmetic surgery without the knife! We change the way people look, even transform how people feel about themselves, and then offer reinvention every six weeks! It is still a gift to do this every day”
I had been so lucky to have my time at Sassoon, the opportunities to learn and develop where exceptional. So it now gives me a real kick to provide a space for our young people, to grow, develop careers, be well paid, have fun with their creativity, and most of all to be fully self-expressed! I hope this comes through in the craft, creativity and service we now offer”.
Shirley Popham
Officially a trained chef, who taught at the Cordon Bleu School of South Africa, she no longer uses her skill, at food preparation, but rather at taking care of the Business. She works closely with the Reception Teams, and the Managers of both salons and is driven to bring the standards that Popham offer into the hairdressing industry with the acquisition of more salons over the coming years.
Raised in South Africa, in the apartheid years, with a father who won the youngest Businessman of the Year Award and a mother who had her own Personnel Company for 20 years, Shirley was immersed in being "in business" from an early age.
At the age of 22 she moved to the UK to spend more time with her father, who by that time was resident here, and stumbled across the job as receptionist for David Popham Hairdressing. Shirley fell into the role, without looking back and discovered a passion for being at the front of House, rather than "cooking in the kitchen!" While with David, as a manager of his original salon in the 1980’s, she took the salon to new heights.
In 1990, she married David, and once they had children of their own, she took on a part – time role, in order that she could spend time with the children and be a part of their schools and activities.
During her time away from the business, she has taken on and achieved many and various ventures. She won a Lottery grant to bring Seizure Training to School Teachers, was Governor of Springfield Special School, has Chaired several PTA committees, three school Balls, as well as being on the committee of the National Society for Epilepsy and Chair of Helen & Douglas House Parents Forum.
Now that the children are older, Shirley is enjoying her to return to full time work within the Company.