Triple crowning glory for record-breaking Mayo hair artist

Martha Galvin just loves hair.
“My mother would have told me, from when I was able to talk, I just wanted to be a hairdresser,” she says.
And she never varied from her passion. Martha left school at the young age of 15 to train to become a hairdresser, and she opened her salon in Ballina at 21. “It wasn’t easy. I actually took the harder route. I felt I had a lot to prove,” she admits.
But looking back, it was definitely a case of her having heard the call: The collection of trophies on the reception counter in Martha’s salon, Allure Hairdressing, on Tone Street speak for themselves.
Martha has accomplished something no one had managed to do before: she has won the national Irish Hairdresser Federation competition three years in a row – the first time that has happened in the competition’s 50-year history.
“I’ve competed in the last 29 years, and this achievement is surreal,” she tells The Mayo News. “I never went out to do it. To win it the first time was phenomenal. This time my brother flew in from the States to surprise me. It’s taken years of work.”

Artistic flair
“I’m always pushing the boat out and constantly evolving,” Martha says. “It’s hard to keep ahead of the curve, styles change. Artistic flair is like a ball. It has to be bounced. Competition work is the pinnacle of that. It’s perfection. When I started, you had the hairdresser magazine once a month and it was like a bible, but now we have the internet.”
Martha was drawn the competition side of things by the freedom of expression it allows. In the salon, she is always bound by her clients’ needs. But a competition gives her the opportunity to create something different.
To win the title Hairdresser of the Year, Martha had to enter four different categories in photo form. And make no mistake, the work starts the day after returning from one year’s competition, when Martha sits down with her team and they start planning for the next year.
“We might get the models in, three or four months before the competition, to prepare the hair, do treatments, getting the shine up and bringing the hair into perfect condition. It takes a long time. I could spend six or seven hours until I’m finally happy.”
The photo shoot for the competition takes two days, and Martha is exacting about her high standards: “It has to be good work.”
But she is keen to point out that she couldn’t do it without her team. Her studio Allure Hairdressing won eleven cups in total this year together.
“My team inspires me. They look up to you, but I look up to them. It takes a village to rear a child, and it takes a team to win the competition.”
Martha met her husband at the European Championships in Germany. They both complement each other running the salon together: “He is more business, and I’m more artistic.”

Good times and the bad
Times have changed a lot since Martha opened her salon a quarter of a century ago.
“Back then, if you were good, your business would survive. That’s not true any more. It might even be more than 50 percent business now. It’s so demanding. We have 19 on our team. There is a responsibility to my employees.”
Martha also feels responsibility for her clients: “In our industry, we’re there for the good times and the bad times. For a wedding, if a loved one passed away… or for chemotherapy, if someone loses her hair. That’s my biggest privilege, if a young woman comes in, and we mind her during the period. We are so privileged to be in the inner circle of people during their bad days.”
It all ties in with Martha’s general philosophy. A haircut makes a difference: “No matter what [competitions] I’ve done, it doesn’t matter when I’m in the salon again. You’re only as good as your last client. It’s a real win, when someone walks out the door knowing they have something special.”
After winning the national competition three times, Martha isn’t allowed to participate again. But that doesn’t worry her: “My goal would be now to help the team accomplish theirs.”