Matthew Clulee looks back at his journey to being the owner of a popular city salon

When I was young I wanted to be a master mechanic restoring old classic cars. Hairdressing was nowhere on my radar.

I tried to find an apprenticeship in my chosen career but couldn’t. My parents made me write to every suitable garage in the Yellow Pages. I wrote about 50 letters but no one replied!

So I started working as a waiter in the beautiful Pump Rooms in my home town of Bath to earn some money so I could go travelling. My new best pal was rather scruffy but a great friend, so to make him more attractive to the opposite sex (quite important when you are 16!) I gave him a makeover!

It may not have helped my friend, but it did get me an interview for a hairdressing apprenticeship and the rest, as they say, is history...

I’m now sitting in my office having recently enjoyed our company’s 15th birthday celebrations. Looking back, it strikes me that we have come a long way since we opened in March 2000.

Having landed a job working with a crazy bunch of artisans in a salon in Bath, every day was a drama. I was 16 and went from trainee to trainer in little over a year, working 10 hours a day, six days a week to achieve this.

I also got the chance to work in many different locations, in their many salons, the best and most rewarding being Mayfair.

But it wasn’t until my job as a stylist took me to Oxford that I fell in love with a place.

For a fairly small city there is a lot going on and a feeling of community that I missed working in London.

As hairdressing is a social job I quickly made friends and immediately felt at home here, getting to know Oxford’s history, the links between town and gown, and where all the best pubs were.

Having found the right venue I then decided to open up on my own. Our original salon in Headington was a rollercoaster ride. Our opening party was brilliant, the shopfitters and their family members working day and night to get the shop ready, finishing off jobs during the party.

But my high-flying clients from London would not let me change their appointments so I was working on them while my friends and family were having a great time drinking prosecco.

I also managed to break the brand new boiler so my clients had to make do with having their hair washed in cold water.

My clearest memory of that day was feeling too tired to congratulate myself on achieving my life’s ambition at the not so tender age of 31.

Exactly three years later we opened the doors of our flagship salon The Ship Street Hair-Spa. We were on a roll back then, winning a favourite salon award from Hair Magazine and one especially lovely journalist calling me Oxford’s answer to Nicky Clarke.

In 2009 we had the opportunity to move the Headington salon.

I scratched my head for a year as to what to do with it. I looked at Camden, Primrose Hill, central Reading, Henley and even Summertown before finding a great location 100 yards from Ship Street and opening St Michael’s Street Hair Studio.

Many people question my choice to close the Headington salon and move the team into central Oxford when so many retailers are struggling with rents verses footfall, but for me the ambience in Oxford is very special and it is a labour of love rather than a moneymaking exercise.

And, like many people I have met, Oxford has since become my home.

Good job really, because I was a rubbish waiter.