Cathy

Cathy has been hairdressing for more than 40 years. She did her apprenticeship in Parramatta in the 1980s, then spent the mid-1990s letting her scissors fund her travels. Between trips around Europe she worked in London from 1994 to 1996, on a series of contracts at Charles Worthington's Charlotte Street salon. He was named British Hairdresser of the Year twice that decade.

Back in Sydney in 1997, she started at Concord Heritage Hair, 201 Concord Road. In April 2000 she and her partner Chris bought the business and renamed it Scanlon Hair. She has been cutting hair at the same address ever since.

Her specialty is precision short cutting. Lately she has taken up curly hair cutting, because 40 years in is no reason to stop learning. She has completed most of the courses L'Oréal Professionnel Education runs in Sydney and graduated from its Colour Degree in 2018. She has also been the formal trainer for every apprentice the salon has taken on: sixteen so far, twelve of them now qualified. Two still work alongside her, one qualified and one nearly there.

Away from the salon she is a film buff with a soft spot for the classics: Roman Holiday, and Audrey Hepburn in general. On the page, it's Monica McInerney.