Second win a snip for David

IT was nearing midnight when they crowned David Murray Ireland’s Hairdresser of the Year.

For the Drogheda-based coiffeur it brought a fraught, action-packed day to a fitting climax.

“Delighted,” summed up David, 35, who lets his gifted fingers do most of the talking.

“It’s the second time I won it; I also won it in 2004 — and it’s as good the second time round as it was the first.”

Was he expecting to win? “I was very happy with all my models, so I was obviously hoping...

“You had to compete in five categories. At the end of the day all your points are combined — and I came out on top.

“I thought I was in the running. Obviously, I’d never presume to say I was going to win it. There was a lot of talent there and it was a very tough competition.”

From early on Sunday morning, the 400 hairdressers — from trainees to seniors — were furiously frizzing and spraying, clipping and colouring in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel.

“It’s a long process,” David said of the competition run by the Irish Hairdressers’ Federation. “I started working on this last November. One of the categories is called creative fantasy — you create a sculpture. I made a swan out of hair. It takes a long time to make the sculpture.”

Hairdressing captured David from an early age. “It was something I always wanted to do. It’s not in the family, I don’t know why. It’s very creative.

“I started out at 16. I was with Peter Mark for 10 years. Now I’m in the tenth year of my own business.”

With champagne at midnight, David celebrated his great win in proper style as Monday is his regular day of rest at the Chameleon Salon he runs on Drogheda’s Fair Street.

What next? The L’Oreal competition is just two weeks’ away — and then David is off to the world championships in Chicago in March 2008. “I competed in Moscow in 2006 — they’re held every two years — and I won bronze.”