Linda del Riego is someone who can tell budding hairdressers just what is needed to be successful.
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Talk to Linda, who recently retired after 50 years, and its obvious one of the important things you need to have is a sense of humour.
Linda says you also need a rapport with people.
"You need to be a good talker and a good listener," she said.
Linda said she could tell some good stories but what is said in the salon stays in the salon.
Given some of her clients had been with her for 30 years - Linda did have the much-needed rapport with people.
The well known Bawley Point hairdresser's career path is a story of doing something you love for half-a-century.
She started in Smithfield in 1970 as a 16-year-old apprentice.
"My mother Betty said to me if I could find a job I could leave school," Linda said.
"I always wanted to be a hairdresser and I used to do the hair of all the kids in the street."
She was in year 10 at the time and two interviews later, her career path was set.
She remembers having to travel to TAFE to Ultimo and commuting in packed trains.
Linda's first boss was a lady named Lucy and the two would later reunite down the track.
She can't remember her first client but she does remember being happy her dream of becoming a hairdresser had become a reality.
Many of her first clients wanted their hair up in curls and long hair was the trend of the day.
As the apprentice, Linda also had to run the errands and get the lunches.
Linda, once she finished her apprenticeship, went onto to work in a Chester Hill salon for 14 years.
Due to family reasons, Linda decided to make the move to the Shoalhaven in 1988.
She was reunited with the person who gave a start.
"Lucy was my boss at a salon in Ulladulla," she said.
"It was nice to be back with Lucy - she was a lovely lady."
Then she got the chance to be a "senior" at a salon in Burrill Lake.
"A salon needs a senior to teach and be with the apprentice," Linda said.
She then got the chance to take over a salon at Bawley Point.
"When I took over, there was hardly any business and I thought to myself "what have I done," she recalled.
She built the business up over the years and it became a "busy little salon"
Retirement is something we all have to face and Linda said the time for hers had come.
"I put it [the salon] on the market and given the state of things, I did not think I'd be able to sell it," Linda said.
However, a young couple has taken over and on Linda's last day, her fellow Bawley shopkeepers gave her a fitting farewell.
When it comes to hair, Linda loved to cut - cutting was her forte.
She did not like doing foils.
Linda did her barber's course in 1996 and could also cut men's hair, previously she only had a licence to cut women's hair.
She has also cut the hair of ABC television royalty and a few well known Labor politicians.
Linda cut the hair of Barrie Cassidy of Insiders on ABC and his partner 's Heather Ewart, of Back Roads, as well.
"Barry is a composed type of person and Heather has a really good personality - she is a bit out there," Linda said.
Chris Bowen and Bill Shorten, when they are in Bawley Point, used to pop in for a haircut.
Linda said Chris Bowen was a nice bloke and said Bill Shorten comes across as a normal guy.
The now-retired hairdresser also liked to support good causes.
She organised Biggest Morning Tea events to support the Cancer Council for about 10 years and a client that lives at Yamba, Jeff Cramb, used to come to Bawley every year around March to do the World's Biggest Shave to raise funds for the Leukaemia Foundation.
She hopes to do some travelling in retirement, once the COVID-19 situation eases.
