A remarkable story about battling cancer, raising a family and running a business!

Denise Ryan has a remarkable story to tell about illness, family and friendship. Her colleagues helped the Thurles hairdresser get through the most difficult time of her life by running her business, Ní Ríain’s Hair Salon, while she focused on her recovery from triple negative breast cancer.

“On the 23rd of December 2020 I was diagnosed with cancer. It was in the middle of Covid and I was only after having a baby. My baby was twelve-weeks-old when he kicked me in the chest and I went ‘oh my God, what’s that?’ So I went to get it checked out. Nobody was allowed into the hospital with me at the time because of Covid.

“They told me immediately that I had cancer. I then had to get back into my car and drive home to get ready for Christmas. I got into my car and started thinking how am I going to tell my mother? How am I going to tell my husband?

“You don’t really think of yourself, you think of everybody else. It was a kick in the teeth. It was the 23rd of December so I had to get up the next day and go into work on Christmas Eve and pretend nothing was wrong,” the Borrisoleigh native said.

Life went on. After the initial shock and tears, Denise focused on getting well. Her husband and twelve-week-old baby needed her. Her family rallied. The staff at the salon were extraordinary.
While she received treatment to beat the cancer, salon life continued. Her staff kept it going.

The 44-year-old says: “I was extremely lucky. I have the best girls I could possibly ask for working for me. They basically said look, we will take care of it here, don’t worry about anything. And they have. I couldn’t ask for a better team.”

Her life has changed dramatically in the last three years. Since being diagnosed on the eve of Christmas Eve, Denise has found a new career within hairdressing. She helps people to cope with hair loss during cancer treatment. For her it feels like she has found her calling in life: “It is after changing my life completely.

“My whole perspective has changed for the better I believe. The things that bothered me before don’t bother me now. I think it is what I was meant to do in life. It is a new found love of a completely different side of hairdressing.

“We have opened up a hair loss clinic. I lost my hair but until then I had never really thought about that side of hairdressing. When it happens, you lose your identity in some way. I’m fixing wigs for people who suffered hair loss. I do it voluntarily at the moment but I am training in oncology hair loss and I have done other hair loss programmes as well.

“We have got a new oxygen therapy machine into the salon which is a road I would never have gone down before I was diagnosed. It is a time when people are vulnerable, emotions are tied up within identity and hair loss. It is about emotions. I’m learning more about Alopecia at the moment and I’m shocked at the amount of people that it affects. The oxygen machine is great for that and psoriasis and eczema and other things too. I had heard of it before but now I know exactly how people feel. I know where they are coming from.

“I had a lady into the salon yesterday who had heard about what I am doing and she travelled from up the country. She was shaking when she came in but ten minutes later we were laughing.
“It is a very emotional thing coming to see someone about hair loss. Unless you have been there it is hard to realise how traumatic it is.

“I avoided mirrors for a long time. I didn’t feel sick but I looked sick. You buy a wig and try it on when you have hair and you think oh God this looks lovely but when you try it on after losing your hair and there’s no hairline it is a different story. I was lucky I was able to tweak and cut the wig to make it look realistic but when I was inside in the hospital the amount of people I met that weren’t wearing their wig was unreal. I started asking if they did not want to or why but most of them said they weren’t able to.

“They had no aftercare. I met a girl recently who was 73 years of age. Inside for a check up, we started chatting. She was wearing one of those hats and I said oh you never bothered with the wig?

“Well she whipped it out of her handbag and said she didn’t know what to do with it as she felt ridiculous. I fixed it for her and she took a selfie on the phone and sent it to her sister.

“It is that side of it I love. You are giving somebody back their confidence and their dignity. So it explains why I decided to open up a hair loss clinic because there is nobody to help anybody in that situation out there. The girls in the salon are amazing. They have trained again in new techniques. They are constantly educating,” the salon owner said.

This seems to be a brand new field that has been neglected up until now and Denise is helping people find their identity again and find their way back to a fuller life. Denise says the journey she went on has changed her life and the lives of those she works with too. After Denise found her strength again, one day responded to an email:

“So between the highs and lows of it last year somebody emailed me saying that somebody nominated me about awards but I had a lot going on. I finally got in touch and found out that we were nominated for the Prestige Tipperary Hairdresser Award and we ended up winning it.”

Mary Ryan has been by Denise’s side in the salon for nearly 20 years. She also works with her niece and Una Hayes. Also part of the staff there is Melissa O’Sullivan and Brid Kirwin.

The awards haven’t stopped coming for the salon. The All-Star Awards is another prestigious award and the salon won that too in recent weeks. Ní Ríain’s Hair Salon achieved Business All-Star Accreditation with the All-Ireland Business Foundation based on the cutting edge treatment options including oxygen therapy, a dedicated hair loss clinic on top of high quality traditional hair care services. The salon keeps growing led by Denise, who changes lives for the better.