The Hair Cove
Meet Abigail Overend, who took the leap to open The Hair Cove so she could build a business around doing what she loves while creating more time for her young family. Deciding the timing was right, she set out to turn her ambition into reality, balancing long days with the determination to make it work.
With guidance from Tracey at Durham Startups, she gained clarity around finances, goals and planning for the year ahead. Just 12 weeks after opening, the salon is already busy, with clients rebooking and a strong sense of trust and community. “Don’t overthink it. Just do it.”
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I am young, and I wanted to spend more time with my little boy when he’s a little bit older. So I thought now was probably the right time to go ahead and do it, ’cause I probably won’t have this time again.
I try not to do as much at home, but obviously you can’t help it. I try and do it when he’s just in bed — I’ll get my laptop out downstairs and try and crack on with stuff.
It’s your dream, isn’t it? It’s what you work so hard for, ’cause you want it to work — and it is working. So everything that I’m doing now is paying off. So it makes you wanna do it more.
I’d say just do it. Don’t overthink it. I had so many nights where I’d be like, am I doing the right thing? But you are doing the right thing. There’s nothing better than doing what you love and just pushing yourself to do it.
**[In the salon]** I’ll go and mix everything up — two seconds.
I went on Durham Startups, and that’s when obviously I emailed them, and then I got put with Tracy and she’s been amazing. She’s really helped me a lot.
The hardest bit was finding out how to manage finances — where the goals are gonna be, what bills, and all that sort of stuff that I obviously had no experience in. That was probably the hardest bit. She really helped guide me through, and what it should look like in the next year, which really did help.
**[In the salon]** That’s all finished. That’s gonna be left on for 20 minutes. Would you like a drink or anything? Okay, how would you like it? Just milk, right? I’ll be two seconds.
We’ve only been open 12 weeks and never thought we’d be this busy, so it’s doing really, really well. We’ve had a lot of new clients, but it’s going well. They’re rebooking, enjoying it. They’re loving the vibes — like, we all get on really well, me and Leisha get on. So I think it really does show when clients are coming in: they feel safe and they feel valued, really.
So eventually I want at least six of us to be running here, like stylists, all employed.
**[Interviewer]** As well as more salons, as you sort of move on?
Oh well, that’s a dream. I’d love that. That would be the absolute dream. But at the moment my sole focus is here — like, I wanna get this up and on the go, and obviously I wanna get our name out there, our brand. And then yeah, definitely more salons is the goal.