Latest news with #hairdresser
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Fiona Pender: Search ends for missing pregnant woman
Gardaí (Irish police) investigating the disappearance and murder of a pregnant Irish woman have concluded the search operation in the Slieve Bloom mountains in County Laois.A new search had been under way to try to find the remains of Fiona Pender, 25, who went missing in County was last seen at about 06:00 local time, on 23 August 1996 at her flat on Church Street, results of the searches are not being released for operational reasons. On Monday gardaí said they had reclassified their missing person investigation to a murder completed a search of land near Killeigh in County Offaly on Tuesday, the search moved to the Slieve Bloom mountains close to Clonaslee in County Laois on Wednesday. Killeigh and Clonaslee are about a 10-minute drive apart across the county Pender was 5'5" in height, had long blonde hair and was said to be looking forward to the birth of her was wearing white leggings and bright coloured clothing when she went missing. Who was Fiona Pender? Fiona Pender grew up in Tullamore, County Offaly, in a family that has suffered a number of had two brothers, but just over a year before Fiona went missing her brother Mark died in motorcycle the time of her disappearance in August 1996, Fiona was working as a hairdresser and living with her boyfriend in a flat in Church Street in her had spent the previous day "shopping for baby clothes with her mother in Tullamore," according to her missing person profile, external."She was in good form and was looking forward to the birth of her baby," the garda website soon as she went missing, the Pender family began a long campaign seeking the public's help to find Fiona, led by her mother 2000, almost four years after Fiona went missing, her 50-year-old father Sean Pender was found dead in the family widow believes he took his own life, telling a Tullamore reporter: "He couldn't live without his children.", externalThe investigation into Fiona's disappearance continued for 28 years without success, despite a number of searches and digs in different May 2008, a hillwalker came across a makeshift cross which had been recently put up in Monicknew Woods in the Slieve Bloom planks of wood had been hammered together and written on the cross were the words: "Fiona Pender. Buried here, August 22nd, 1996."Gardaí began a search of a two-acre site in the area, assisted by soldiers and cadaver dogs, but there was no sign of Ms Pender's mother Josephine died aged 68 in 2017, external, having never discovered the fate of her only daughter and her unborn Irish Times reported that a "candle of hope" was placed on the altar during her funeral "in memory of all missing people".In tribute to her daughter, a section of walkway along the Grand Canal outside Tullamore is known as the Fiona Pender Way.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Fiona Pender murder investigation: Gardaí conclude search of Offaly bogland
Gardaí have concluded a search of bogland in Offaly as part of the Fiona Pender murder investigation. Gardaí confirmed that the search and excavation for the missing woman's remains on lands at Graigue, Killeigh, finished on Tuesday evening. The operation took place over two days, near Ms Pender's native Tullamore, Co Offaly, which is a relatively short period for such operations in historical homicide cases. However, Garda sources said the search and dig was never expected to take any longer than 48 hours. READ MORE Early on Monday, Garda Headquarters confirmed the search had begun, adding the Pender case had been upgraded from a missing persons inquiry to a murder investigation . Ms Pender, a 25-year-old hairdresser, she was last seen at her flat on Church Street, Tullamore, early in the morning of Friday, August 23rd, 1996. The man who was in a relationship with Ms Pender when she vanished had criticised the initial Garda investigation, including the fact he was arrested for questioning, and that a farm slurry tank and well had not been searched. John Thompson, who has lived in Canada for many years, told gardaí Ms Pender had been in the flat when he left for work that morning. Despite a very significant search operation, including large sections of the Grand Canal being drained, no trace of Ms Pender has ever been found. She was seven months pregnant at the time and when she vanished a major Garda investigation got under way within days. Mr Thompson, who was the father of Ms Pender's unborn child, was angered by the fact gardaí appeared to base some of their investigation into her disappearance on a theory that he was somehow involved. 'It is just not good enough for them to suggest that we disposed of her and then leave it at that,' Mr Thompson, then aged 24 years, said in an interview with The Irish Times in August 1997 , a year after the disappearance, adding he took a 'dim view' of the fact he had been arrested. Mr Thompson spoke to The Irish Times four months after he had been arrested for questioning about the case, on suspicion of withholding information. He was one of five people – two men and three women – arrested at the same time in the Laois-Offaly region. They were all released without charge and none of them has been rearrested in the intervening 28 years. Despite the investigation into Ms Pender's disappearance having continued since 1996, and now being upgraded to a murder inquiry, no further arrests have ever been made. In his interview, Mr Thompson insisted gardaí had moved too slowly to begin their search when Ms Pender, who he was living with at the time, went missing. He said he did not want to be seen 'to be giving the guards the fingers... but the fact remains that she is still missing'. [ Fiona Pender murder: Can fresh searches unlock a case 29 years later? Opens in new window ] He pointed out that the slurry tank on his family farm had not been searched and that other locations had also not been checked. 'They [gardaí] will tell you that they searched high and low, but they did two searches on this farm and there is a well outside the door, and it was never searched. At the end of the day, Fiona is out there somewhere and it is their job to find her. I just want to highlight the fact that she is still missing.' He added that when he was arrested in April 1997, gardaí had no evidence to suggest he was involved in Ms Pender's disappearance, and he took a 'dim view' of the arrests made. Mr Thompson said at the time he was 'hopeful' that Ms Pender and their child, who would have been 10 months old in August 1997, were still alive. He found it hard to believe Ms Pender could disappear from a busy town like Tullamore and for the matter to remain unexplained. 'I feel that someone might have seen something, but is afraid,' he said. The Thompson family are farmers from a Church of Ireland background and Ms Pender's family are Catholics who lived on the Connolly Park local authority estate in Tullamore. Much was made of the different backgrounds they were from and that the Thompson family did not approve of the relationship. But Mr Thompson told The Irish Times that theory was 'not even worthy of comment... But I deny it.' He added: 'We are not bigots and nor are the Pender family.'
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
I ignored an easily-missed sign of deadly skin cancer - until my hairdresser flagged it...everyone should perform vital check
A mother-of-two has saluted her hairdresser for saving her life—after the stylist spotted a hidden sign of deadly melanoma skin cancer that would otherwise have been missed. Michaela Peacock, 35, noticed a 10p-sized growth on her scalp while absent-mindedly rubbing her head while watching TV one evening late last year. She asked her husband to take a look underneath her hair, and he confirmed it looked like a raised mole, which the pair assumed she developed in childhood. But after a friend flagged the importance of keeping tabs on any changes, the aesthetics clinic owner texted her hairdresser a picture of the lesion, to ask if she'd noticed it. 'She said that it looked bigger and darker than when she last saw it, that's what made me go and get it checked,' said Ms Peacock. 'The fact my hairdresser could say that looks bigger meant it was changing, so she helped save my life.' In early January, Ms Peacock visited her GP to get the mole checked, and the doctor immediately referred her to North West Anglia hospital in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, for specialist investigation. 'The mole was brown around the edges but really dark in the middle,' she said. 'It was the pigment in it that made the doctors worry.' Michaela Peacock has credited her hairdresser for highlighting the change in a mole which triggered her diagnosis of deadly skin cancer At the hospital, the mole was removed, biopsied and six weeks later identified as melanoma—the deadliest form of skin cancer. If spotted at the earliest stages, almost 100 per cent of patients will survive for five years or more. However if diagnosed at later stages, when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, only around half of patients live for six years, according to Cancer Research UK. 'I was shocked when they said it was melanoma,' said Ms Peacock. 'My first thought was, "is this going to end up as a death sentence?"'. 'Melanoma caught early is very treatable and curable, but when you hear the word cancer you think of death.' Ms Peacock has reflected on her teenage sunbathing habits in the aftermath of her diagnosis. 'When I was a teenager and young adult I never used to wear sun cream because I didn't like the feel of it,' she admitted. 'I'm very fair skinned and would never tan, so to get any hint of a tan I'd have to burn first and unfortunately in the past I've had some awful sunburn. 'The consultant said it only takes one time to have a blistering sunburn and melanoma can present itself 20 years later, so I think it's from years of not looking after my skin.' Ms Peacock has since had subsequent biopsies taken of other moles on her stomach and inside her lip, which doctors suspect could be signs of further cancer. While doctors removed the initial growth during the biopsy, she may need further procedures and treatment if the other lesions are determined to be cancerous. 'I don't think people think of skin cancer as anything that serious,' she said. 'I've even had people say 'it's only skin cancer'. 'What a stupid thing to say. Melanoma is deadly, it kills people.' Ms Peacock said she's now 'terrified' to go outside in the sunshine. 'When you get a diagnosis of melanoma, you kind of feel you want to become a vampire,' she said. 'I wear SPF all the time now anyway and on sunny days I wear factor 50, a hat and sunglasses. 'I went to pick the kids up from school and even just walking across the playground to get to the shady bit I could feel the sun on my arms, it makes you so paranoid. 'I bang on to people all the time about wearing their SPF and not laying out in the sun. 'But how do you hit home with that message? I don't know how to do that unless you scare people, which is what my tactic is.' Last year, data revealed that rates of the cancer in the UK have increased by almost a third in the space of a decade. While the majority of the rise has been seen in older people, there has been a seven per cent increase in cases in people aged 25 to 49, according to the Cancer Research UK figures.
The Sun
5 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
I flew to Poland to get rid of my 36H ‘Quasimodo' boobs after I struggled to eat – I had a kilo of tissue removed
STANDING in the queue at the supermarket, Hannah Davison feels a burning sensation in her neck. While it might be alarming for some, the hairdresser is all too aware of what is causing her chronic pain. 8 8 8 Her 36H breasts are the culprit with Hannah claiming she was 'on the way to having a hunchback' like the famous bellringer Quasimodo. But Hannah, 33, can now hold her head (and neck) up high after having surgery to reduce her boobs by five cup sizes to a 34C. She flew to Wroclaw, Poland, on April 14 to have breast reduction surgery where over a kilogram of tissue was removed from her chest. The two-hour long surgery cost £3,373 after Hannah received a discount for paying through her Monzo card. Now five cup sizes smaller, Hannah feels the hunch at the top of her neck caused by her boobs is "already going" and her daily pain has 'disappeared literally overnight'. Hannah, who lives with her husband in Greater Manchester, says: "I felt like I was on my way to having a hunchback. 'It panicked me at first because it felt like there could be something really wrong. 'I'm a hairdresser so I'm on my feet all day and using my arms. 'I struggled to stand up for periods of time. 'I'd have a burning sensation in the top of my neck. I got my DD implants removed & went back down to a B-cup - trolls say I went from a 7 to a 4 but I LOVE my new look 'I'd have to sit down for half an hour until it stopped.' Hannah says that even simple tasks like eating proved a huge challenge. "Even eating a meal before I was hunched because my boobs would mean my back was pushed down,' she explains. 'My posture was a huge problem.' The hairdresser says that her life has totally transformed since her surgery, and she's not the only one who has noticed the difference. "Everyone has just been looking at them so shocked at how good they look and how it completely changed the frame of my body as well,' she says. 'I look smaller, they were so big and pronounced and changed the frame of body. 'Now they look a lot more natural as well and the pain has been severely reduced. 8 8 8 "It's a better quality of life and I'm a lot more comfy in my own skin, which I can say I've never had because I've had big boobs since I was 14." Hannah's back pain began when she was just 21 when she began hairdressing. She said: "As the years have gone on - I'm 33 now - it's just got progressively worse, and I had a hunch at the top of my back. "Standing up and moving my arms in a certain way gave me a burning pain in the back of my neck." Hannah first heard about the procedure after a friend flew abroad for a breast augmentation in March 2025 at Europe Surgery, a clinic in Wroclaw, Poland. She says: "My decision to go was very last minute. "I'd wanted surgery done since I was 21 but it was always unreachable due to the price in the UK. 'I went to Mya Cosmetic Surgery about six years ago and got a quote for £8,000 for the same procedure. "It was way out of range for me. "The last thing I heard was that the wait list [on the NHS] was six years and you had to go through extreme mental health screening. 'I didn't want to wait any longer. 'I had the savings anyway but I didn't want to dip into them, so I worked six days a week for six weeks to make the money I needed for my surgery.' Hannah emailed the clinic in January 2025 and had her surgery just six weeks later. She says: "The clinic has a Facebook page with over 17,000 members so you get to see loads of different people's point of view. "I'm now four weeks post-op and I feel absolutely fine. "I started back at the gym two weeks post-op. "My best friend is a nurse and she can't believe how neat the incisions look." Hannah stayed overnight at Europe Surgery's clinic before staying a further five days at a hotel, while she waited to be fit to fly home to the UK. She says: "A few times I was worried I could feel fluid inside my breast, so I just went straight in. "All the nurses are so lovely. "The whole experience pain wise was a five out of 10. "The only annoyance of the whole process is the healing as you have to do nothing. "Other than that, it was a great experience." She estimates that "just over a kilo and a half" of breast tissue was removed in the surgery. She adds: "I've always been into the gym and training, and I feel like my body composition would never change. "No matter how much I trained it would never make a difference. "Now I can wear nice gym clothes." 8 8
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hairdresser reveals common phrase all stylists hate to hear from their clients
A hairdresser has revealed the most annoying things clients tell her. UK-based hairdresser Sarah Louise Tyne took to TikTok to reveal one particular remark that's left more than a few stylists gritting their teeth behind the salon chair. According to Sarah, it's not a matter of snipping too much or choosing the wrong toner - it's what a client says when settling in for their appointment. The dreaded phrase is: 'My old hairdresser used to do it like this.' For some stylists, it's an innocuous comment. For others, it's a 'red flag'. As Sarah explains, it can spark an immediate internal reaction and cause you to think: 'I'm not your old hairdresser.' Suddenly, they're in a head-to-head comparison with someone they've never met. The video has resonated with stylists across the app, many of whom admit they've faced the same situation. As the poster notes, it's not necessarily the client's fault. They may have lost their favourite stylist to relocation, retirement or some other unavoidable life event. Still, the phrase often unintentionally sets the tone for tension. 'You feel like you're in a competition to be better than a hairdresser that you've never even met,' she says in the video, describing the uncomfortable position of having to live up to someone else. Rather than spiralling into frustration, however, she offers a diplomatic approach. The TikToker outlines three ways stylists can navigate this delicate dynamic with grace. First, she jokes stylists 'could get really a**ey and say "Well go back to them then".' Instead, she encourages reframing the conversation: 'Rather than showing me how your old hairdresser used to do your hair, can you show me some images of what you're hoping to achieve and I'll see if they will work with your hair type/texture?'. @mobilestylisthubclub When your new client says "My old hairdresser used to do my hair like this" How do you answer/respond ? You could get really arsey and say "Well go back to them then" OR ☆ Say " Rather than showing me how your old hairdresser used to do your hair, can you show me some images of what you're hoping to achieve and I'll see if they' will work with your hair type/texture." ☆ Rather than getting annoyed by the comment say " I appreciate you may be nervous about having your hair done by another hairdresser, but you really are in safe hands" reassure them and help to calm their nerves. ☆ If it seems that no matter what you do/say nothing seems to reassure/relax and your client continues to say " he/she/they didn't used to do that, it doesn't look like - - - - - used to do my hair" The 2 of you just may not me a good match, it happens. Do your best to offer the best possible outcome, and politely explain that you may not be a good fit for each other. How did you handle this situation when it happened to you? tell me in the comments. #themobilehairdressingguru #mobilehairdresser #petpeeves #redflag ♬ original sound - Mobile Hairdressing circle The Brit also reminds fellow stylists to extend empathy. 'I appreciate you may be nervous about having your hair done by another hairdresser, but you really are in safe hands,' she suggests saying, recognising that the client's comment may stem from anxiety rather than arrogance. And if nothing seems to bridge the gap, Sarah says: 'If it seems that no matter what you do or say nothing seems to reassure or relax [the client] and they continue to say 'he/she/they didn't used to do that', it doesn't look like they used to do my hair'—the two of you just may not be a good match. It happens.' Ultimately, she advises doing your best to offer the most positive result and, if necessary, 'politely explain that you may not be a good fit for each other.' So the next time you find yourself in the salon chair, perhaps think twice before invoking the ghost of hairdressers past. Other hairdressers took to the comments to leave their own thoughts on the topic with some saying they don't mind it when a client brings up their old stylist. One person said: 'It crosses the line when they say. My old hairdresser ONLY CHARGED me XYZ.' Another added: 'I normally ask what they liked about how they did it or I'll explain why I do it differently.' Someone else added: 'I don't see this comment as a problem, if they liked that way I would try to do it the way she wanted.' While stylists agreed with Sarah, others felt the comment was innocuous and not indicative of an issue To which Sarah replied: 'Totally, but it's also about establishing a new relationship. Also what if the client is keeping to that style because they've never been offered anything different?' Sarah is not the first of her profession to offer some advice on what to do and, crucially, what not to do when it the stylists seat. Telesa Brown, from Canada, took to TikTok to explain the most infuriating mistakes a client can make. While some tips are obvious, such as arriving on time, others have surprised viewers. One even claimed that Telesa's points are the 'reasons I got out of hairstyling after 34 years.' Showing up late or not turning up at all was the first point Telesa gave. She said: 'We get that things happen, but typically, a busy hairstylist has a full day of clients and showing up more than five minutes late affects the rest of the day. 'No shows, I mean come on, obviously we don't make money with no one in our chair, expect to be charged for this.' Next, Telesa shocked viewers with the second stylist peeve. She said: 'The second one is showing up to a colour with dirty hair. 'I understand for years, hairstylists were telling you to do this; it's not your fault. But I'm here to correct it. Hair colour works better on clean hair, so for the best results come with clean hair.' Before adding: 'Also, it's gross.' Telesa also listed showing up sick. She pleaded to her viewers to never show up sick, even if they've waited for a long time to secure the appointment. The fourth reason Telesa gave was: 'Asking for a completely different appointment than what you were booked for.' She explained that it's 'difficult' to accommodate but hard to say no to as a self-employed stylist.
