Hairstyling, salon, ethics & psychology: one stop shop with Rasa
“I didn't know all the rules, all my rights. I just was taking a risk”
A walk down the 1.5 mile Cowley Road will give you an idea of how incredibly diverse it is. Restaurants and businesses from Asia, Middle East, Italian fares, to English pubs line the road.
Setting up a business anywhere in the world is hard work. And if you are a woman, and an immigrant woman, the battle is more uphill.
In a two-part series, we meet immigrant women on Cowley Road, to know their journey in Oxford of setting up their own ventures.
Italian immigrant mother-daughter duo's business on Cowley Road
First, let’s meet Rasa.
Rasa is of Lithuanian origin, 44 years old, a professional hairdresser and teacher, salon owner, and an Ethics degree holder. How many of your hairdressers can claim to have an Ethics degree?!
Rasa worked two jobs to make ends meet in Lithuania. In a mixed race marriage at the time, she and her partner attracted frowns in her home country.
Oxford Life
Rasa arrived in Oxford in 2010, with a six month old child. On a personal front, she was enjoying her maternity life and a new found freedom in Oxford.
However, these were not easy times for starting a new life anywhere. The world was still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis. Rasa and her partner began job hunting. With her basic English, many salons turned her down.
When she finally found a job at a salon, she was not paid the same salary as her colleagues, because her English was considered not good enough by the salon owner. She was also not given a proper contract. When she went to complain at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, shockingly, they advised her to remain quiet if she needed good references from the salon owner. Naively, not knowing any better, she did keep mum for a while.
After several attempts at jobs, she decided it was time to change strategy.
Home Salons
Armed with her limited tools, and a toddler in tow, she started providing hairstyling services in people’s homes. Beginning with Lithuanian and Eastern European connections (speaking Russian as the common language), she cut people’s hair in their living rooms, bed rooms and even gardens.
As a side hustle to make income, she even cleaned students’ rooms at the University of Oxford. If that wasn’t enough for multi-tasking, she was also still pursuing an ethics degree part time from a university in Lithuania.
Soon, she saved enough money to stop working at the University of Oxford, and focused solely on hairdressing.
It took her some more time to rent the salon which is called Oxford Hair & Beauty Academy (OHBA) on Cowley Road.
Rasa feels thankful to her Oxford life.
“In my country, you need to go to all institutions and the big brokers…. I was surprised how easy it was in England. Even though my English wasn’t so good, I still got accreditation”.
Between her ethics degree, hairdresser teaching diploma accreditation, salon business, Rasa has found a great combination of skills in hairdressing, connecting with people, and even counselling.
To add another feather to her cap, Rasa has decided to pursue a part time course in psychology at our very own Oxford Brookes!
At the moment Rasa is content in Oxford. With her son now 16, and soon completing school, she doesn’t feel restricted about relocating and starting a new business somewhere else.
“I don’t think England is my last bus stop”.
Very inspiring story for any woman.