| Today turnover is rapidly approaching the £2 million mark, with plans for much more growth. Bill is also a Council Member of the Hairdressing Council, the regulatory body for hairdressers in the UK and was Chairman of the Council, which meets in London, for 3 years before taking over as Treasurer, a position he still holds. When asked why he thought he and Dimensions had become so successful Bill says “Not wishing to sound like a walking cliché but Vidal Sassoon, who is probably the best known hairdresser in the world, once said ‘the only place you find success before work, is in the dictionary’!” “Without doubt, the main reason for my success is the people I’ve been fortunate enough to know and work with. Starting with my Father - who was more than a Dad to me, he was my hero. Jon Major was a great partner and it seems unbelievable that it’s more than two decades ago since we went our separate ways. Ray Roberts MBE, who, other than my Father, taught me more about business than anyone else and was there to support Bernadette and myself when we needed it.” “Last, but by no means least, for the last 30 plus years, Bernadette has supported me throughout in both the good and not so good times and, along with my family, continues to inspire and motivate me to go on.” |
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The History of Dimensions
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Dimensions Training Solutions Ltd, based at Archway House, Barnsley, has been responsible for the training of thousands of hairdressers over the past three decades. On 21st May 1973 Dimensions Hairdressing was opened in Peel Street Arcade, Barnsley, by Bill Shaw and Jon Major who were at the time just 19 and 20 years old. The partners had met at hairdressing college and had remained close friends before joining forces to open their own premises on the site of a former dress shop and ladies’ hairdressing salon known as Ritas. Mr Hasty, the agent from Wilbys, who the boys approached looking for an empty unit to turn into a modern, trendy hairdressing salon - the first unisex salon in Barnsley - did a brilliant selling job. From the very beginning Dimensions was going to be different: it was a time of radical change with the trend switching from the traditional shampoo-and-set clientele to the newer ‘precision cutting’ and blow drying. This was right where Bill and Jon wanted to be. The two lads caused a stir, particularly on the mens side of the business: it was 1973 and they were asking men to make an appointment for a haircut.
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That wasn’t all, if you wanted a haircut at Dimensions, not only did you have to make an appointment, you had to have your hair shampooed! This was neither a gimmick nor a sales tactic, it was simply the fact that the type of hairstyling Dimensions was to become known for required hair to be cut wet and then blow dried into shape. This didn’t suit everyone, but it was the right decision, with the salon soon becoming fully booked with clients who had previously been going to Leeds and Sheffield to get the kind of hairdressing now being offered in Barnsley. These were fun times for Bill and Jon who worked hard, and played just as hard in the pubs and clubs of Barnsley. Business was however, undoubtedly easier in the early 1970s when things like business plans and cash flows were words that hadn’t been invented. Word spread about what Dimensions was doing and the salon gained a steady stream of clients travelling from Leeds and Wakefield.
In 1976 a Dimensions Salon in Leeds was opened right in the centre of the city opposite the Corn Exchange. This was followed by a salon in Pontefract in 1979 and in Wakefield in 1982. More salons followed in Sheffield, Castleford, Horsforth and Meanwood (Leeds).
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| The fun days were over and business plans and cash flows were very much part of the day to day life. With the opening of the Leeds Salon the partners decided to start sharing their skills learned on the many trips to academies such as Vidal Sassoon, Toni & Guy andAlan International in London. In September 1976 Dimensions started to offer ‘Advanced Cutting Classes’ in both Barnsley and Leeds, sending mail shots to all the salons in both areas. This attracted two quite different responses: lots of interest and places booked on evening courses that would eventually run four nights a week in both areas; in contrast some small minded salon owners simply tore the literature up into little pieces before wasting a postage stamp and posting them back. |
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In 1977 Bill met his beautiful wife Bernadette, also a hairdresser who shared his vision and enthusiasm for both business and hairdressing. The original gang of two became a gang of three. The trio worked happily and tirelessly to expand the business. Business took an interesting twist in 1978 when, following an exhibition at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London where Dimensions had a stand to promote its Advanced Cutting Courses, a large national distributor asked if Dimensions would be interested in demonstrating a new colouring product it was launching: a new natural product called ‘Henna’.
The hairdressing business from Barnsley was being asked to launch a product that would eventually go on to become a worldwide phenomenon. The highspot of this product promotion was a trip to Iceland demonstrating Henna to hairdressers in Reykjavik. A fee was negotiated of £400 plus expenses for Bill, Jon and Bernadette: it seemed like a small fortune. Little did the trio know how large companies worked – not least how they made sure they got value for money.
Where previously the three had worked on demonstrations together, with Bernadette doing all the hard work backstage, and the boys basking in all the glory on stage, now the team was split up for separate demonstrations in different locations on each of the four days in Iceland. |
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The boys were on their own! It was hard work but fun. Bill has a vague recollection that all three of them spent virtually the whole fee on some spectacular Icelandic woollen sweaters! Working on the launch of Henna had whetted appetites. In 1981 their own product company was formed: Bill, Jon and Bernadette travelled across Europe looking for products that would be of interest back home in the UK. The very first they found was the best. At an exhibition in Holland a coloured hairspray was being demonstrated using stencils to put stars, moon, lightning flashes and the likes onto both hair and skin - less than a month later Bill, Jon and Bernadette sold out their entire stock on the first day of a three day exhibition at Earls Court. They had to travel through the night to Belgium for more stock for the following two days. That sold out as well. That first diversion into products saw the trio travelling not only across Europe but also to America looking for products and at the same time seeing exactly what was happening across the world in hairdressing. |
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In 1983, with the demand for the Advanced Cutting Courses slowing down, as almost every local salon had learned the skills needed to offer clients cut & blow dries, yet another twist of fate occurred. The recession was biting and unemployment was at an all time high.
The Government announced a new programme of training for school leavers, The Youth Training Scheme. Dimensions opened its first hairdressing school (the night classes had been delivered in the salons) in Kirkgate, Wakefield with 60 students on the brand new Youth Training Scheme (YTS) funded by the Manpower Services Commission. That first contract was for £37,000, a small fortune compared to the amount the business had been charging for its part-time courses, where the most ever earned in a single year was around £10,000. The Wakefield school was quickly followed by similar contracts in Barnsley, Leeds and York. Between 1983 and 1988 more salons opened in Sheffield, Horsforth and York. The training side of the business was also growing; the two founders almost by default now started to take on separate roles and responsibilities. Bill had stopped cutting hair in the salon quite some time before Jon decided to ‘hang up his scissors’.
Jon took on all responsibility for the day to day running of the salons whilst Bill focused on training. In 1988 however, Jon decided to ‘sail off into the sunset’ initially to Spain for seven years before moving to Australia where he met his wife Lally. Today thecouple live in Freemantle, Western Australia. Bill had some serious decisions to make about the future of the business. The next five years were spent selling, franchising and not renewing leases on the majority of the salons that had been built up over 15 years. |
 This allowed the company to consolidate its position in Government-funded training. Also around this time Bill became a Director of the Hairdressing Training Board which went on to become the Hairdressing And Beauty Industry Authority (HABIA) where he is now the longest serving Director and still has an active involvement as Treasurer and on various committees. In 1995, Bill was asked to deliver Management Training Courses at the magnificent Goldwell Academy in London’s Mayfair. |
The lad from Barnsley was now sharing his hard hitting management theories and systems with hairdressers from all over the UK. Bill had professional recordings made of his lectures and philosophy: although never a number one hit, over 1,000 copies were sold to hairdressers across the UK. Despite the passage of time those management principles still apply today. By 1996 however, Bill was getting itchy feet again and he decided to open a 10,000 square foot hairdressing ‘Cash & Carry’, along with a hairdressing furniture showroom in a business park alongside the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield.
£250,000 later the luxurious cash & carry was completed with coffee shop, where hairdressers could call in for their stock and have a sit down and a coffee. Bill knew right from the beginning that he wouldn’t be able to compete on price with the large cash & carry groups which had much more buying power, but believed that most hairdressers would pay a ‘copper or two’ more and enjoy the ambiance of a nice place to visit. Bill got it completely wrong. He discovered that what was important to most salon owners was price, price and price! The Cash & Carry lasted three years before being closed. Bill now turned his energies back to training with a renewed enthusiasm and passion for the business, along with a new commercial acumen developed over the previous three years. This new found commercialism enabled the training side of the business to grow beyond recognition. |
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 From the beginning Bill took an active part industry’s trade association and this became much more serious when he became Worthy Master of the Guild of Hairdressers for the whole of the UK. This saw Bill representing the hairdressing industry at various events for 3 years, which included a proud moment when through the association with the Guild of Hairdressers, Bill & Bernadette were invited to the Queen’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. In 2005, Bill realised an opportunity that he had longed for ever since the training business had started. When Bill was 15 years old and knew he wanted to be a hairdresser and had attended evening courses at his local hairdressing college: he had always wanted Dimensions Training Solutions to be the same. In 2005 Dimensions began to offer courses to young people in year 11 at school.
By 2006 many schools had become seriously involved inHairdressing Academies in schools - if the school can give us a decent size classroom, we’ll invest the money from profits and turn the classroom into a fantastic commercial looking hairdressing salon.”
From very small numbers Dimensions was soon working with over 600 young people in years 9, 10 and 11 in around 50 schools across Yorkshire. Four years later Dimensions now has 6 Hairdressing Academies in schools - in Barnsley, Batley, Wakefield, Leeds and Northallerton and plans to open another 10 in the near future. In addition to these, the company has City Centre HairdressingAcademies in Barnsley, Sheffield, Wakefield, Leeds and Beauty Academies, a new venture for the business, in Barnsley and Northallerton with additional ones planned in the near future. |
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Dimensions today is truly a family affair with Bill and Bernadette being joined in the business by Tina Shaw, their Daughter, a Director of the Company who also qualified as a hairdresser in the early 1990s. Tina is now responsible for the day to day running of the original salon in Peel St Arcade in Barnsley and is now assisted by her Daughter Brittany who is the third generation to work in the family business and is a product of the Dimensions Training Academy. The group Director of Finance (and Bill’s PA) Patricia Stevenson is Bernadette’s Sister and Carl, Bill and Bernadette’s Son, also a hairdresser, has three salons in the Wakefield area and works on a consultancy basis carrying out demonstrations for the training division.
When not thinking about business - those who know Bill well would say “it just doesn’t happen” - Bill has a passion for football, and in particular Barnsley Football Club. One of Bill’s proudest moments was seeing the corner stand at Oakwell become ‘The Dimensions Stand’ (See picture below) emblazoned with the company’s logo and the slogan ‘Football and Fashion are always a Passion at Dimensions’.
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