Bishop Auckland salon in Echo’s best hairdresser top ten
Kendra Louise Dawson, 44, from Willington, is the salon owner of HairHaus in Bishop Auckland, and says it’s “been great” to be nominated for the award.
In 2013, alongside another member of the salon team, Kendra took over the hairdresser’s, and just after the COVID pandemic, she became the sole owner.
She has spent pretty much her whole career at the salon and more than half her life there.
The salon was opened in June 2001 by Mark and Tamsie McHale, and Kendra joined the team in November of the same year.
But, despite the good times at the shop, tragedy struck in 2013.
Mr and Mrs McHale died in a road traffic accident when their Audi A5 was involved in a crash with a lorry on the M62 near Bradford, in West Yorkshire, as they were driving to Manchester Airport.
The salon owner, 46, and his 43-year-old wife, deputy headteacher of Durham Gilesgate Primary School, in Durham City, had been heading off for their holiday in Cuba, where they would have celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary.
Speaking about how she began her career in hairdressing, Ms Dawson said: “I wasn’t the typical hairdresser who always wanted to be one at 19. I was doing friends’ hair and thought if I learnt to cut hair, I might be able to do this, and then I went to college and loved it, and it went from there.
“It has been great to be nominated. I love anything like this, and it’s really nice to see the support from clients as they are what keep us going and keep the doors open, so it’s great to see they would vote for us too.”
There are now 17 girls who all work there and are employed, apart from one self-employed stylist and one self-employed beauty.
She added: “I just want to say a big thank you to all clients who have nominated us. We are all really grateful, as we have great loyal clients.”
The full list of nominees to be crowned best hairdresser can be found here.
To vote, you simply need to cut out a coupon printed in The Northern Echo this week and next.
You have until Wednesday, March 4, to vote for your favourite and return it to: The Northern Echo Best Hairdresser 2026, Local iQ House, 1 Dalston Road, Carlisle, CA2 5NP, before March 4.
Votes will be counted shortly after voting closes.
In the meantime, weβll be highlighting one of the salons in our top ten each day to help you decide which one to vote for.