One last snip for beloved Mallow salon

After over 40 years of cuts, blow-dries and curls, a popular Cork hair salon is to close its doors.

Tomorrow, Friday, Margaret Hickey of Godiva’s Hair Salon in Mallow will hang up her scissors after 4 decades of trading beside the Clock House on Bridge Street.

Margaret trained as a hairdresser in her teenage years and by the time she was 24, she was renting her own premises. 2 years later, in 1980, Margaret bought the shop at 31 Bridge Street, which became her new hair salon - Godiva's.

The shop wasn’t open long when it was hit by the bad flooding in 1980. However, that did nothing to dampen spirits and, taking it all in her stride, Margaret went about making crucial changes such as raising the floor 6 inches and moving all the electrics up about 3 feet, in case of further floods.

Godiva’s was really taking off in the early 1980s and amongst the staff was Geraldine, Margaret’s younger sister, who started there after school at 13 years of age. She had to stand on a Babycham crate to be tall enough to wash hair. Geraldine left school the following year to work there full-time at the age of 14 and did so until she got married.

Thriving into the ‘90s with 5 full-time staff and a fully revamped salon, Margaret decided to open The Barber Shop up the side lane between them and the Clock House, which was connected inside to Godiva's. The Barber Shop was a roaring success for the better part of 2 decades and there was hardly a man in Mallow who hadn’t got their hair cut by the girls in Godiva's.

In 42 years, Margaret rarely missed a day’s work. In recent years, the salon has been open 3 days a week, Thursday to Saturday, with Margaret continuing to see clients with the aid of her mother Maureen Barrett. Maureen raised Margaret, Geraldine and their brother John with her husband Joe just around the corner from the salon on St Joseph’s Road, where The Gallery now sits.

Margaret has been styling the hair of some of her regulars for well over 30 years and has watched and listened to them get married, have children and grandchildren, all with a smile on her face and warm word to say about everyone.

Described as a “staple” and an “institution” in Mallow by her sister Geraldine, Godiva’s will be greatly missed but never forgotten by countless customers and staff for over 4 decades.