Salon owner thanks crisis team for help with mental health issues

Sammy Brown, who runs the Fusion Hair and Beauty Salon in Bank Street, Galashiels, says she has turned her life around, and the salon has even been shortlisted in a national competition, despite only opening in March this year.

At the start of the year, with the country plunged into a second lockdown, Sammy knew something had to change.

She said: “I had just quit my full time job as a carer due to extremely stressful working conditions, lack of staff to cover any holidays, and I was basically working myself into the ground which was having an adverse effect on my already deteriorating mental health, which I have struggled with for years.

“Despite this, in March, I decided to take the plunge and open my own salon.

“In the process of this huge, mammoth task ahead of me and all the extra added stress and ever-changing daily conditions which we were under due to Covid, I was seen by the crisis team at the Borders General Hospital who were a godsend.

"I had become very depressed again and we went through all the motions and it was a huge relief to have finally been diagnosed with EUPD, or borderline personality disorder.

“This affects me majorly every day.”

Despite all these troubles, her salon is now thriving, and to her eternal pride, Sammy has been shortlisted for the best hair extension specialist of the year in the UK Hair and Beauty Awards 2022.

And now Sammy wants to give something back to the NHS.

She said: “I would like to say thanks to the crisis team at the hospital for giving me the help and support I needed to get to this point in my life. Without them I wouldn’t be here to tell this story."

She added: “My goal for the future is to work with the local care system and give back a little to help patients who may be undergoing cancer treatments by offering hair replacement systems, which I’m hoping to branch into. As a sufferer of BPD, I know all too well how it is to feel horrible about yourself and I am very passionate about making people look and feel good.”