A Chester hair and make-up stylist who worked with U2 and Hollywood stars says she\u2019s happier now running a calm, home-based salon.
\nHelene Dean once travelled the world with U2 , even being flown to Ireland by frontman Bono, and has worked with stars including Cillian Murphy, Mickey Rourke and Kevin Costner.
\nShe has also styled music icons like Annie Lennox and Sting while Will Young once sang to her baby bump during pregnancy.
\nBut the mum-of-one has swapped celebrity life on the road for a quieter pace at her new, purpose-built garden salon installed by Rubicon Garden Rooms.
\nHelene, 57, who has been a hairdresser for 41 years, said: \u201cThanks to Rubicon, I literally work from home, from my back garden and it is honestly the best thing I ever did.
\n\u201cI have always either worked freelance, travelling out, or travelling to a salon.
\n\u201cSo now, having the salon in my back garden is the most convenient thing I ever did.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s just walking into my garden and there\u2019s my clients.
\n\u201cAnother real plus is because it is a small space and not a big salon atmosphere, my clients feel it is a lot more intimate and a lot more personal.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re like friends now really, and that is brilliant, it doesn\u2019t feel like going to work at all.
\n\u201cA lot of people really like coming into that kind of space which is a bit smaller and informal, so I think having the salon here has encouraged more people to the business.\u201d
\nHelene said she was thrilled by the salon built by family-run Rubicon Garden Rooms, based at Penyffordd on the Cheshire\/North Wales border.
\nShe said: \u201cThe building Rubicon Garden Rooms have provided is the best thing ever.
\n\u201cEveryone comments on it, absolutely everybody, and everybody compliments it.
\n\u201cI had it installed because I didn\u2019t want to go and rent something, which really is dead money, I wanted something of my own, which is mine.
\n\u201cIt is the most cost-effective option in the long run and convenient and my customers absolutely love it.
\n\u201cI have been doing a lot of my customers for about five to 10 years and they love the atmosphere, the small space, they feel as though it is a very personal touch.
\n\u201cI found Rubicon\u2019s work from the word go nothing less than A1, the professionalism was brilliant and I felt I could contact them any time.
\n\u201cThey were great to work with, a lot of fun, and the aftersales care is really great as well.
\n\u201cHaving the salon so close just means less stress, and financially it is better because I am not travelling, I am not using a car, not having to commute.\u201d
\nRob Lyon, sales and marketing manager at Rubicon Garden Rooms, said: \u201cHelene has had an amazing career, working with some of the most famous people in the world, and we are delighted to help her in the next stage of her career by providing this salon.
\n\u201cIt has been brilliant to see how her business has developed through having her own space at her home.
\n\u201cIt has made a big difference to her and her clients and is taking the stress away from the daily commute to and from work.
\n\u201cHelene\u2019s success demonstrates how our buildings can support businesses of all sizes.\u201d
\nHelene trained to be a hairdresser in Chester and moved to London when she was 21.
\nOne of her first jobs was working on 1990s TV soap Eldorado out in Spain for a year and returning to London she then became in demand within the music industry.
\nShe said: \u201cI was working with record companies on music videos and photoshoots for bands.
\n\u201cU2 asked me to go on tour with them for a year. I got to know them all very well, they are lovely, really good people.
\n\u201cBono is great, really funny, really generous.
\n\u201cI travelled on the plane with them, I was part of the team, they classed me as management because I was with them all the time and when they got off the plane, going to a hotel, they had to look good because there was Press everywhere.
\n\u201cThey are great memories, staying at the best hotels in the world and seeing the world for free and being paid.
\n\u201cThe tour was a full year though we would come back every three months for a week off.
\n\u201cBono used to fly me over to Ireland to do his hair.
\n\u201cI then stopped touring because I wanted to be closer to home and that was when I started working with loads of actors.
\n\u201cThere was Colin Firth, Cillian Murphy, James Nesbitt, loads really – that\u2019s what happens, one leads to another all the time, through word of mouth really.
\n\u201cMost of that work was for film junkets where basically you go to a hotel, say The Dorchester, and all the TV crews and all the radio crews set up in different rooms and the actors go from room to room talking about their latest movie.
\n\u201cI then moved back to Chester but going back and forward to London for work because I had my daughter and she was born in 2002.
\n\u201cI did five days with Mickey Rourke. He was really lovely, he was doing a movie and doing photoshoots for a Press trip and I went with him to The Jonathan Ross Show as his make-up artist.\u201d
\nHelene was also on hand when Will Young became a household name after winning TV talent contest Pop Idol.
\nShe said: \u201cWhen \u201cI was pregnant then and he used to sing to my tummy, he sang to my tummy when we were at Buckingham Palace for a big gig.
\n\u201cAnd that was when I got friendly with Annie Lennox because she was there as well, and that was when I started doing her make-up whenever she was in London.\u201d<\/p>\n