PHOTO: PAUL McCREDIE – The front of the former chocolate factory, now home to Derek Elvy. The exterior is painted in Dulux Kaikoura.
For most of us, a terminal illness might cause us to retreat to what’s familiar and comforting. But award-winning Wellington hairdresser Derek Elvy was having none of that.
A terminal spinal cancer diagnosis in late 2016 was the push he needed to step away from the successful business he started 30 years ago and relocate to the Wairarapa.
Elvy, founder of leading salon Buoy and seven times NZ Hairdresser of the Year, says it was a move he had been considering for some time. “I really wanted to get out of the city and have a project to focus on,” he says.
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