La Meche - Observatory - Serving your Community

Jan 06, 2009 at 08:41 AM

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La Meche

Neil Holland

The painting hits you between the eyes: bold, bright and wonderfully weird it proudly takes up nearly a whole wall in La Méche's entrance.

And then you meet the owner: Neil Holland, bubbly, bright and ready to please you...

Neil was the first tenant in The Ridge centre in Kloof Street. "I opened the doors of La Méche nearly nine years ago when the centre had just a cafe and beautician here - and I've never looked back," Neil says. "I feel at home here. Most of my clients live in and around the suburb."

And he knows the area well: he was born in Yeoville and now lives comfortably in Kensington.

"I left town in the late seventies to do the compulsary army thing, but was back in 1980 to train and qualify as a hairdresser in Dunkeld." Then followed 4 years in different salons throughout Jo'burg - the last at Dave and Johan in Eastgate.

"By then I was ready to do my own thing - and La Méche was born."

Neil's painting

And where does the name come from? Neil offers a sherry. "La Méche means 'a lock of hair' in French - but I believe the accent on the e is wrong ," he laughs.

And the painting? "One of my clients did it for me years ago when she was still an art student." It is obvious that Neil shares a special bond with all his clients. "They become my family," Neil says proudly.

He has a brother ten years his senior and shares his loft with his 80-year-old mother. "But no pets," he laughs. "My clients are my pets..."