How spirited Danai Demetriou became a rebel hairdresser
Published: 18 March 2010
DANAI Demetriou, who died on February 22 following a long illness, was a vivacious hairdresser and one of the first of her Greek Cypriot community to settle in Camden in the 1950s.
The daughter of farmers in a small village in Cyprus, she was sent to London to live with her sisters after refusing her parents’ wishes that she become a dressmaker.
Against the wishes of her family, Danai trained as a hairdresser in secret, and got a job in a West End salon. She later set up her own business in Montpelier Grove, where she lived with her husband and son, Mario.
Mario recalled her “experimental” phase in the 1980s. He said: “She would pick me up from Torriano Junior School and I’d see her standing waiting at the gates with streaks of green or blue in her hair. I remember being totally gob-smacked.”
A woman who “always knew her own mind”, Danai met her husband, a shoemaker – nicknamed “Farokh” – at a Greek wedding, where she was immediately warned to steer clear. But refusing to be told what to do, Danai married him regardless and they spent 40 happy years together in Kentish Town, until his death five years ago.
Described as “full of life” and “generous of spirit”, Danai would devote her time to visiting the Charlie Ratchford Resource Centre, where she would cut all the elderly ladies’ hair for free. She also loved jogging on Hampstead Heath.
Mario said: “She was just a woman with a simple dream of being a hairdresser. But she made a big difference to people’s lives with her warmth and infectious spirit.”
He described how, as a fanatical Liverpool FC supporter, just weeks before her death she could be heard screaming from her bed if her team were losing.
She is survived by Mario, daughter-in-law Angie, and her two granddaughters, Maya and her little “Smiler” Gabriela.
JOSIE HINTON