ONLY two-and-a-half years after drawing on her traumatic experience of hair loss to start a new business, Simone Thomas is becoming a public figure.

She won several awards, opened a new hair and beauty salon and received national exposure on Channel Four.

And the former model is set to speak before thousands of dele-gates at Professional Beauty 2015 Excel in London later this month.

“I was at the motorway services and two people asked if I was the lady off the TV,” she said.

“Six people ended up joining the conversation.”

The Simone Thomas Salon opened in Poole Road, West-bourne, last December.

It is home to a hair and beauty salon as well as providing wigs and treatments for men and women experiencing hair loss.

As well as planning more salons, she has launched Wigs by Simone, a website selling wigs, headwear and accessories.

“The last few months, it’s been seven days a week, 15-hour days,” she said.

The business is building on the success of her previous salon, MWAH (Make-Up, Wigs and Hair).

Simone, 33, was born in Bournemouth and went to Moyles Court School in Ringwood.

After her father’s death, she was sent to boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire.

As a small child, she would carry around a briefcase full of papers.

“I always knew I wanted to do my own thing at some point.

“I didn’t know what, but I knew I didn’t want to be working 9-5, being bossed and reported on,” she said.

She was spotted by a modelling agency at 16 and eventually modelled for the likes of Nuts and Loaded.

But aged 21 and doing a high-powered job for Verizon, she was diagnosed with cancer.

“Looks were key in that kind of industry. I had cervical cancer and from treatment I lost the first part of my hair,” she said.

When it started to grow back, some unsuitable hair extensions damaged it, and alopecia led to her losing her hair again. Simone began the learning and training that would inspire her new business.

“I did extensive research for seven or eight years, read online journals about medication,” she said.

She operated a mobile hair and make-up service for brides in London before setting up in Bournemouth.

The key was to welcome clients to a place where they could try wigs which would fit comfortably and make them feel good. Many customers have had cancer, and Simone also works with Lewis-Manning Hospice.

She said there comes a key moment in a fitting when she can tell a woman has found the right wig.

“A woman will start fiddling with it and you will know, because they start to sit up,” she said.

“One lady from Paris comes in every three months for her system. I have some clients from America and from Germany.”

Simone recently appointed two new directors to the business – Danny Smith as director of hair loss and Sharon Bryant, Simone’s friend of 17 years, as director of hair loss with Hair Loss Bournemouth.

She said the key to hiring staff was to find people with life experience.

“We do get people coming in through the doors that are in tears and all they want is a hug,” she said.

“I lost both my parents and a lot of people coming in are the age my mum and dad would have been.

“I do cry, especially when you get children, teenagers or young women in their 20s – that’s hard. I’ve lost a few clients but touch wood we’ve kept a lot more than we’ve lost.”

Sound advice on Body Shockers

SIMONE Thomas’s appearance on Channel Four’s Body Shockers saw her working with a 28-year-old woman, Kellie, who had suffered hair loss for a decade.

Kellie Holloway’s hair had been thinning since she was 15.

Clinical treatments had failed to help, although she eventually learned that a long succession of hair products and colours could have been behind the problem.

Simone suggested treating her scalp with Nioxin dermabrasion and using a hair ‘volumizer’ system. “I had been to loads of consultations for my hair loss but never truly felt that they understood me,” said Kellie.

“That was totally different with Simone. Knowing she had suffered from hair loss herself, I could instantly relate to her and trusted her.

“We spoke for more than an hour and I finally got the answers I had been wanting for 10 years.”

She said she had begun seeing results from the treatment.