In safe hands with Tynan
By Pauline Stewart.
YOUphoria is a delightful set of rooms off to the side of MINT Hair Salon in Coghill Street, Whitianga.
It’s a new business offering beauty therapy and beauty treatments along with all those maintenance matters that women and girls organise to look and feel their best. It feels like a boutique retreat when you enter.
Tynan May is the owner and manager of this new business. She is an attractive, warm and engaging young woman with some impressive qualifications and a very positive commitment to bring quality of service and affirming outcomes for all her clients.
Tynan opened her business just a short while ago and is quite new to Whitianga.
However, she is not new to the beauty industry.
“I started Beauty School at the age of 18 and earned my International Diploma in BeautyTherapy, plus my New Zealand Diploma and the NZ Certificate in Beauty Therapy.
While Tynan was still studying, she became a finalist for the NZ Association of Beauty and as a result, was runner up Student of the Year in 2020 for NZ Beauty Professional Association.
“This is my passion,” says Tynan. “I have always known I wanted to do this since I was very little. It’s important to me to keep upskilling, doing more study and practical learning. I feel good that I have just completed a First Aid certificate and an infection control course and the experience I gained in Whangerei and working in Northland .”
Tynan was fortunate enough to get a job working at an award-winning salon at Coopers Beach. For her, it was an invitation into that industry. “That job taught me how to run a good business and to do the best treatment possible for all my clients,” says Tynan. “I learned how to be diligent with safety and health measures particularly as our industry is not regulated like hair salons are. No one comes to inspect the quality of the treatments or the products you use or how you use them. That impacted me – the fact that it is the personal responsibility of every beauty therapist to be their own best practice managers.”
Tynan came to Whitianga to join her partner and knowing that beauty was her vocation, she worked for a time in beauty therapy salon, but decided to go out on her own and use the skills and knowledge she had learned and practised in Auckland and that alighted with her own values.
“We found this spot available for lease right next to Mint. My parents came down from Northland and our families all helped with cleaning the building and setting things up. My partner, Luke is very practical. I have been buying bits and pieces for my own beauty salon for a long time. It’s been a bit of a struggle getting this altogether and really, in the beginning, just having the courage to go ahead with it. I have had an amazing amount of support from locals and clients, and it feels so good when people rebook.”
YOUphoria currently offers the entire range of eyebrow treatment including styling, plus pedicures and manicures (everything nails need), and waxing.
“I am essentially dealing with a person’s skin,” says Tynan. “I want to make or keep it beautiful and pleasing to the client. Taking into account their particular type of skin is important and so are medications that might have affected their skin and thus the treatment and therapy I provide.
I get a lot of satisfaction out of my work; helping people gain confidence in their own beauty.
When you come to YOUphoria, you are in safe hands with me.”
Tynan commented on how she was settling into a new town. “My family live in Northland, but I’ve made quite a few friends. We have dogs; my dogs find friends and then I make friends with those people. I joined the Business Association just last week, so I will meet people there and it will help me network. Tynan May’s partner is Luke Courtenay at PC electrical.
Email: youphoria.tynan@gmail.com
Caption: Tynan May at YOUphoria ready for her clients