The name A Nu U describes the transformation, which clients can benefit from while visiting the beautiful beauty salon in Clonee, Co Dublin and the change in owner Edel Giblin’s life. The popular and thriving business is 15 years in business in December 2020. Edel said she always had a love and passion for the beauty industry, but she felt society sadly looked down unjustly on people in the sector. She decided to instead focus on travel and tourism -and she obtained a diploma and subsequently worked in that area for 15 years.

However, Edel was very eager for a change and she had a huge desire to work in an area she found more personally fulfilling and rewarding. She said there were only so many powder white, sandy beaches and turquoise oceans that she could be impressed by and her talents and ability to organise and show off her creative flair were not being used effectively. Edel said working in the beauty industry was her dream and she stood out very early on in college days for possessing a natural flair for working in the sector. She said she was unwittingly plunged into this new and exciting world.

Edel also insisted that while she prospered in the industry later on in life, maybe it was just the right time and the universe’s way of having her back. She recalls owning a wax pot and tinting products when she was on 16 and despite having no qualifications her friends trusted her due to her natural confidence and flair.

It was a number of years later though that she followed her heart and gained experience in an industry where she is truly happy and content. The decision was spurred on by a dreadful time in Edel’s personal life when her husband John was left in a coma battling with a head injury after a bicycle accident. That horrendous incident occurred in May 2001, and while there were many challenges and difficulties, it made her look at the world differently and she decided to take the plunge. Edel ditched her well-paid and familiar job, sold her car and claimed social welfare benefits for the first time ever. The determined Dubliner started studying beauty therapy in Coogan Bergin Wicklow Street and remarkably she took this new direction while John remained in hospital. Edel said she studied like her life depended on it and she worked diligently graduating in September 2003 with an Honours Cidesco/Cibtac diploma. She insisted even as she began her studies to pursue working in the industry she had aspirations of one day owning her own beauty salon firmly in her head.

Edel worked in a salon straight from college and gained experience and not long afterwards, in December 2005 the dream became a reality and A Nu U was born. She said the name was chosen with two very special people in mind. The first person was her husband John, who was then and still is today a new man – a by-product of what one becomes after suffering a brain injury. The second big influence on Edel was her customers who she said often remarked when they were leaving the treatment room, ‘Edel, this is the new me’.

The beauty salon owner said her clients could therefore take some credit for being her inspiration to allow her and the wonderful team at A Nu U to create this space. Edel has insisted it is a place where people can be both vulnerable and pampered in an utterly friendly, professional and luxurious environment leaving them feeling like A Nu U (A new you).