By Oluatoyin Alleyne
When Joan Ward, publisher of the popular Shabeau magazine, says that someone is her mentor you know that person has to be excellent at what they do.
The name Pamela Dillon is a well known one in Guyana and further afield and as such it came as no surprise that Ward not only indicated to Dillon that she was her mentor but went a step further and gave her a trailblazer award. This was done on April 19 in Barbados and Dillon can’t seem to stop smiling when she talks about it and she modestly said that she thought the gesture by Ward was very “thoughtful.”
Dillon has come a far way from the days of just having a small table in salons where she designed nails and creating what she herself describes as a “disaster” for her very first pageant.
But today those are just things of the past as she has moved to owning her own hair and nail salon coupled with a cosmetology school and creating what is known as Simpli Royal, an organisation that has been behind one of the most popular pageants in Guyana.
There are about 20 pageants in this country every year, but the Miss Guyana Talented Teen, is a cut above the rest and it has seen some eight years of success due mainly to the fact that Dillon has been the driving force behind it. 
The pageant is not just about having a couple of teenagers strut their stuff on a stage and crowning one at the end of it all. It is months of intense training of these little ladies so that the saying that each of them leaves as a winner at the end of it all is true. Dillon ensures that she instils social and moral values in her beauties and each of them would have become a more rounded individual when they would have completed the pageant process.
The Scene caught up with the woman with plenty to say recently. It was in 1986 after years in the US that Dillon returned to Guyana following some personal problems. It is a move she has not regretted, as according to her, she was responsible for opening the first nail salon in Guyana. She was also instrumental in forming the National Beauticians Network, an organisation which she said is now on a little sabbatical, but which over the years has held a few events in that area to get the public more attuned.
On her return to Guyana, Dillon said she had a little savings and she found that Guyanese women were receptive to what she had to offer as they wanted to be in fashion. It was while she was doing her thing at Nalini’s Salon in New Market Street that both she and the owner realised that she had outgrown the salon.
“One day she [the owner] just came to me and said ‘Pam you know you have outgrown this place’ and I said ‘I know.’ Because she closed at 4 pm but I would have clients and worked into the nights, luckily for me she lived above the salon.” She is very grateful to that woman who not only suggested she get her own place but assisted her in securing her first place to rent. And it was then Fantasy Nails was born. And even though she would like to take credit for the catchy name, Dillon admits that she stole the name from a Chinese store in New Jersey, USA. But she continues that the name was very apt for her vision which was to create very beautiful nails, “something like a fantasy.”
Her first location is very forgettable. She really made her mark at the Quamina Street location where she was until as recent as 2006. She had brief stints with the salon at Light Street and Norton Street and the salon was closed for a while until a week ago when she re-opened at Aubrey Barker Street, South Ruimveldt. “I thought that was it when it was closed as I felt somewhat burnt out but I guess when it is in your blood it is in your blood. I had my things packed away and so it was just to get them out and start again.”
She hopes that this is for the long haul again and she is keen on receiving the support of the people in South Ruimveldt and its surrounding locations and also that some of her old clients would return. As before also operating out of the salon is a cosmetology school.
By accident
It is hard to believe Dillon when she says that she got involved in pageantry by accident, after all her name is synonymous with the word in the local arena. She said that in the beauty business one always meets beauty queens and contestants and at one point she was even asked to sponsor a delegate in a pageant. Dillon said over the years she detected young ladies who were very unprepared for what they were about to venture into. But that did not give her the push to become involved. It only after she had attended show in Trinidad where she met Lester Rousseau, a Trinidadian, who suggested that she become involved in the Miss Guyana Universe pageant.
Her reaction to the suggestion was that he had to be mad. But he came to Guyana and assisted her to come up with the concept of Simpli Royal. While working together he also assisted her beautician’s network to host its trade show at the Ocean View International Hotel and it was then the idea of Miss Vision Perfection came into existence.
The final result Dillon admitted was a “disaster.” The pageant was almost without an audience and when the first delegate was about to perform her talent piece there was a power failure. “Right there and then I said to myself never again will I try pageants,” Dillon said with a laugh. She has since eaten her words.
After the embarrassment wore off she felt that she should give it another try but admitted to herself that she did not have the experience to try something like the Miss Guyana Universe or World. She was aware of a scholarship pageant in the US named the Hal Jackson Talented Teen Pageant and she liked the concept.
And so the Miss Guyana Talented Teen was born. The pageant sees months of training for the girls including in social graces and a cotillion ball is held before every pageant where the girls get to showcase some of their new skills, including dancing. This year pageant will be held in December because of the upcoming Carifesta celebrations and Dillon is looking forward to her 10th anniversary next year. Dillon said the experience has been very rewarding and she is happy that she has stuck with it as she has made beautiful friends if not daughters, referring to her contestants. She plans to continue with the pageant in many years to come.
And she is not one to shy away from issues, admitting that some years Simpli Royal fell short with the prizes promised, but fortunately for her she has had good relations with the teenagers. She is a bit disappointed that the business community does not offer more support of the pageant, but she admitted that it could because of fatigue because of the many pageants in the country. She is supportive of the idea that a regulatory body should be formed for pageants but says it must be set up in a proper manner.
Ten years on
It is not just nails, hair, make-up and pageants, Dillon works with troubled children at one of the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security homes and she finds it very challenging but rewarding. Dillon is married with a 16-year-old son and she says her husband has been very instrumental in her achievements. “When I go home and I am dogged out he is the one who says to put my feet up and makes me a cup of tea. I am lucky to have a husband who is not very demanding but rather is very supportive,” Dillon said with an easy smile.
In another ten years she hopes to retire and become a consultant and probably she will have a line of cosmetics if all goes well. But for now she will focus on bettering her efforts at pageantry and making her salon the best.
