While training at the police academy, not once did Detective Senior Sergeant Leemara Fairgrieve need to wrangle an ironing board or shine a shoe.

“I never ironed a shirt and never had to polish my boots because I would trim everyone’s hair for the parade on Monday morning,” Fairgrieve recalls. 

Every weekend, she and her fellow recruits would watch The Simpsons while Fairgrieve, a former hairdresser, established a makeshift salon. 

She may have traded in her clippers for a gun and a taser. But in switching from hairdressing to policing, Fairgrieve transferred many of her talents. 

“Being able to talk to people – I mean, every hairdresser definitely needs to be able to do that,” she says. 

“You build trust really quickly and you adapt to different personalities… [and] if you’re not listening properly, it’s going to come back and haunt you. That was – and still is – a huge part of who I am and how I work.”

Speaking on FW’s Too Much podcast which, in season three, features women who’ve made major career pivots, Victoria Police’s Fairgrieve shares how after eight years of cutting hair, she was seeking a new challenge.

“I was starting to get a bit bored,” she says. “I had a couple of friends who were in the police force and I used to love listening to their stories… and I wanted to do something where I felt like I had some sort of purpose – [something] really meaningful.” 

Fairgrieve’s family and friends knew she could talk herself out of “really bad situations” and were supportive of the move – which started with 20 weeks at the police academy. 

“We were a real mixed group and [we found] really quick friendship,” says Fairgrieve of her squad. She describes her training as “accelerated learning, well out of my comfort zone, but amazing”. However, it didn’t pass without the odd moment of doubt.

“One time, we were doing a prac and the instructor was screaming and swearing at me,” says Fairgrieve. “I remember getting the nervous giggles [and thinking], is this for real? And then later on thinking, people are actually going to talk to me like that and I’m not going to be liked. And that was really hard, for a people pleaser.” 

“It’s challenged me and pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it’s also given me that confidence to not listen to my own self-doubt or negativity.”

Too Much asks women to share how they’ve succeeded through overcoming – or embracing – workplace stereotypes. Throughout the series, women have spoken about being made to feel “too driven”, “too emotional” and “too humble”. Fairgrieve revealed that in her professional life, she’s been “too accommodating”.

“I’ll find myself in places and go, ‘How did I even end up here?’” she says, adding that she’s been surprised by some of the roles she’s been asked to step into. “[But I don’t want] to disappoint. If someone asks, ‘are you able to help out?’ … saying yes is a no brainer.”

This trait has seen Fairgrieve work a vast array of areas over her 23 years with Victoria Police, from family violence and sexual offences teams to highway patrol and regional crime investigation. In recent years, inspired by the personal struggle of a family member, she’s refocused her policing on dismantling commercial-sized drug syndicates. 

While Fairgrieve has to be careful about how much she takes on – and conscious of avoiding burnout – she says that accepting opportunities has been key to her success. 

“It’s given me the ability to end up where I am and to reach the goals that I wanted,” she explains. “It’s challenged me and pushed me out of my comfort zone, but it’s also given me that confidence to not listen to my own self-doubt or negativity. 

“It’s given me more self-confidence and pride in the awareness of, I can do things. I can rise to those challenges and learn new skills.” 

The skills she honed while hairdressing have also served her well. Now at the helm of a major drug squad, she listens carefully to every person she encounters – regardless of which side of the law they land.    

“I’m genuinely interested in people and how they work and what makes them do things… and just trying to learn from them every step of the way,” she says.

At times, criminal offenders have gone as far as thanking Fairgrieve for the manner in which she’s charged them.

“And you hope that this might help the next time, if they’re charged [again]. That they speak respectfully to the next police [officer] and don’t get angry,” she says. “If you treat everyone with respect and professionalism, it helps others along the way.” 

In helping other women make their switch from one career to another, Fairgrieve has this advice: “Regret is an awful feeling. If you give it a go and decide that it’s not for you, that’s okay. I think that’s a better feeling than having regret.”