1 mins
WELCOME
HAIR: ERROL DOUGLAS MBE AT ERROL DOUGLAS, LONDON
MAKE-UP: PABS-ARTIST
FASHION: JESSICA JADE HUNTER
PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID MANNAH
Adaptability and versatility are two traits that will see you well in this industry. HOB and Brooks & Brooks are two heavyweights that have shown their flexibility over the years. HOB celebrated their 40th anniversary in May and it was a treat to interview Akin, Clive and Paul and pick their brains on what makes a salon chain successful and how they’ve adapted the business through turbulent eras. Similarly Brooks & Brooks has always moved with the times – and now it's moving locations too. Ahead of the opening of their new five-storey home in Covent Garden, we got the low down from Jamie Brooks on moving to a new premises and what they’ve learnt about inheriting an existing salon team.
We’re as transfixed by the trends we see on TikTok as much as it seems everyone else is – but as with everything on social, it pays to look closer and to judge what you see with a discerning eye. After seeing some dramatic transformations (like blunt clipper cuts on mid-length hair) we asked the experts how they really use clippers in hairdressing in our feature Clip it Real Good on page 35. Proving their versatility, our World of Possibilities feature on page 37 shows how you can use extensions on a range of clients – they’re categorically not just for adding length.
As is usual for HJ, we’ve got a mix of well-known names (name drop alert: Angelo Seminara, Nick Irwin, Suzie McGill and Errol Douglas to name a few…) but we're all about heroing the hairdressers and business owners who don’t have as big a platform (yet). We chatted to Mary Al-Khudri, founder of the Hijab Salon Academy about inclusivity for headscarf wearers in salons, and we caught up with Katie Mulcahy on the opening of her new space Paint & Powder, which she describes as ‘the salon of my dreams’. It’s cheesy, but we love it when dreams come true!