Tom Smith @tomsmithhd

It’s Time To Go Blonde

IT’S TIME FOR A BLONDE SUMMER!

(L) Stella Shipton, “Angel Dream Hair”, 2022, via @stellashiptonhair

(R) Sam Mackmin, “Major Beachy Vibes”, 2022, via @palmandwave.hair

Lakme K.Blonde Compact Powder Bleaching Creme Lakme K.Blonde Toner - Pearl

Pryzme Viola Violet Toning Oil

evo Bottle Blonde Clay Lightener Vanessa Tate, 2022, via @snowhite_trash and @cutandrunhair Frankie Inv, “Hairline Summer Brights”, 2022, via @frankie_inv Vanessa Koeb, “Soft Texture”, 2022, via @vanessakoeb @the.hairsalon

Billi Currie

SALON SPOTLIGHT

What’s the story behind Billi Currie?

We opened in 2007 with a team of 5 we now have 22. Our salon brand is based on quality above quantity. Our aim is to deliver excellent work in an excellent space, our team are trained to the highest level they consult really thorough and create bespoke looks for each guest.

Do you remember what prompted you to open your own salon?

Billi the founder wanted his own salon to create a salon that had a strong team as well as championing the individual. A high end salon that has the feel and vibe of a photo studio.

How did you meet your partner Billi?

Billi and Debbie met when they both trained and became members of the art team at Vidal Sassoon, Billi was a creative director in the salons as well as heading up the vs session team, Debbie was creative director of the VS UK Academy.

Training is a basic pillar of your salon. What is the most important aspect of retraining? Do you agree with the motto “renew or die” in this regard?

We have training programs, mentoring programs all in-house. Our team can develop their skills to be where they want to be in this fantastic industry. Our team are appraised every year in their appraisal they look at what they have achieved the year before and what their goals are for the coming year, we then work out a plan to help them work to their goals. We always want to make opportunities, our approach as directors is to really work with the individual with always having a very strong ethos of team work. We mentor all the way and help make their dreams come true, always encouraging them to work hard and learn from our experience & knowledge. We train regularly together as a team once a month. In business we understand we cannot stand still its important to keep moving forward, there is not an end point, we are consistently planning, developing and working to the next goal, its very exciting!

Yourself and Billi are an inspiration for future generations of hairdressers, so what three tips could you give them to inspire them to create and innovate?

Thank you for that generous compliment. Master your craft, really study it first, experiment and think outside the box when working on creative projects, often the things that do not work will give you inspiration for something that will.

You have a strong link with fashion trends. Do you believe hair and fashion knit quite tightly together?

Absolutely, our director Billi has worked in the fashion world on sessions & shows for many years all the team understand that it is about a total look not just the hair. We look at each seasons fashion shows so we know the current trends and share this with our guests & followers on Instagram.

What has been the highlight of your journey with Billi Currie so far?

Creating a united team and allowing each member to be an individual. We have ambassadors for many different hair brands, evo, SKP, Authentic Beauty Concept, Schwarzkopf & Indola. This gives all our team an insight into what is happening internationally within hairdressing its very exciting!

Which hair artists spark your imagination?

We look at the session world for inspiration, we follow the latest runway shows which we show in the salon for guests. We are inspired by the hair artists that head up and create the looks for the shows, Guido, Eugene Souleiman, Sam Mcknight & Christiaane, Duffy, Orlando Pita, Julianne Dys.

We think the work you do with mentoring young talent is fantastic. Why is this important to you?

We were lucky enough to have great mentors from the beginning of our careers, Debbie from John and Julie Hensman who trained her (a salon group that is still very strong today) Billi from Eddie and Francis hunter in Scotland where he trained. Plus incredible Tom Smith, “Elektra”, 2022, via @tomsmithhd

Plus incredible mentors at vs including, Vidal Sassoon himself, Annie Humphrey’s, Tim Hartley plus many many more! Now it is our turn to help inspire/direct the future talent of the industry.

Finish this sentence: young ambitious hairdressers today need to…

Practice practice practice & remember to make and take all opportunities.

Managing a salon is certainly complicated. How do you manage to keep the balance between the creative and the business side?

We have always focused on the dream/goals. Keeping it simple you always need more money coming in than you spend! Understand your numbers, business & creativity for us work side by side.

And with success, how do you balance personal/family life with such success?

There will always be periods when your focus has to be more on the business eg: covid! Remember to take regular holidays (when we opened for the first 4 years we didn’t do this!) make family time, put it in your calendar!

Beginnings are not easy. What would you recommend to someone who is about to open a salon?

Be honest with yourself do you have the time, energy and support it’s going to take? It is 24/7 at the beginning. Don’t be afraid to ask experienced salon owners for help, ideas, this industry is incredibly giving. Nb: make sure you put the vat and rent in a reserve account, we got caught out once at the beginning we hit the vat thresh hold, it was a big lesson to learn early on in business.

What is it that makes Billi Currie stand out from other salons?

Our approach with the team is like a record label managing amazing artists, we deliver excellent work in an excellent space, our team are trained to a high level in hair and guest service, we aim for 5 star in a happy, friendly manner, so everyone feels welcome. Many of our team travel the world working internationally for guests in their homes or educating hairdressers overseas. Team brief. We have a 20-minute team meeting every morning this is very unique to a hair salon. We discuss each guest that is coming in that day and talk about their individual needs if they need a private room, if they may be dealing with stress and need space or if they’ve got a wedding coming up etc, this makes sure the level of service that we can deliver to each guest is bespoke

How important is Instagram to Billi Currie brand?

Very important. Instagram is the salons shop window, we have an in-house brand ambassador who looks after all our social media, we plan ahead to create content throughout the year. Many of our new guests find us from instagram. All our team are trained on creating social media content, which is tracked monthly in team one to ones.

What are the current big trends you are seeing in hair and hair products?

Layered out, 90’s vibe in cuts and colours. Undone. Middle partings are back, natural textures, curls and bangs! Colour think 90”s spice

FOLLOW

@billicurrie

LOCATION

47 Chiltern St, London

INTERVIEW

Ellie Webb evo Fab Pro Colour Maintenance Conditioner evo The Great Hydrator

girl stripes.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Try to be your own best in everything you do, follow your dream not the competition.

If you weren’t working in the hair industry, what would you be doing?

Still something creative in fashion or film.

What’s the hardest thing about your industry?

I think the industry because we’re passionate about it is incredible, the hardest thing that we’ve been thrown is the pandemic, many of our friends & peers have lost their businesses and as an industry we are still recovering. We encourage ourselves to be realistic but also to focus on the good stuff as much as we can. Positive thoughts help bring positive results.

What is your favourite hair treatment/ colour/technique?

Treatment: The Great Hydrator: it works in a second and untangles the hair really well. We love the Fab Pro Colour conditioners this is such a great bespoke product for each guest.

What’s one thing that you wish your clients would understand about hairdressing?

It is hard for guests to understand/ appreciated the amount of education a hairdresser invests in time and money to be at the top of the profession, it’s important as an industry that we share this with them as they haven’t seen the journey to appreciate the level and expertise of the team member looking after them.

What do you look for in your staff?

People that like people initially, hard working, good manners, personality and a willing & openness to being trained, honesty & kindness are a must too.

Where do you find inspiration to keep your skill/business fresh and innovative? Inspiration is everywhere we just need to open our eyes and look, we look a lot to fashion internationally not just at hair we collectively as a salon team train together monthly which is always really inspiring. We are extremely lucky as our team travel all over the world and they bring back many inspiring things to share with us all.

How important is it to you to be utilising cruelty-free, sustainability-promoting brands within the salon such as evo?

Extremely important to us we only work with brands that are sustainable, recyclable. We are part of The Green Salon Collective, we recycle all of the hair, all of the chemicals, all of the foil that we use. 90% of what we use in the salon is recycled, we are an eco-warrior salon and we are very very proud of this. It’s a must in 2022.

What do you do when you are not feeling inspired?

This is very very rare we’re pleased to say, I guess our advice would be to go and visit a gallery, look at fashion look at books talk to others, listen to a favourite piece of music. Do or try something new.

What’s next for Billi Currie?

We are working on our social media projects, our collective team are organising a photo shoot. We have new ideas for our guest service journey which we are working on and then we will train the team on. We have pop up education events. These are just a few of the projects, everything is always evolving and moving forward.