Getting To Know The New Editor Of Barbershop Magazine
Louise May
Louise May is the new Editor in Chief for Mocha Group and looks after all mocha magazine trade publications across the Hair, Beauty, and Barbering Industries.
Louise has been with Mocha for a little over 3 years, starting off as the editor of Hair Biz Magazine, taking over the role of Editor for Beauty Biz Magazine 12 months later, and recently when a new role was created as Editor in Chief, she stepped into this, which also included the editor role of Barbershop. She is also on the judging panel each year for the mocha group awards including the AHIA Creative, AHIA Business, ABIA’s and AMBA’s, and co-host’s the Hot Shots House and Beauty Squad House annually. A mentoring competition aimed at the rising stars of the hair, barber and beauty industry. For the past 8 years, through her own mentoring/ coaching business, she has also looked after multiple salon owners, working with them and their teams as well as a private group mentoring platform and is also a certified life coach and NLP Practitioner. Let’s get to know our new Editor in Chief and all the plans afoot for Barbershop Magazine under her expert guardianship…
Where did you grow up? What was family life like?
I grew up in regional NSW in a little town called Goolgowi, which back then had a population of 245 people. I have a brother who is 2 years older than me. My parents owned the only local General Store and supplied the town and surrounding areas with everything from groceries, gas, lotto, hardware, videos etc. I spent every moment I could with my horses. I am a huge lover of horses and I had several growing up. My parents sold the store and we moved to a town nearby called Griffith, and this is where I started my journey in hairdressing.
Where do you live?
I live on the Mid North Coast of NSW in a small coastal town called Lake Cathie, which is 10 minutes south of Port Macquarie. We live between the lake and the ocean, and it is quiet and beautiful. We moved here in 2012 from Sydney. We used to come up in the school holidays and visit my brother and their kids and fell in love with the lifestyle. Our kids have had the best childhood living here, they do all the things that we did as kids and more!
How did you first get involved in the industry, and tell us about your journey?
I started working as a salon assistant when I was 15, and did Thursday nights and Saturdays, and then I started my apprenticeship when I was 16. When I was in my 4th year, I made the bold move to move to the big smoke (Sydney) and worked in the heart of the CBD near Wynyard station and lived in Paddington. I then opened my first salon from scratch with a business partner, however the partnership turned sour, and I decided to walk away from that business venture. From there I was offered a job in sales and education for Matrix, which I accepted, and I was with them for a few years. From there I opened my 2nd salon which I had for several years, until we made the decision to sell up everything and move out of the hustle and bustle of Sydney and head up the coast. One of our long-term staff members purchased the salon from us. We sold everything, my husband quit his job of 19 years, and we moved up north, both unemployed. I was contacted by a woman is Sydney who had just created a private branding company that specialised in haircare & skincare formulations for the professional Hair & Beauty industry. I started working with the company and ended 12 Barber Shop Year 12 Issue 4
up buying the distribution licence to the NSW territory. It was during this time of visiting salons and speaking with salon owners about their businesses, that I discovered that so many of them were experiencing similar issues as each other in their businesses. I started giving some small bite-sized pieces of helpful advice and these salon owners were getting really great results, it was also then that I realised that I it had really ignited a fire in my belly, and I wanted to be able to help salon owners have success with their businesses and strengthen our industry. I spent the next couple of years intensely educating myself on business and human behaviour (in fact, I still love educating myself and I will never stop learning)
