Cairns 1st Communal Concept Salon By Louise May

McLeod Street Creatives was built on the idea of establishing a collaborative environment filled with likeminded hair stylists. A salon space where all are welcome, and creativity flows. Located in the heart of the Cairns CBD, the salon features a gorgeous, relaxed environment allowing you to escape from the hustle of the city and take things at your own pace.

We here at McLeod Street Creatives encourage you to be your own boss… says owner and founder Ang Moessinger, and whilst our stylists here at McLeod Street Creatives work under our collaborative name, they are all in fact independent business owners. They simply rent a space in our salon, enabling them to focus on their clients and personal business brand, taking the stress out of owning a salon.

Not only does renting a space here at McLeod Street Creatives allow you to work independently alongside fellow experienced stylists, but you also have access to our amenities and refreshments for your clients, including delicious homemade brownie, coffee, and wine. Another key feature we are proud to have here at McLeod Street Creatives is our partnership with Ecoheads and Sustainable Salons. We as hairstylists produce a lot of land and water waste, so by partnering with Sustainable Salons and Ecoheads we help minimise the salon footprint on the environment. With an established network of collectors, recyclers, manufacturers and distributors, Sustainable Salons ensures up to 95% of materials from salons are diverted from landfill, being recycled appropriately. Additionally, by using Ecoheads attachments at our basins, not only do they filter the water benefiting your hairs health, but they also decrease the amount of water used and wasted.

Ang Moessinger, McLeod Street Creatives

McLeod Street Creatives is proud to support such innovative business concepts that allow us to help decrease our environmental footprint, and by renting a space with us, you get to help us further lessen our footprint as hairstylists. Not only do we help others look good, but we feel good and do good by recycling with Sustainable Salons and Ecoheads.

Hair Biz Editor Louise May caught up with owner Ang Moessinger recently, to find out more on how McLeod St Creatives was born...

Tell us a little about your career prior to opening your salon?

I’ve been hairdressing for 25 plus years, starting my career in Hervey Bay before moving to Brisbane. I have worked in a few different style of salons from ‘get them in, get them out’ to boutiques. Looking back on the early stages in my career, I have no regrets about any of the salons I worked in, as it helped me define what kind of stylist and salon owner I wanted to be in future. Moving to Cairns 9 years ago, was when I really focused on what I truly wanted from my career.

Was business ownership always a priority for you?

Understandably, being a business owner is something that you will always consider, but it definitely wasn’t the driving force behind my motivation to have my own salon. With the exception of a couple of “bad bosses”, I had always worked in very nurturing and fun salons, and it was when I had taken the opportunity of renting a chair in a friends salon, that my vision of one day owning my own salon grew. I knew that I wanted to have space that I could call my own.

Who were your industry heroes in your early years and who inspires you today?

My industry heroes have changed often throughout my career, always depending on the environment I’m currently working in. However, one true stand out inspiration for me personally as a stylist and business owner, is Helen Owens. I came to know Helen when I started working for her as part of her salon in Brisbane. I remember Helen was always ambitious for the future of her career and business; constantly thinking of ways to expand her company and continue to grow her passion for hair artistry. But at the same time, she was always grounded and grateful for what she had achieved in the moment. Helen showed me that here is a balance between the two, and that a great business owner understands that sense of balance.

What do you feel is so unique about the McLeod St Creative concept?

The concept of McLeod Street Creatives isn’t unique per say. The business concept of having a general coworking space dedicated purely to individual stylists isn’t new to the hairdressing industry. However, this concept is new to the Cairns area. In Cairns there are plenty of opportunities for stylists to ‘rent a chair’ in a local salon, however there aren’t any opportunities for stylists to work in a salon whilst having their own business and brand that isn’t affiliated with the company, they’re renting a space from. I saw there were hairstylists in my community that needed a space to grow their business to its full potential, in a salon that they can make their own. That why I wanted to ensure that McLeod Street Creatives was available to offer.

What inspired you to go down the communal business path and create a space for freelancers, instead of the more traditional salon concept?

I attended a Business Retreat, and had been toying with the idea for quite some time. I decided to take the next step with the encouragement and inspiration from other industry peers, and create the universal and cofunctional space. I was inspired to design McLeod Street Creatives to be a communal salon rather than a more traditional salon, as I wanted to be able to provide opportunities to freelance stylists like I had been given earlier in my hairdressing career.

What’s on the agenda for the future?

The plan for the future of McLeod Street Creatives is to keep growing and evolving. I would love to expand the fundamental concept of a coworking salon that McLeod Street Creatives was built on, to other locations, allowing other hairstylists the opportunity to grow their business.