Session Styling By Louise May

Proudly established in 2017 by Angelo Palumberi, Salon Sessions fast established a strong reputation for quality colour work and styling, keratin treatments and extension transformations. This success saw the salon recently outgrow its original location in Westfield Hurstville and make the move to a brand new home in the heart of Hurstville. The new salon design is an Instagram dream, with soft curves and cutouts, fresh white walls and natural light giving it a cool and minimal Mediterranean aesthetic.

Angelo and his talented team are well known for their color work, made famous for the salon’s lightening and balayage expertise on Asian and European hair types they call the ‘Sessions Signature’. Aligning with Goldwell brings this color creativity to a new level, opening up a new world of color opportunities – from Goldwell’s core Topchic and Colorance lines through to the new LightDimensions Lightening portfolio, powered by unsurpassed technologies and the highest standards to deliver the fastests and clearest result for the perfect blonde.

Angelo sees his partnership with Goldwell as intrinsic to the Salon Sessions business commenting, “Color is a major part of our business and I wanted to partner with the front runners. Goldwell’s innovation makes our work easy, they are the magic behind our brand. The Goldwell range is perfect from beginning to end, from the professional colour to take home hair care.”

“Goldwell is thrilled to welcome Angelo and his brand new Salon Sessions location to the Kao Salon family,” said Rita Marcon, General Manager, ANZ Kao Salon Division. “Our relationship with Salon Sessions has always been a strong one and we’ve long recognised Angelo’s talent for expert colour work when it comes to lightening even the darkest hair. This brand new salon and location presents an exciting new future for Salon Sessions and we look forward to a longstanding partnership.”

Salon Sessions has a ‘real people, real hair’ culture which Palumberi says aligns well with Kao. “The Kao team have supported me with education, sales support and have provided me with opportunities that support our salon. As our salon culture is ‘real people’ it really feels in sync with the Kao team. I value that I can always be my authentic self with the Kao team.” Says Angelo.

HAIR BIZ EDITOR LOUISE MAY CHATS WITH CO-OWNER ANGELO PALUMBERI

How did you end up in hairdressing? Can you please tell us your background and career path?

I saw hairdressing as a fun and cool job when I finished school so thought I would try it until I figured out what I wanted to do. It was fun, working with young teams it was fast paced but relaxed. The years have gone by, and I never thought I would still be here 14 years later. I was lucky enough to work with such a great boss Elio Nappa who I am still very good friends with and still get lectured by him to this day, I worked with him for 10 years managing different salons and seeing how the business works. Until I bought his Hurstville salon with his son Anthony, rebranding it to Salon Sessions.

You established Salon Sessions in 2017, can you tell us what your biggest challenges have been establishing and navigating the business?

It was such a nerve-racking change, as I had to step out of my comfort zone and take this leap of faith into rebranding such an established salon. The biggest challenge was the rebranding of the salon, creating a new salon aura and ensuring we created a space that is unique to the salon team’s talent but also making sure all our clients felt comfortable and not feeling like it was a completely different salon. I guess there will always be challenges in business and there is something new every day, but I knew as soon as I opened the business, that I needed a bigger and more empowered space for our clients to come and feel the ‘sessions’ experience and my ultimate goal was to move the salon.

Do you each have your specialist areas of expertise?

Each team member does have their own expertise, whether its extensions, a sharp blunt bob, or a killer blow wave but we do get all of the heat for our balayage’s! If I have to be specific, we specialise in creating bright, blonde results on Asian and European hair types. We call it the session signature.

What has been your motivation to open the new Kogarah salon, was there a pivotal point where you decided to look for a new location?

As soon as we opened Salon Session in Hurstville, I had a vision to create a bigger, lively, energetic, minimalistic, raw, modern, creative, and massive space. The Hurstville space was never really me and didn’t show my style or who I was, so as soon as I took over, the plan was to move. There were so many things we couldn’t offer in our previous space, whereas now we have so much space, natural light, and such a calming cool atmosphere, giving our clients a Mykonos vibe.

Salon Sessions is known for its expertise in lightening Asian and European hair as well as your balayage service, can you tell us how this came about? And is this your favourite color technique?

As hairdressing evolved and came out with “balayage” we evolved it further perfecting our balayage technique for our clientele. As we started playing and trying different things, we found our really ashy grey tones were getting such good reach on socials and we started getting so many messages and requests for them, so it just sort of happened and here we are. It’s our favourite technique which we love doing and you don’t see too many salons posting a lot of. We call it our SESSIONS SIGNATURE.

What about your favourite way to cut and stye?

We love our longer balayage clientele which we do most of however, I do have passion for short hair cutting. I love the texture and movement you can create so I will be the first to put my hand up for a short woman’s cut and have a massive men’s clientele with a killer fade.

How will Salon Sessions Kogarah differ from the original salon in Westfield Hurstville?

seats salon, jam packed, crazy busy, buzzing salon. Now Kogarah is a completely different vibe, still busy and full but just doesn’t feel like it is. Making us a true destination salon.

We would love to hear more about your design vision for the salon, you’ve mentioned it will be more luxe and instagrammable, are there any design specifics/features you can share with us?

I teamed up with Anastasia from studio ANR, who was so cool to work with. I wanted it to feel like no other salon around us. With 165 square metres of space and a 10-metre frontage, we had the opportunity to really make a statement and make the salon pop from the rest. I wanted a Mediterranean vibe, earthy, neutral, calming feel with cactus features at the entrance making you feel you have stepped into an oasis. No dark colours everything cool toned but still bright, with ventician plaster giving different textures. Very, very curvy, like Kimmy K I say. You won’t find a straight wall in the salon, everything is rounded and curved, from the mirrors to the front desk, centre table, walls and benches. No off the shelf fixtures, everything is custom made. Our luxe curved salon mirrors with a terrazzo stone which I get endless dm’s about where I got them from, Our 6 metre terrazzo centre colour table running through the middle of salon and green handmade Japanese tiles giving it the pop.

Your salon has a ‘real people, real hair’ culture – can you sum this up for us?

We want everyone to feel comfortable coming to our salon, they love the photos and the reels they get to be involved in. you don’t have to be an influencer to get your face on our page. The smile on our client’s faces is priceless, it makes it all worthwhile.

What do you hope this new salon will be best known for? Will it build upon your current reputation?

but our space didn’t really match what we were doing. It has definitely pumped a lot more hype behind us and everyone likes coming into a vibe. Giving all the locals the best colour salon.

Can you share any new services that will be available at the Kogarah salon?

We have expanded our extension range offering invisible wefts now and a have an eyebrow specialist working in our space.

Will there be any sustainable practices and initiatives we could talk about?

We have taken on Goldwell Can which ensure minimum color wastage and are also fully recyclable.

Who inspires you in the hair industry and who’s hair would you most like to do?

Joey Scandizzo and Massimo Motirimacco

What do you value most in your partnership with Kao?

The KAO team have supported me with education, sales support and providing me with opportunities to support the salon. As our salon culture is “real people” our culture really feels in sync with the KAO team. I value that I can always be my authentic self with everyone in the KAO team.

Can you share your favourite Goldwell products?

Goldwell Stylesign Magic Finish Hairspray and Goldwell Dualsenses Bond Pro Day & Night Bond Booster.

How would your team describe you in three words?

Easy going, funny, sarcastic

If you had to do something different for a living, what would it be?

A CHEF, I love the passion and the buzzing vibe. Keep a look out for the coffee hole I have in the works at the salon!