Editors Letter

This industry certainly has talent, and this is an issue that celebrates that.

From the recent 2022 AHIA Business winners, to showcasing our Hot Shots… take note of the names featured, they are the greats of our industry! It’s fantastic to see new names amongst the finalists and winners of the awards too.

Our most recent awards were our biggest to date! It is so exciting to see so many new salons and stylists entering!

We also congratulate the winners of the 2022 Australian Modern Barber Awards, just recently held in Melbourne, being the first ‘in real life event’ with the inaugural awards having to be held virtually in 2021.

Speaking of the industry’s finest, we feature Show Pony as our front cover story, looking at the history of the brand and their stunning new collection that was shot overseas. Also in this issue, don’t miss AHIA 2022 finalist for Best Salon Design “The Disco” where we chat to Mikey Forster about his rebrand and new salon design. We celebrate Lee Preston and 25 years in business, we feature CEO of Tony & Guy, Sara Langford, and we go across the ditch to visit Sara Allsop in New Zealand!

We spend 10 minutes with Salon Educator Rebecca Woods, and get deep with the legend himself, Nathan Yip, and we also feature UK’s up and coming talent from Tony & Guy Salisbury, George Smith! With a plethora of business advice, social media tips and tricks, and some kick arse blogs, 2023 is set to be an awesome year if you plan right and set goals and track as you go. (Remember this… you can’t manage what you don’t measure!)

It’s an absolute joy to hear so much talk about apprentices lately.. At the AHIA Business Gala Event, the gorgeous Brodie-Lee Tsiknaris made an amazing speech, and spoke of the importance of new talent to our industry, and she also spoke about great Leadership.

You only have to scroll through your socials to see the enormous amount of advertisements, of salons looking for staff. We have an industry crisis that is not going to change, until you all realise that the only way that change is going to occur, is if you grow your own!

In my private mentoring business group alone, there are 11 apprentices within the salons! This warms my heart big time… My prediction is that our industry is going to flourish with a crazy amount of new talent! I can feel it in my bones!

Apprentices are not a cost to the business, they are a long-term investment.

Change your mindset and collectively we will change the industry.

To those of you who have endured the recent floods, our thoughts are with you. If there is anything we can do to support you, please reach out to us here at mocha.

As we head into what’s set to be our busiest time of the year, kindness and compassion is something we all need to remember to practice.

I wish you lots of luck for the crazy Christmas rush ahead, and also wish you a safe and fabulous New Year!

See you in 2023!

Lou x