A Journey of Determination

Tinealle Davis grew up on the Gold Coast in the 80’s in a split family but carefree with her 3 siblings, family and friends with Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses blazing. With a keen passion for sport, she played netball from age 6, which bought out her ambition and determination to succeed, dreaming clearly of one day playing for the green and gold!

Tinealle fell in love with doing hair at the very young age of 7, remembering braiding the neighbour’s hair on the front porch steps feeling it was the greatest thing in the world. The Footy Mum’s where her Stepfather played AFL asked her to do their hair regularly and she just loved it! In 1992 (30 years ago) at age 12, she worked casually as a tea and tidy which sparked her dream of becoming a Salon owner one day.

“I remember feeling a little jealous of my friend’s having more freedom on a weekend while I went to work, but I had big dreams and I wanted to succeed,” she says.

She went on to represented QLD and eventually made the Australian U18 Indoor Netball Team, touring New Zealand in 1997.

In her gap year she worked at Chucky Doll’s Hair Studio with a supportive boss and an apprenticeship, loving the people, responsibilities, opportunities, and experiences it created. A few years later she moved to Melbourne and transferred and completed her Cert 3 at Masci Hair.

“I remember Malisa Masci very fondly, her passion and skill, and her communication was like no other. Masci Hair are still inspirational to me. Malisa taught me so much about hair and service and I still use these techniques to this day, especially cutting textured hair, with so much precision in every skill.”

On returning home to the GC a few years later, Tinealle found herself employed by the two “most down to earth, skilled Barbers and brothers,”, Mr. Lino and Joey D’Adderio from Luigi’s and Son’s, learning from the best in the business and after 12 months or so she returned to mainstream Salon life, in Surfers Paradise.

In 2005, Tinealle researched and bought her very first business and named it Salon Sass, hosting education in her Salon with the likes of Lino and Joey to upskill her staff.

We spoke to Tinealle to find out more…

Was business ownership always a priority to you?

Yes, I always dreamed of having my own business and was confident it would be a success. I was determined to grow the business and in a short time was able to reach the need for two other Senior Stylists and an Apprentice. I was also raising my baby girl solo and when approached to sell the business, I sold it to pursue education in Interior Design whilst contracting on weekends doing Wedding Hair and Makeup with Industry Bridal Specialist, Jess Mcleod.

I fell in love with my husband, Mitch, who is a country boy from Bundaberg and eventually in 2015, with two kids we moved there to live more simply and build our dream home and start a fresh life together near his family. I always felt connected to helping people and Mitch is a Physiotherapist, so we often talked about health and the human body, so I applied as a mature student and studied at CQU Uni for one year in 2016 to be a registered nurse, also hairdressing at home whilst our new home that we designed was being built.

In May 2017 our baby boy London, was born critically ill with a rare, genetic, endocrine disease, Hyperinsulinism and this was life changing for us. He spent over two months in ICU at the Children’s Hospital in Brisbane with us by his bedside having multiple operations and infections. When we finally got home, I was a nervous mess with constant monitoring not to mention a week before his first birthday, when he fell very sick again being misdiagnosed with gastro for 3 days in hospital requiring another emergency plane trip to Brisbane with a double bowel obstruction caused from scar tissue from previous surgeries.

Thankfully, he recovered from his double bowel resection and has been medically stable since. We got through that time, but I had no intentions of becoming a nurse anymore, finally confident to concentrate on my business and branding, designing my whole business based around my passion and strengths, wanting to contribute financially to our family doing what I truly love, hair. So, I created what I didn’t know at the time was to be an amazing service and business in March 2018! Just when I thought things were getting on track, in January 2019, I had open heart surgery to repair 5 holes in my Atrial Septum wall.

I had symptoms my whole life and ‘a’ hole apparently, but no knowledge of the extent of having five holes damaging my heart. There are no victims here, however! Every challenge has been a massive life lesson for us, and we are now reaping the benefits of living a more purposeful and present life, full of gratitude and both working from home in purpose-built studios and clinics serving people and living our best lives together. We all do what we love.

My husband and kids supported me to return to netball after over a decade of not playing and fulfilled my desire to play for Qld again, recently attending the National Indoor Netball Titles in Adelaide, Oct 2022. As far as the business was concerned, I decided to be strategic seeing as I could only work one day a week to begin with. I wanted to help people with their hair texture and so The Straightening Studio was launched. It wasn’t a mainstream salon; it is a studio, in our home,

What has been the most rewarding aspect of salon ownership?

Helping my clients feel amazing and creating beautiful, custom, healthy hairstyles for them is the most important and rewarding part of salon ownership. Contributing financially to my family from creating a successful business is a direct result from working from a client centred perspective.

What’s the best piece of advice you have ever been given in your career?

Quality over quantity in anything you do has been the best advice given to me and I naturally resonate with this mindset and way of living. When did you first decide to educate and what does it mean to you to share your passion and knowledge on to others? I had my first A-HA moment about giving education when driving in my car in 2018 and sat on it for about a year whilst growing and building my business. I have always enjoyed education and learning but truly identified the need to contribute to helping our Industry standards whilst on my own research and development path. I have spent nearly three years connecting with overseas and Australian Industry Specialists and Educators and completed my Cert. IV in Training and Assessing in 2022 to attain the ability to work alongside the AHC platform and educate in future.

I want to help and educate Hair Professionals to build awareness and simplify Texture, To realise the importance of custom Texture services and the value and impact possible for their clients and their business. I am obsessed with healthy hair and can be a little unconventional at times and love to test new and innovative products and tools to help create the healthiest hair possible.

I believe this will change lives and create more fulfillment and freedom for them, like my business has created for me. I recently read Tim Duggan’s ‘Killer Thinking’ recently and realised that my belief and passion to help is a ‘Killer’ idea because lots of parties are impacted - Kind-Impactful-Loved-LastingEasy-Repeatable

Tell us all about Tinealle Davis Education.

Tinealle Davis Education will be about empowering the industry through education and community connection. I never give up and know in my bones this will inspire and help a lot of people and am committed to creating this. I plan to provide education and build awareness through creating an online community of likeminded people who want to improve their lives:

*Offering monthly subscription with support through Q+A sessions, technical sessions about skills & blueprint of how I approach service, business and why

*Online Signature Course teaching specific texture skills and services with resources such as videos and instructional manuals that will improve with feedback each time.

*In-Salon training, hands on workshops

*1:1 Coaching

*Podcasting

*Eventually live events and sharing my story to empower others

What changes have you seen over the last 23 years in our industry and what would you like to see moving forward.

I believe our Industry has become more connected through the pandemic with online platforms creating the ability to provide support through online connection and live education. I see stylists value having a more flexible lifestyle and an increase in home businesses due to this.

I see Salon owners taking staff satisfaction more seriously and adapting to this by changing the way they operate their opening hours. I see environmental sustainability as a leading and very important Industry consideration.

What’s on the agenda for the future?

Family, living with purpose and empowering others through Education. I feel passionate about health and continuing to grow, research and use the safest products and tools available and am excited for this space and future possibilities. I have so much to give and love to help. Life is about living and being, chasing your dreams and surviving the storms doing so.