Built from a brand with a strong sense of connection, loyalty and looking out for each other, Nak Hair’s ever-expanding collective is united by an ego-free culture that was further explored and validated at the first ever Nak Collective Business Forum on the Gold Coast over March 13 and 14, writes Cameron Pine.

With kindness at the heart of a community of hairdressers, salon owners, colourists and stylists, Nak staff and management and some of our industry’s most loved and coveted speakers made up a collective of more than 150 individuals primed for connection at the infamous QT Hotel, all with the same intention of expanding their mindset and knowledge, free of ego.

With a completely new repackage launching on May 12 and a bold new direction across professional haircare, colour and all-inclusive education, it’s no wonder more stylists are deep-rooted to Nak’s feeling of belonging and growing sense of self.

Emcee’d by Nak’s charismatic education manager, Raymond Rozema, Raymond kept the energy upbeat and approachable throughout the two full days of empowering practices. First to formally address the group was Nak’s relatively new CEO who joined the business in November last year, Marc Boelen. Marc discussed the immense potential for growth in professional haircare, changes to the online versus retail landscape mix and how to embrace the changes for the better.  

Fiona Del Vecchio, Head of Sales and Education, spoke of the importance and objective of collective and the wonderful support from everyone to make the event happen for the first time, in addition to insights from an industry report that showed a spend increase but a shift to longer client visit intervals. At the heart of the Nak culture is the Australian inertia that continues to drive the brand and its heritage – this culture is seemingly well received within the global haircare landscape with expansion into over 50 new markets and 6 per cent growth in the category.

Fiona plays a key role in shaping Nak’s strategic direction and driving business growth and has the ‘family’ culture of Nak close to her heart.

“The forum is about connection, collaboration and a chance for us to get together, share insights and thoughts, create friendships, new ideas and strengthen the bonds that make our industry feel so unique and impactful,” Fiona said.

From booking deposits and ways to better engage the consumer and keep everyone accountable, and with cancellations and no-shows becoming more prevalent, the need for online bookings and deposits is increasing, and the collective is all about creating that confidence to back your work and charge what you’re worth.

To top it off a fair portion of content was centred around a grounded perspective to everyday challenges and to help stylists and salon owners better handle stress and in-turn be able to reach and service more clients and communicate better with the team.

On the notion of communication, the first speaker was Voulla Fronis, Founder of Gellibn – an app designed to improve communication and feedback between business owners and team leaders. Voulla helped salons to re-connect with the why of their business and work towards their goal with an entire team that’s on board with their vision.

Sonia Tomas, AKA The Salon Dr, told her story of getting into hairdressing from another sales role and how she thrived off a commission-based role that teaches you to be accountable for every process in business. Sonia then shared how to scale retail sales very quickly with a few simple steps.

“It’s not up for us to decide whether our clients can afford it or not. I’ve seen staff doing consultations and it’s so resistant,” she said. “Don’t be reactive in your business. I know numbers are a really sticky subject and we don’t like to have these conversations, but if you actually map out what that looks like for your staff you will be proactive and not reactive.”

Social coach Ash Bailey took on one of the first ever social media roles for busy retail giant Westfield before falling in love with hairdressing when she accepted a role heading social media and content at a leading hairdressing distributor in Australia.  Ash emphasised the importance of strategy, filming, and editing skills, noting that Instagram users have shorter attention spans due to other distractions like Netflix and conversations – so we need to get their attention in the first three seconds, this includes starting videos with engaging grabs and showing the creator’s face to ensure there is immediate audience rapport.

“I love the concept of a ‘hair and non-hair’ ratio, where 50 per cent of the grid is beautiful hair and the other 50 per cent is process, people, place, and product to maintain interest and value,” Ash said. Ash’s content centred around building connections with people through content that shows who you really are.

“It’s all about leveraging your team members to capture content, use tripods, and multiple devices to simplify content creation without needing a full-time social media manager,” Ash said.

Finishing day one, guests partied with a touch of sparkle at QT’s infamous Stingray Bar complete with live music and fun photo opportunities.

Hannah Cash, Chief Marketing Officer at NAK Hair, presented the brand’s new marketing direction with new imagery and an exciting new packaging rebrand, heralded by a shoot in Sydney’s Palm Beach.  11 models, 18 crew, four months of planning and shoot prepping and more than 5,000 images and film to process all showcase the new brand pillars.

First, ‘we stand by every strand with products designed to support the hair no matter where it’s at’. Secondly, ‘we are hair professionals – born in the salon, we have a unique heritage and expertise’. Thirdly – ‘we embrace hair’s future by continuing to adapt formulas methods and goals – with innovation at the core and embracing change’. Lastly, ‘we are true to our roots with a down to earth philosophy – we believe in big hair and not big heads’.

From shoots in Brisbane, immense success at Cosmoprof Bologna, new packaging, images and campaigns to Fashion Week and more, getting salons and stylists across the complete rollout and Nak’s plans to further help salons was in the spotlight.

To further immerse guests into the brand, Nak showcased a beautiful retail display and styling station activation where guests were given the chance to play with the new Nak Signature products, including a claw machine that had everyone lining up to join the fun.

From hair used to soak up oil spills, to producing items from sunglasses to plant fertiliser and beyond, Paul Frasca’s sustainability passion spans various industries but always comes back to his beloved responsibility in hair, as co-founder of Sustainable Salons.

“To give you one funny fact, your hair acts exactly the same as a tree. It’s sucking in carbon. Your hair is 50 per cent carbon. We need to get that back into the ground, because that’s really important for the planet, and that’s the meaning of sustainability,” said Paul.

Leadership expert Kym Krey has spent decades leading teams to be one of Australia’s most engaging specialists that focuses on helping business owners show up as their most authentic version of themselves. She not only provides tools and statistics on how to achieve goals, but designs all-encompassing ideas and programs and resources specifically to lead hairdressing salons into a new realm of success.

“Your uniqueness is the magic in what you do, you have to extract that out of your head and over your soul and put it into a process that you can immerse your team,” Kym said. “You need to put the systems in place to get benefits through others. There is a big transformation here and it’s you – you are no longer a hairdresser that owns a salon – you need to tap into your inner CEO because you have a business to run.”

Julie Cross was the ideal finishing speakerBelieving we have an energy crisis in this country – and not in terms of power – Julie discusses the energy signature that we are bringing to our clients, plus our own emotional wellbeing and how to protect it.Julie is empowering, relatable, funny and keeps it real – she talks about her everyday struggles and is also uplifting – she gives you that loving push to get you out of your own way and to take action.

“When we have a healthy sense of self and our sparkle is bright, we don’t need anything else to give us that push,” Julie said.

Previously having run state-based events, Nak’s first nationwide event not only celebrated gratitude and growth, but a brand with a pleasant disposition free of ego. United through personal experiences, highlighting the importance of resilience, gratitude, and maintaining a positive attitude, even during challenging times, the overall sentiment was uplifting. All sessions concluded with a call to action for participants to apply these principles in their own businesses. Combined with Nak’s collectively laid-back approach, each guest was given the perfect level of push. Sometimes all it takes is a tiny spark — a glimpse that maybe something better is possible. The exact spark that ignites the emotional fire to leap forward, to meet more people, see ideas and discover new mentors, or just get the chance to feel like we are not alone in this increasingly challenging world in business.

Big hair and not big heads. Thank you Nak.

For more information visit www.nakhair.com.au