In a first for the luxury salon brand through challenging times, more than 100 staff and salon partners from across nine Oscar Oscar Queensland salons came together on September 14 to celebrate a night of inspiration by none other than their own talent pool with a strong sense of physical touch, writes Cameron Pine.
Hosted and organised by education superhero Tracey Hughes, General Manager of Oscar Oscar Salons, Tracey opened the night by reinforcing the power of collective inspiration. While we may all be inspired by many things from fashion and architecture to nature, this night was all about sharing from each other in an energetic and exciting environment. Brisbane’s The Gambaro hotel was transformed with a vibe akin to backstage at fashion week and an energy only a leading salon brand like Oscar Oscar salons know how to cultivate.
“This celebration shows our gratitude and appreciation of all the hard work you give us every day across our network. We are the number one salon brand in Australia for luxury and tonight we are sharing a level of salon oriented luxury trends like never before,” said Oscar Oscar Salons General Manager Tracey Hughes.
The Oscar Oscar salon brand is one of the fastest growing salon groups in Australia, brought together by a culture beyond luxury service that extends to all of their stylists being experts in their field across all hair services, regardless of the trend.
Adam Macintosh, Oscar Oscar Salons Education Manager, first hit the stage alongside Tracey, taking colour services from a day to day basis but pushing them further with customised on-trend cocktails leading into a ‘ fruit basket’ of inspiration.
“Merging some pre done colour we’ve got a real fruit basket of inspiration, from peaches and apricots, to kickers in Shades EQ gloss – it’s about finding the focal point of the guests colour and focusing on that,” Adam said. “It’s the first thing the client sees in the mirror so that’s where we start, it’s not about going to town on the colour without creating your true focal point.”
An education philosophy that’s intrinsically linked to a higher level of guest service runs through the veins of every Oscar Oscar salon, whether it’s back to the best products or hand-crafted skill from a strong company foundation, sharing work on stage is as essential as this group’s focus on continued growth and success.
To ensure the night triggered growth and insight among all attendees, there were live demonstration on models with pre-done models showcasing different looks. The looks were perfectly balanced with fashionable and directional techniques. Every corner of the hairdressing genre across the collective of a dozen models showed truly unique hair statements. Attendees included all Melbourne and Sydney salons from their vast network. These teams joined via Zoom.
Taking on Tracey’s quintessentially technical approach, she explained her love of haircuts, using small sections and varying angles.
“I really truly believe even though you are doing something super creative, you need to have a map in your mind with your haircut first and plan it out by knowing what techniques you are using and how you are executing them,” Tracey said. All guests, regardless of level, were inspired by Tracey to cut with creativity on par with a colour service that’s as premium as Oscar Oscar guests expect.
Justin Mclachlan came to the stage with a wet to dry look on a long hair model working on an elevated fringe section with a more disconnected yet creative look. Chloe Paparella and Danny Lu presented more fashion trend driven work, inspired by the Oscar Oscar fashion week collaboration and some of the latest trends. Working with ghd, Redken, Shu Uemura and their very own product label, Wilde by Oscar, it was all about getting the most out of these luxury leading ranges.
According to brand founder and iconic hairdresser Oscar Cullinan, Brisbane will always be the benchmark as the hometown of Oscar Oscar Salons. It’s where the brand started on the mall more than 25 years ago!
“Wilde, our product line, is now my passion. I love and adore all of my salon partners, some of whom I have worked with for more than 30 years. Together we are all part of the piece to being the best at what we do. I’m so proud to have all of you at this event considering now in a broken world and a broken country at the moment. There is something about your nature of every single one of you here, you see guys, we are fearless. We are a fearless brand and we love and endear fearless people towards us,” Oscar said.
“What makes a great hairdresser these days? Is it a graduated bob? No not at all. Is it a head of balay lights? Is it a great stylist? No. What makes a great stylist these days and a great salon operator is a combination of so many ingredients put together in a melting pot and defined by great training. This is what makes a great stylist,” Oscar said.
Oscar explained the expectations now are different from when he trained as an apprentice at Sassoon’s when he was 18 years old.
“Back then it was all about a bob and a haircut and now it’s about so much more,” he said. “Hairdressing has changed but what Tracey and I talk about is that we need to have hairdressers that do everything so when customers walk into our salon they can have the best of anything. Oscar Oscar Salons is multi-dimensional – it’s not a brand that sits on the back of a trend that just moves around. All of you are going to hold that torch – I’m passing it to Justin, he’s passing it to Chloe and they are passing it to you for example and so on.”
All guests on stage were empowered by their own salon brand, ensuring that great hairdressing starts with what night’s like this manifest beyond just the hair.
“This room in is an example of the great base camp that is Oscar Oscar,” Oscar said.
Oscar ended the night of hair by speaking to our current world of change. Obviously we are all amidst a great world of change but we are lucky we can still get socially intimate with what we do, beyond all the restrictions and where we end up. “We are still one of the rare few industries where people are still going to want to get close and connect with us,” Oscar confirmed.
Oscar Oscar Salons’ exemplary night of hair was also a great segue to the brand’s detailed training program to onboard new staff that many other industries would even be envious of, for them it’s about the touch of luxury and skill intertwined.
“Even industries or restaurants with robots haven’t been able to do it better than we do it very successfully. Our plans for on boarding new staff and an overall company vision for the future is something we can guarantee will remain strong with the Oscar Oscar salon network. I’m still so in love with people like you – you make my toes tingle. I used to have vans and now I have Louis Vuitton’s. It’s tough for Melbourne right now but we are going to take over Melbourne and Sydney we have some exciting plans too,” Oscar said.
They are hoping the night of education becomes a quarterly event on the calendar to bring the social back into hair education. Beyond this consistency of commitment if anything is sure, that’s that the brand will continue to grow. With a soon to open Sydney salon and more on the cards in other cities, education and passion will continue to field and incredible energy for this iconic hairdressing leader.
For more information visit www.oscaroscar.com.au
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