This week I spent Tuesday at O Salon Hairdressers in Mosman and Wednesday at Ampersand Salon in Manly. Two salons, two teams, two very different days. 

Which is exactly the point. 

Some salon owners I speak to have never seen an in-salon education day. They've heard the phrase, they can picture a workshop, but the idea of me turning up at their salon stays a bit vague. And vague things don't get booked. 

So here's what actually happens: 

It starts with a conversation, not a curriculum 

Before I set foot in a salon, I talk to the owner about what their team can't do yet. Not "they need to be better at cutting", something specific. A shape that never sits right, a technique that one stylist has and the rest don't, a whole floor that avoids a certain type of client. 

Most owners describe the gap vaguely at first. Naming the actual gap is half the fix, and that's usually the most useful twenty minutes of the whole booking.

Once we've identified the gap, then I build the day around it. The Mosman day and the Manly day shared almost no similarities, because the teams didn't need the same thing. 

The day itself 

I arrive before the team does and set up on their floor, at their mirrors, with their tools. That matters more than it sounds. A neutral venue is lovely, but it isn't where the habits live. Habits live at the station they cut at every day. 

The morning is demonstration and breakdown. I cut, I explain the why behind every section, and the team watches at the mirror rather than from across a room. 

Then it's hands on hair. Everyone. I move between stations, correcting angles, questioning choices, and having the same conversations I've been having with apprentices for over twenty years. 

The afternoon is refining, personalising, and pulling the whole team up to the same standard, and that's the part I care about most. When one stylist gets educated, one column improves. When the whole team is educated together, the salon's standard changes. 

We finish with a team photo, and usually an owner who's a little surprised by how much shifted in a day. 

Why now? 

December exposes every skill gap at once. Full columns, no time for supervision, no room for a senior stylist to quietly redo an apprentice's work. Every weakness that's been manageable all year becomes a problem in the busiest six weeks. 

October and November are the last useful windows to do something about it. 

Who it suits? 

Teams who can't lose three stylists to travel. Salons with one specific weakness. Owners who want everyone educated at once, on their own floor, so the standard lifts together. You don't need a full team either. One apprentice and one specific problem is a valid booking. 

Two in-salon dates left for all of 2026. Both Sydney, 19 October and 2 November. 

Enquire here about In Salon Education.