JAMIE AND SALLY BROOKS
BURSTING ONTO THE SCENE IN DECEMBER 2001, THEIR BESPOKE HAIRDRESSING BOUTIQUE PROVIDING WELCOME ANTIDOTE TO THE ‘BLANDIOSE’ MASS-MARKET SALON, JAMIE AND SALLY BROOKS QUICKLY BECAME KNOWN BY THE HAIRDRESSING INDUSTRY AS “THE DYNAMIC DUO”, FOR DARING TO MARRY GOOD, OLD-FASHIONED SALON VALUES WITH CUTTING EDGE HAIRDRESSING, TAILOR-MADE TO THE INDIVIDUAL.
8 YEARS ON, AND 3 TIMES WINNERS OF THE PRESTIGIOUS LONDON HAIRDRESSER OF THE YEAR AWARD, THIS WELCOME, BUT NONETHELESS SUPERLATIVE TERM, SITS ALL THE MORE COMFORTABLY.
Meeting in 1991 at Trevor Sorbie – Sally had just qualified when Jamie joined the same salon – they quickly realised a meeting of minds, both creatively and business-wise, the seeds for their own salon, slowly taking root. “We have pretty much worked together throughout our careers,” says Sally Brooks, “it’s definitely helped us to grow as a unit,” continues Jamie, “we constantly bounce ideas for the salon, for new styles, criticising and expanding on each other; it’s a crucial process as it pushes things forward and we temper each other, bringing things back to a realistic level.”
Realism for the pair means, that despite creating hair for shoots in magazines such as Elle, Brazilian Vogue, You Magazine, Style and Harper’s, designer catwalk shows, and consulting on lifestyle television such as GMTV, The Salon and Faking It, they are seldom far from the salon, nor are they oblivious to the need to continually educate both themselves and their staff through competitions and training seminars, which they operate internationally. As they both insist, and which the salon’s growing success attests, “two heads are better than one.”