It’s that time again! Our Salon of the Month

For the month of June, Samuel Burley takes the title of ‘Stylist of the Month’. Sam caught our eye over on Instagram with his seamless colour bleeds and extension work. We couldn’t take our eyes off his creations, so wanted to shine a spotlight on his incredible imagery to help inspire you too.

A little about Samuel

Samuel owns his salon, ‘ Samuel Burley’ named after himself, of course, based in the bustling little town of Tickhill, Doncaster. The salon opened its doors just under two years ago after Samuel grew tired of bouncing from salon to salon, renting chairs. He never felt truly comfortable in any particular salon environment and he learnt quickly that to achieve the goals he had for the future, he would need a team of like-minded people.

First things first, we wanted to know why, when Samuel chose to go solo, did he picked this specific location for his debut salon?

“The location was a complete accident and a bit of a gamble! We had been searching for premises for a while but nothing had caught my eye. Then one day, I found an old run down cottage that I just fell in love with. Gas was leaking out of the walls, the whole building needed re-plumbing and rewiring; there was so much work that needed to be done but I had to have it! It just so happened to be in Tickhill, which is a really beautiful little town on the outskirts of Doncaster.”

So bar the complete rebuild and gas leaks, we wanted to know what the major challenges were when it came to making his business venture work.

“The hardest part was making sure I had the right team, it’s really hard to find people who are equally as passionate about hair and put 100% into their work. Our services can be expensive so finding people that care was crucial to us succeeding.”

Speaking on the topic of Samuel’s team we asked how he motivates his team and keeps them excited and focused? He said:

“I encourage them to show off their artistic skills, create mood boards and get models into the salon to try new techniques and colours.
Luckily my team are very self-motivated and excited about their work, they are always trialling and practising new techniques to bring into the salon.
We like to sit down and have sessions where we share all our ideas of what we would like to see in the salon and what we would like to change. I find this keeps the salon constantly moving forwards, I’d hate for anyone to feel like they were stuck doing the same thing day in day out.”

The silver lining to struggles and challenges is that there are always rewarding moments. At the moment Samuel is seeing his apprentice, Sophie, through her education and to dates it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of his career. Samuel said:

“Watching how someone’s skills develop and flourish is priceless; being able to teach what I know is really exciting. It’s also taught me a lot about myself and how I approach different situations which has been a really big learning curve for me.”

Regardless of being based in a small town, Samuel’s salon really stands out amongst the rest. The salon focuses on extensions and colour and would count themselves as experts in their chosen fields. Just check out the imagery on Instagram and you’ll agree!

Extensions and colour are amongst the most expensive salon services on offer, we wanted to pick Samuel’s brain on how he approaches customer service to make it that extra bit special. Samuel said:

“We always focus on our client's individual style and encourage them to express it. I find that the better you know someone the better you can do their hair and understand what they like and dislike. I always encourage them to open up and approach us as they would do an old friend.”

Of course, you can’t have a colour focused salon without INNOluxe at hand! Samuel told us how he came across INNOluxe in the first instance.

"We had tried every bond builder around but we were blown away by the results from INNOluxe"

“We started using INNOluxe after seeing the results on live models at the Not Another Academy colour courses. We had tried every bond builder around but we were blown away by the results from INNOluxe. Not only was the hair protected, it was visibly glossy and felt like silk, so our clients just had to have it!
For a lot of clients, it’s as much about seeing a visible result as it is feeling the results of the product working over time."

Samuel tells us that INNOluxe was an instant winner with the colourists and clients back at his salon. First timers were hesitant, but they only have the see to believe. He’s also found that it’s not just his colour clients who’re loving the results, it’s his extension clients too. It keeps their flowing locks looking fresher for longer. Samuel said:

“INNOluxe has given us the freedom to push the boundaries of colouring further. We still have limits of what is achievable, but it has allowed us to say ‘yes’ to a lot of colour work that we may have been hesitant about without those magic drops in our colour. It has also given us peace of mind afterwards, especially when clients take home the Elixir, as we know the hair is being constantly treated”

Samuel assured us that he has a lot of exciting things up his sleeve for the next year, but if he told us he’d have to kill us! Head over to his Instagram at @samyuwel to check out his work and more INNOluxe magic.