A former dancer who fell into the hairdressing industry almost by accident is celebrating the success of her Sunshine Coast salon after nearly walking away from her career three years ago.
Samantha Jones opened Ms Monaco Hair Society at Sippy Downs in 2018 and the salon was recently recognised as a finalist for the Australian Hair Industry Awards (AHIA).
With a colourful career history, a love of customer service is what led Ms Jones into the hair industry a decade ago.
“I actually started out as a professional dancer,” she told Sunshine Coast News.
“I trained in London and I used to work on cruise ships. Then when I came home from a contract one year, I didn’t have anywhere to live or the money to get back into auditions.
“I saw a job advertised for flight attendants and applied for that and worked out of Heathrow for 10 years.”
During her time as a flight attendant, which required her to look presentable and tidy, to complement her job Ms Jones began training in the beauty industry, specialising in nails and beauty.
“Eventually I opened my own hair beauty and nails salon in the UK and hired a hairdresser to do the hair side of it.
“That ended up going really well and was how I fell into my apprenticeship.”
Once she achieved her hair qualification, Ms Jones made the move to Australia shortly before opening a salon at Strathpine in Brisbane in 2011.
By 2014, her salon had outgrown its space and she moved it to North Lakes before career fatigue set in.
“I was burnt out and didn’t know how to manage quality of life and business.
“I decided to sell that in 2018. I then realised I missed it and six months later opened the salon in Sippy Downs.
“My main focus now is work-life balance for myself and for my team and with that in mind I’ve been able to manage growing the business quite fast.”
With a team behind her who cover roles including team educators and floor and front of house managers, Ms Jones has been able to create a balanced environment for her staff.
“My team work really hard for me, but in return I like to think I look after them,” she said.
“All our senior team work full-time but they work four-day weeks so they have that work-life balance.
“Our industry does involve evening or weekend (work) so it’s really nice to give them a day off during the week.”
As well as focusing on customer care, Ms Jones is passionate about educating and training young apprentices to become qualified stylists and she currently has four young Sunshine Coast women training at the salon.
Ms Monaco Hair Society is also known for being a blonde specialist.
“We are really focused on high-quality service. No one’s a number here, everyone feels valued and special.”
“We are blonde specialists and we do training regularly in blonde services.
“We were also all recently qualified as balayage masters. That helps us with heaps of different techniques so that anything that sits in our chair we can work with.”
In terms of 2021 hair trends, Ms Jones said she was seeing natural blonde colour return in place of the recently on-trend ashy blondes.
“I’m really enjoying seeing brighter, cleaner blonde rather than ashy blondes at the moment.
“I think that more vanilla (and) buttery natural blondes are really a big trend of this spring.
“Also, beautiful shades of copper. I think people are warming up a little bit.”
Ms Jones said she was thrilled Ms Monaco had been announced a finalist in two AHIA categories for State Salon of the Year Queensland and Best Customer Care.
The awards, which began in 2014, are judged by 40 international experts and provide a benchmark of excellence across specialist, group and individual categories.
“I was over the moon when I found out, not just the one category but the two,” she said.
“This year (AHIA) had more entries than they ever had, and I just didn’t think we’d stand a chance.
“We’re up against some really well-established salons that have been going for many years.
“I really want to get Ms Monaco up there so people look up to us as one of the ‘big boys’, and for the team to see they are working in a recognised salon as well.”
“Customer care is a massive one for me because being an ex-flight attendant I try and operate my business a little bit like that, so for me to be nominated in that is absolutely fantastic.”
Due to continued growth Ms Jones said plans were in place to move Ms Monaco to a larger Sippy Downs premises in September, 2022.
“We’ve grown out of here,” she said.
“With my young apprentice team, I really want to be able to give them opportunities and have the room to hire them as stylists and put them on the floor once they are qualified.
The AHIA winner will be announced on the Gold Coast on November 28.
Ms Monaco Hair Society is located at 4/8 Fairfax Street, Sippy Downs. Visit msmonaco.com.au.
