After 22 years of cutting hair, Helen Johnston’s dreams of owning her own Perthshire vivid colouring salon have come true.
Having always been fascinated by hair colouring, Helen’s love was reignited in lockdown thanks to Instagram videos of colourful hairstyles.
Last year, she moved to Julie’s Cutting Edge in Auchterarder and started offering vivid colouring as well as normal haircuts and blow dries.
She is now opening her very own salon Vivid Halo Hair Studio on the town’s High Street due to high demand.
“I started focusing on the colouring and found that my clientele just grew and grew,” she says.
“I’ve had a waiting list for months because I’m too busy to take on new clients.
“This business has gone from nothing to over capacity without having my name on the door.”
Vivid Halo Hair Studio helped by social media
The 38-year-old says social media has played a huge part in building her business.
As well as showcasing her work on Facebook and Instagram, seeing videos of brightly coloured hair has become more normal.
“Two or three years ago people would have said ‘I couldn’t ever have blue hair’ or ‘my boss would kill me if I had rainbow hair’,” says Helen.
“But a lot of people are now working from home, and a lot of people just don’t give a monkeys anymore. Life’s too short.”
Colour correction is another specialty for the mum-of-two.
After seeing many unhappy clients come to her salon, she learnt the best ways to fix previous dye jobs.
Helen’s career started at 16 as an apprentice, learning blow drys, cuts and perms. But colour has always been her favourite.
“I’ve always been fascinated by colour. I loved the science behind it and the fact that you can completely change something in just hours,” she says.
“But I didn’t have the audience for it. Now my clients are my biggest fans and they make me feel confident in what I do.”
Salon for learning
Working in Vivid Halo alongside Helen when the salon opens on Thursday will be hairdresser Emma.
In the future, Helen hopes to also offer different types of therapies in the salon.
Her top priority is making sure everyone feels welcome at Vivid Halo and providing a space for young hairdressers to learn.
She says: “I want to keep enthusiasm going in young hairdressers and give them a platform to be expressive, to grow and to learn.
“A lot of times in my career I was stopped from taking paths I wanted to take, and it’s taken me years to reignite my passion.
“I want to encourage young artists and allow them to express what they want to achieve.”
Conversation