Aiming to support other local creatives during these challenging times, The Collective Aberdeen has been working with a range of north-east stylists and barbers to enhance its offering.
“When chatting to other business owners, everyone is doing their best, but what I hear is, it could be busier,” said The Collective Aberdeen’s owner Julie Hulcup.
“Aberdeen has a wealth of really creative people right here on our doorstep, and we wanted to do what we can to support them.
“I think now more than ever, it is important to support local artists and businesses and do what we can to support each other to help rebuild our city.
“The bonus for us is that our team gain new skills and experience – it’s a win-win situation.”
While the Union Street salon’s principal stylist Abbie Salmon and stylist Courtney Vaughan were already qualified, they didn’t feel confident enough to cut gents’ hair. Therefore, The Collective joined forces with popular Aberdeen men’s salon Mr Dun.
Julie said: “I thought the best place to send them would be Mr Dun’s Barber School, which is a six-week night school.
“They thoroughly enjoyed it and have really benefited from the extra training.
“The guys at Mr Dun are so knowledgeable and absolute perfectionists – we will definitely be using them again.”
With the male grooming market growing and men spending more time and money on their appearance, Julie thinks this is the right time to diversify the salon’s offering.
Therefore, she also invited Ross Hume, who is very well known within the industry, to deliver a master class in The Collective. Julie said: “He’s a massively talented chap – not only for his cutting skills but also his presenting skills. He has 15 years’ experience and is Toni & Guy trained.
“Although he cuts ladies and gents, we invited him in to give our guys a gents’ training workshop.
“Ross covered many topics including how to build a gents’ client base and using social media and marketing to attract more gents to the salon.
“Ross did an education session followed by a demo initially, then our guys had to perform two cuts each.
“It was very in-depth and our guys were so impressed.
“We just want to increase our skill set to attract more gents to the salon.”
Julie said the most popular men’s cuts at the moment are fade hair styles.
She added: “That is something Ross and the team at Mr Dun covered in depth.”
The Collective also teamed up with talented stylist Kara Thomson.
Julie said: “Kara is most definitely one to watch.
“I’ve known her for a number of years and her career has blossomed. She is hugely talented in colouring and in particular Vivid colouring, which are basically these crazy holographic colours using PulpRiot colour.
“She performed a master class for our team, which they loved.
“It was so educational for the guys, and Kara shared tips and techniques. The whole day was very hands-on with teamwork and one-to-one work.
“Our guys were buzzing after, and we’ve started to see clients asking for these colours already.”
The Collective Aberdeen is situated at 148 Union Street. Find out more information or book an appointment.
