Quick fire Q&A with Samantha Cusick

We’re getting up close and personal with salon owner and founder of Stā Studios, Samantha Cusick

CHM: Tell us something we don’t know about you

SC: I really am a country music fan. The worse a country song, the better I like it! Garth Brooks Neon Church? Classic!
I’m also in the top 10 per cent globally of Google reviewers! I really feed the data. When a client leaves a Google review, it’s so valuable for me as a business. So, I pay it forward and do the same for everybody else.

CHM: In another life, Samantha Cusick would have been…

SC: A travel blogger! Actually, if I didn’t do hair, I would do interior design.

CHM: What has been the toughest challenge or period in your career thus far?

SC: COVID was really tough. Just going from being flat out to not busy and having to pivot everything. I was fortunate enough that I didn’t have to worry about money, but making sure you kept up your team morale and staying connected with them was really challenging. That whole imposter syndrome, that was probably the worst time for it. My anxiety was really bad. But you learn, you adapt.

CHM: What advice do you have for anyone suffering with anxiety?

SC: Try CBT therapy. It changed everything for me in 12 weeks. If you’re really suffering, you need to take practical steps. I’m very logical thought pattern, so general therapy wouldn’t work for me. But CBT really outlines why your body is doing certain things, why you’re spiralling and why you need to bring it back to these certain tools to cope with it. It never goes away, it’s always there. But I’m not scared of it anymore.

CHM: Who do you love on Instagram?

SC: There’s the hotel in the south of France called Lily of the Valley, which is literally my favourite place. I take such inspiration, it’s like you instantly belong, nothing’s ever too much trouble and they get that across on their socials as well, so it entices you back, they keep that relationship with you.

CHM: What’s on your bucket list still?

SC: I’ve ticked off a bucket list moment, which was to go to Coachella with ghd. I saw a few stylists there on Instagram and I said to Greg: ‘I’m gonna do that next year’. And I did!
I would love a salon either in the south of France or in New York. That would be a real moment. But the ultimate bucket list item is to be able to go between the different cities that I love and work in them.
I didn’t really have a choice in my career when I left my salons than to open a salon, because there was nowhere that you could go and take your clients. I love it, I don’t regret it at all, but had there been somewhere I could have just gone straight over and had everything I needed straight away – that whole salon infrastructure – I would have done that. It’s really important to be altruistic, to help everyone else not have to deal with the shit that you dealt with.