ZOE ADAMS HAIR – OPENED NOVEMBER 2021
As with many new businesses right now, the idea for this studio came about in the first lockdown. Zoe Adams became pregnant during that time and, once salons opened up again, found that long hours and the commute to her senior role at Taylor Taylor Notting Hill was unsustainable.
“Sometimes I’d finish at 9pm and then still have to get a train back home and it just wasn’t working,” recalls Zoe. “I started doing hair in my kitchen in Watford and realised people were coming to me even there, so my boyfriend and I decided to build something in the garden. He was getting stressed out with all the colour spilling onto our kitchen’s lovely wooden floor!”
Zoe’s new base is also attractive to her celebrity and influencer guests, which include Ashley James and Laura Whitmore. “Some of my clients didn’t want to come to a salon anymore because there’d always be photographers waiting outside,” she explains. “This is out of the way, they feel more comfortable coming here.”
The studio build has been a family-and-friends affair, with a lot of YouTube research and the roping in of everyone they knew who could help. Zoe’s boyfriend’s father made the bespoke colour bar, although Zoe took control of the painting: “I literally balayaged the wood – always a colourist!”
In terms of the interiors vibe, it’s a fusion. “I was getting Moroccan influences, getting stuff from Portobello Road,” laughs Zoe, thinking back to her budget bargains and Etsy searches. However, there are some areas where she has splurged, including the stone floor, pond mirrors from the Netherlands and an incredible copper bath. “I wanted something luxurious because I love copper and metallics but I didn’t want it to look shiny and new.”
With two chairs, there is flexibility to in the future to bring in an apprentice and resume education, but for now the experience has whetted Zoe’s appetite for something bigger. “It’s definitely inspiring, a stepping stone. It’s given me the first taste of having my own business.”
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