In Sydney’s ever-trending inner city oasis lies another establishment that makes the suburb so frequented – the Mr Burrows salon. However, the salon is much more than just warehouse chic, it’s luxe personified, from its services, to its colour and partnership with Lakmé, to its impressive tendency to go the extra mile – wine and cheese included, writes Shannon Gaitz.
Mr Burrows has stood in Newtown’s well-worn streets for six years, with a masculine design built in heavy wooden timber and exposed brick for good measure. Even with this tough exterior and design, the service is distinctly opulent, offering snacks, cheese (vegan cheese as well, critical in Newtown), every type of wine you could ask for, cocktails on a Saturday, elegant teas and more. Mr Burrows learnt long ago what defines luxury.
Building from that, the brand hopes to offer their broad clientele true variety, catering to the eclectic Newtown market and knowing their looks and clients can’t be cornered into a box. Enter Lakmé, the colour solution that allows them as much variety as their teas and wines.
“It aligns with our brand due to versatility, diversity of the colour range.” salon manager Blake James said of the brand, sharing that the hues fuel him creatively, in balayage, root tones and overall colour creation. “Its given myself and the team the flexibility of both warm and cool tones that pertain to the variety of on trend looks apparent at the moment. It supports our signature Balayage and Blondes that we have become renowned for and allowed further creativity.”
Beyond the traditional blonde styles, Lakmé offers the capacity to cater to any trend. “At the moment lots of coppers, corals and everything in the red and copper family is trending,” Blake said. “That’s what we’re predominantly doing at the moment, is anything from a beautiful beige-style, strawberry blonde right down to a deep fiery red, and everything in between.”
“Our favourite formulas at the moment are from the Chroma range, which is what we’re definitely loving the most. The Chroma palette of coppers are a stand out, we like to mix 10/30 with 9/60 that delivers a bit of warmth with a small amount of depth for beautiful tones, we work a lot around the 7 level coppers. We have mastered the natural Coppers with our bespoke formulas by adding a combination of warm, violet and pops of red concentrate to create brights and naturals to meet the personal needs of all clients.”
These formulas are supported by the brand’s other technology, such as the 5 minute K.Blonde toner, the salon favour the Pearl tone and credit it as a hero product.
“Pearl is utilised in the majority of our colours, it’s our go to when creating cool fresh tones. Our point of difference in Mr Burrows salon – the way we set ourselves aside from many, is formulating with many tones to individualise our clients colours rather than just using a colour straight from the tube with no personalisation. It’s creative, it’s definitely more tailor-made and it’s something more unique that they’re having with us here.” The Chroma range in general, particularly the crowd-pleasing Chroma HC, is the set of hues Blake touts as an absolute brand must-have, particularly for its level of coverage.
Accompanying this capacity for colour, Mr Burrows works seamlessly with Haircare Australia for their product needs, often being creatively inspired by the depth in the Lakmé portfolio and enjoying a great relationship with the Haircare Australia team.
“The support that we get is fantastic from them, from a technical standpoint with Lakmé as well as their sales support and how their family values have grown their own business to where it is now,” Blake said. “That’s part of their core philosophy, it’s how they deal with all of their customers and that’s why we connect so well with them cause that’s very similar to how we run our own salon.”
With this intense commitment to colour, luxury, business and quality, it’s no wonder Mr Burrows continues to leap from strength to strength, also buoyed by a unifying passion for charity. The salon group helps at the hospital down the road, offering haircuts to palliative care and cancer patients. They also partner with Dress for Success to help anyone experiencing family violence, poverty or hardship back on their feet with the right look for important job interviews. This soulful nature shines through the salon, driving their inevitable growth.
“The salon is growing at an impressive rate, it’s now two stories, it’s exploded for us, what was a small salon in the west is now fifteen staff strong,” Blake said. “We pride ourselves on having a diverse team. We have stylists, and members of staff from all walks of life so it’s definitely known more as a safe space. Anybody is comfortable coming to our salon. We pride ourselves on these values, and our genuine involvement in various charities allows us to give back to our local community.”
The Mr Burrows formula for salon success and true happiness is as bright and relevant as their latest trending copper look. It starts with wine, tea or coffee, moves to cheese and crackers and ends with an ideal trending look to share and hashtag. Within that, there’s philanthropic care, important business practices and a thriving partnership with Haircare Australia. A must-see destination next time you’re in Newtown.
Discover the world of colour possibilities @lakmecolour @haircareaust. For more information visit www.haircareaust.com
Mr Burrows Trending Lakmé Formulas:
Chroma 10/30 with 9/60 for warmth and depth on a lighter copper look
7/34 or 7/64 with 7/36 and 0/50 for a natural copper with a brighter feeling