John Carne is 30 Years Old in 2010!

2010 sees John Carne Hairdressing celebrating 30 Years in business, with John and his team making waves for the brand since opening his first salon in 1980.

Since then, John Carne Hairdressing has become synonymous with creative excellence and passion for modern bespoke hairdressing.

From John’s early dedication to the Sassoon principles of craftsmanship and art, to becoming one of the most respected figures in British Hairdressing, John has always believed in training and nurturing staff to the highest level. The award winning teams at Wimbledon and Guilford today are testament to that.

John started hairdressing in 1975, after his plans for a career in professional footballing fell foul and he had left school with nothing in mind. A job at a family friend’s salon, His & Hers Hairdressing, to keep busy, led to a career of 34 years that is still going strong.

The initial attraction of a fun salon atmosphere, lunch at the pub and lots of girls led to training in barbering – John’s first client tipped him a cucumber and he has never looked back! It was in the early days of his first job that John picked up HJ and saw the work of Vidal Sassoon, Jingles and Leonard, the London fashion scene was something that John knew he could get excited about.

John got a job with John Jenkins in Guilford who proved to be a huge inspiration, John too had a passion for the London scene and would spend time immersing himself in what was happening and introducing John to Heinz Schumi who’s session work was a big influence. John knew that, like his family who had started in Covent Garden and Borough Market, he wanted to work for himself but that he would take his early experience with him. When he felt that he was making progress his ambition became to open on his own.

When John started his own salon in 1980 he knew he wanted to train staff to be technically perfect but with an editorial edge, so developed a training programme that included Sassoon training with his own in-house method. As John Carne Hairdressing has developed, this training has become fully self sufficient but still maintains the same ethos. Opening in Guilford, John wanted to set up a London-type salon with its finger on the pulse but with the scope to do its own thing.

John’s involvement with London ran deep, his family had been part of old Covent Garden and his friendship with the Sassoon Academy afforded him the opportunity to support Paul Windle in opening his salon in 1986. With Guilford thriving however the plan to expand and strengthen the brand brought him back closer to home and to look to developing plans for franchising. This process included taking on more space, staff and designing a self sufficient in-house training system which upheld the philosophy of mixing technically precise cuts with show and editorial work. L’Oreal were supportive at this time, asking the team to work on their seminar programme and the team also worked in the USA, China and across Europe, laying the foundations for a strong and coherent brand within the industry.

John believes that developing a strong visual identity has also been important in creating this presence and working with photographers such as Mike Owens, Stuart Weston and Colin Roy helped to build collections that have embodied the ethos of the brand.

John has a passion for mentoring and the focus on training staff is at the heart of the brand and is what John believes is the key to growing a strong identity, with a premium service ensuring a strong high street presence and guaranteeing a loyal clientele. John has seen many of his staff become peers in the industry, including Phil Smith of Toni & Guy, Simon Smith of Nicky Clarke and session stylist Harriet White. John continues to push his young team to the forefront of the business to keep ideas fresh.

John Carne Hairdressing opened in Wimbledon Village, London in 2001 as John’s dedication to the industry led him to co-found the Fellowship’s Project X along with Mark Hayes, Zoe Irwin and Simon Smith, followed by becoming Vice President for the Fellowship in 2004. John Carne were Outright winner s of the L’Oreal Colour Trophy in 2004 and Men’s Winner in 2005, and have had numerous nominations for awards sand inclusion in Industry initiatives. At the end of 2008 John and his art team, Andy Smith and Aaron Blondell became Ambassadors for Schwarzkopf Professional which has heralded a new era of combining trade and customer focus to continue to build on the success of the group.

The John Carne Artistic Team continue to be involved in global seminar word, to produce editorial collections and great haircuts and John continues to grow the business and brand for future success.

Vivienne westwood, vogue, glamour,cosmopliton, london paris and milan fashion week, Live shows all over the world for up to 1500 strong audiences, winner of the loreal colour trophy 2004 and 2005

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