Brisbane hairdressers: Mikki Auld on innovating during coronavirus crisis

Want to dial in to your next online meeting looking as fabulous as Brigitte Bardot? Now you can, with the help of a popular Brisbane hairdresser who is hosting free online styling sessions to help you get the look of style icons throughout history.

The hair dryers have been switched off at Mikki Auld’s eponymous West End hair salon but don’t expect them to stay quiet for too long.

“These are unpredictable times but we’ll come back stronger than ever,” the 29-year-old says of doing business during a global health crisis.

Mikki Auld, hairdresser. Photo: Renee Green Creative

Hairdressers are still operating in Brisbane, but Mikki made the tough decision to close her doors to safeguard the health of her seven staff and their guests.

“But we’ll keep innovating and remaining positive. If you let all of this get to you it will consume you,” she says.

And innovate she has. This week, Mikki began posting styling sessions on the salon’s popular Instagram account (@mikkiauldhair).

The first was a step-by-step guide on how to create three iconic Brigitte Bardot hairstyles using only basic products. A mini-masterclass on nailing a Sharon Tate look followed.

It’s a never-say-die attitude that the hairstylist, who grew up on a farm at Roma in Queensland’s southwest, has called on before.

She spent her childhood riding horses and dreaming of a career in fashion design in London inspired by the Vogue magazines she would buy with her pocket money.

Mikki grew up in Roma and always had a passion for fashion and style. Photo: Renee Green Creative

Instead, she found herself cutting hair for £6 an hour in the UK capital at age 25.

“I was probably working at least 60-70 hours a week cutting hair in a salon, at home and waiting tables just to survive, and that forced me to innovate,” she says.

Mikki came up with some creative slogans advertising her at-home hairdressing services and stuck them up all over London. She eventually built up a client base that kept her there for nearly a year.

But home was calling, and Mikki figured if she could “make a go of it” in one of the biggest cities in the world, she could do it closer to family too.

After a stint in Byron Bay, Mikki arrived in Brisbane in 2016.

She continued working from home, but not serving up the beachy, blonde styles that were all the rage. These were Mikki Auld styles.

“In London women would shave their heads and wear no make-up and just be so unashamedly themselves and I loved that,” Mikki says.

Her 70s-inspired cuts – Mikki has always been enamoured by the fashion, film and music of the era – and bold hair colours earned her a strong Instagram following.

She got so busy that by 2018 she had hired an assistant and opened her first salon in Woolloongabba.

By early 2020, Mikki Auld Hairdressing had outgrown the space and moved into its current home, a sun-drenched warehouse in West End.

A loyal customer base – including Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield of local band Cub Sport – followed.

“We had one of the guys from Grinspoon bring his daughter in a couple of months ago. We’ve also had one of the guys from the band Violent Soho, we do the team from Florence Cafe and Martha Street Kitchen in Camp Hill, and Jacqui Toumbas who owns Miss Bliss. People who are bringing culture to Brisbane.”

Her commitment to sustainability is unwavering.

“Growing up on the farm made me conscious that when our earth suffers, we suffer,” Mikki says of her decision to team up with Sustainable Salons to practise green hairdressing. Trimmed hair is used for hair booms to clean up oil spills on the Great Barrier Reef and ponytails are repurposed into charitable wigs.

Used aluminium foil, colour tubes, cardboard, paper, magazines and broken tools are sold for recycling and all profits are donated to OzHarvest which provides meals for the hungry.

“I’ve always wanted my salon to be a safe place for everyone and it’s gone beyond my expectations.”