Fresh twist: Hair salon switcheroo ties Double Bay gossips up in knots

This tangled tale has Double Bay tongues wagging: Tom Cole used to work for Joh Bailey. They fell out after Cole’s Bali wedding and Bailey fired the now-split newlyweds. Now Bailey is moving into Cole’s shuttered stand-alone salon.

Tom Cole, left, Joh Bailey, right, and the salon, now named joh, which is on the site of Cole's former stand-alone salon in Double Bay. Pictures: News Corp/Supplied

Oh, what a complicated web they weave.

The Double Bay social set has been awash with chatter about the latest in the suburb’s hairdressing fraternity.

Tom Cole, one-time employee of Joh Bailey, has pulled stumps on his business Tom Hair Studios and moved home to London due to family issues.

After initially trying to sell the business, Confidential understands Cole sold the business with veteran coiffeur Bailey taking over the lease on the Cross Street premises with a new concept salon marketed to younger folk, named simply joh.

To make the whole situation a little more juicy, Cole’s ex-wife, Mariah Rota, operates a salon she once had with her ex just around the corner called Cole Hair Studio.

The wedding of Tom Cole and Mariah Rota at Bali's Atas Ombak Villa. Picture: Supplied

Mariah and Tom went solo with their business after their relationship with Bailey soured when he attended their Bali wedding.

At the time, Bailey was accused of behaving rudely, was asked to leave and subsequently fired the newlyweds.

Joh Bailey, centre, at the wedding of Tom Cole and Mariah Rota. Picture: Supplied

Text message sent from Joh Bailey to employee Mariah Rota after her wedding to Tom Cole in Bali. Picture: Supplied

Bailey and business partner Marilyn Koch, regarded by many as industry icons, also operate the two storey flagship, Joh Bailey, on Knox Street, Double Bay.

Mariah and Tom broke up after he had a romantic relationship with local celebrity eyebrow queen, Kristin Fisher, and subsequently opened his own salon as Tom Hair Studios.

In February last year, Cole said of the competitive Double Bay salon environment: “there’s more than enough clients to go around”.

“The last few years have been very rocky,” Cole told The Wentworth Courier at the time.

Tom Cole and his now ex-wife, Mariah. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I was quite ignorant for a period of my life, my late 20s. I hurt a lot of people, didn’t realise what I was doing at the time. I took a year off, took a step back and really focused on myself I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, having that year off. Just working on myself, working on what makes me happy again, working on building myself up. I think that really gets translated, transferred back into the new business.”

Of his new salon, joh, Bailey said: “I am delighted to bring this vision of joh to life under the direction of such a carefully curated team of artists. joh is essentially about this next generation of hairdressers and clients and while I’m still very much at our Joh Bailey HQ and Bowral, I’m really looking forward to spending my Thursdays working and collaborating with the team in this new space.”