There’s no shortage of places to get your hair done in Sheffield, and Michelle Hudson knows the industry better than most. After 25 years in the business, she’s seen salons come and go and trends circle back around. So when the opportunity came to open a place of her own, she knew exactly what she wanted it be.
“I wanted to create a salon that reflected exactly how I believe hairdressing should feel,” Michelle tells Exposed. “It was an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down.”
The result is The Colour Room, which opened in Broomhill on 15 August. Run by Michelle alongside Creative Director James Wardley, it’s a small, specialist salon built around colour, experience and the kind of long-term client relationships that have become harder to maintain in bigger, busier spaces.
For Michelle, opening her own place is the culmination of a career spent behind the chair. A Wella Master Colour Expert – the highest level of colour qualification within the brand’s education system – she specialises in everything from balayage and babylights to highlights, full-head colour and more complex colour correction.
That expertise is important, of course, but The Colour Room isn’t interested in making the technical side of hairdressing feel intimidating. Consultation and honesty come first, particularly when someone arrives with an idea that might not work for their hair.
“We’re not a commercial salon,” says James. “It’s welcoming and a proper service. We would strive to get the client exactly what they want and we’d be very truthful in what we can achieve and what we can’t achieve. We value everyone who comes in and it’s a personable experience.”
James brings more than 20 years of experience himself, spanning cutting, colouring and barbering. Together, the pair have enough years behind the chair to have watched clients move through different stages of their lives – and, in some cases, they’ve been doing their hair since the very beginning of their careers.
“When you have a client, you build a relationship,” says Michelle. “I don’t think the hair is just what they’re coming for. Both James and myself have got clients that we’ve been working with since I was an assistant. They stay with you, so they become part of the family. They become part of the furniture.”
That sense of familiarity feeds into the salon itself. With just Michelle and James working there, appointments don’t have the conveyor-belt feeling that can creep into larger spaces. The design follows the same thinking: warm, relaxed and deliberately removed from the industrial, clinical look associated with some contemporary salons.
“People have literally said in the reviews it’s like having your hair cut in their living room,” says James. “Hopefully that means they feel relaxed and comfortable in the space.”
It’s an atmosphere they’ve been able to establish quickly. Since opening, Michelle says the response has been “absolutely brilliant”, with plenty of new faces coming through the door. The salon is now taking on new clients and, despite having an established customer base, both are keen to meet people beyond the circle they’ve built over two decades in the industry.
The location of Broomhill has plenty of footfall without losing its friendly, neighbourhood feel and Michelle has been struck by how quickly nearby businesses and residents have welcomed them. Local customers have arrived bearing cakes and wine while the barbers next door have already extended an invitation for after-work drinks.
“It’s nice to be part of the community here,” she says. “It’s just a nice, welcoming atmosphere and there’s a real buzz to it.”
There’s also a sense that The Colour Room is Michelle’s chance to take everything she has picked up over 25 years – the good and the bad – and create something on her own terms. With two children now reaching a more grown-up age, the timing felt right to take a risk and open her own place.
“It made sense me doing it now,” she says. “I’ve worked for a long period being part-time, but now it’s my business and I can take this in the direction I think best, running it how I think a salon should be run.”
That doesn’t mean the transition has been effortless. After decades spent concentrating on clients and hair, suddenly there are all the less glamorous realities of running a business to contend with. “Setting up your own business is not an easy ride,” she admits. “I’m fine with the hairdresser side of things, but the business side, you’re very much learning on the go!”
Neither Michelle nor James has ambitions to turn the place into a sprawling operation. In fact, keeping it small and boutique-style is part of the appeal.
“I think sometimes, the bigger a salon gets, the more clinical it can feel,” says James. “You lose that personal touch because it’s more about managing staff rather than looking after clients. I like to think we’re the opposite of that.”
A few weeks in, the focus is instead on settling into life in Broomhill. Unsurprisingly, plenty of familiar faces have followed Michelle and James to The Colour Room, with new ones beginning to find them too.
To book an appointment, head to thecolourroomsheffield.co.uk.
@thecolourroomsheffield
142 Whitham Road
Broomhill
S10 2SR
