Kia ora!

Hey you! So glad you finally made it to the Bravado Blog! Or rather, so glad we’ve finally made the Bravado Blog for you to make it to. It’s been a long time coming, but hey, it’s about the journey not the destination, right? And boy, has it been one hell of a journey!

The idea to open a salon in Whangarei came about not in Whangarei at all, but in a one-bedroom $600 a week industrial apartment. Dan and I met in Wellington in January 2019 and our relationship (both personal and business) has been in the fast lane ever since. By December 2019, we’d moved in together, decided to open up a salon, moved up to Whangarei, found a rental and opened Bravado. Needless to say, we don’t do things by halves.

Dan and I didn’t settle on the name of the salon until later in the process, but one thing we knew from the get-go was that our salon had to have a sustainable focus. Sacrificing the health of our clients and the environment for the sake of beautiful hair just was not an option. We wanted something new and fresh and healthy! We soon found Oway’s bio-dynamic products and fell head over heels in love with their range, their team, and their ethos.
The set-up of the salon was done with the help of some amazing friends and on a shoestring budget. The goal was to get open and started and slowly revamp the salon bit by bit once we started making some money.

When we opened our salon doors in November 2019 we were a team of three with only half of the space in use. Since then we’ve doubled in numbers, in space, in capability and our plans for the future grow bigger by the day. From living it up in the capital to offering a healthier alternative for our community and environment in Whangarei. Dan and I have big dreams for our brand, our salon, our team, our clients, our industry, and our community.
And this is just the beginning.