MANE Salon was born
Before she launched MANE, Janine was a hairdresser, salon owner, educator (and cruise ship stylist - ask her!). Through her experience, she fostered the idea of a new salon concept, one with education at its core and a sustainable mantra. In March 2012 she took the plunge and brought her ideas to life, opening MANE Salon at the Basin. Within its first year, MANE was an award-winning salon named Best New Entrant and Janine Entrepreneur of the Year at NZ’s Hairdressing Awards.

Education at its core
We’ve always believed beautiful hair comes from the hands of a highly-educated stylist. This starts in the MANE Academy - our dedicated training programme. As well as training external young talent, the Academy has seen six MANE apprentices qualify, from Megan in our early days to Leroy and Sav more recently (with Bella and Molly hot on their heels!). 

Going global
We’ve not only educated our local salon community. In 2018, Tarnz spent a sabbatical as a trainer in Sri Lanka, while Janine has taught in Australia, Taiwan and the US in her role as KEVIN.MURPHY COLOR MASTER.

And the award goes to…
MANE! In February we won Excellence in Marketing and our Boss lady Janine Simons took out top educator. We’re proud to put this on our awards shelf next to 2 x Employer of Choice, 2 x Educator of the Year, 2 x Excellence in Marketing, Sustainable Salon of the Year, Best New Entrant, Fastest Growing Salon and more! Plus, we’ve had some outstanding individual achievements including Kiri’s Global.Synergy win in 2014 and being named a finalist multiple times in the prestigious New Creative Force @ Australia Hair Expo. Janine has been named Entrepreneur of the Year, Trainer of the Year and Colour finalist at the NZ Industry Awards. In 2016 Cheryl was named NZ Hairdresser of the Year, aka the Oscar of the hairdressing world!

MANIES Creating Better Days
As hairdressers, we feel we have a unique set of skills that can be used to make a positive impact in our community. Over the years we have supported local charities and hometown heroes with styling sessions, pampering afternoon’s and fundraising - this has included; Women's Refuge, Prepair NZ, Bellyful, Round the Bays for mental health, Skylight and Wellington Hospital’s oncology services. It’s all part of our mission to create better days… and it’s just getting bigger! This year we’re launching our very own fundraising enterprise, more on that to come. 

A certified Sustainable Salon
Beautiful hair shouldn’t cost the earth, something we don’t just say but put into action at MANE. On our 10th birthday, we can proudly say we’re a certified Sustainable Salon, meaning 100% of our colour tubes, tin foil and plastic bottles are recycled, and our hair clippings are used in initiatives such as making hair booms to soak up oil spills. We’re also proud to use KEVIN.MURPHY and Eleven Australia who are PETA certified cruelty-free. Plus, did you know our towels are made from biodegradable bamboo?

Kia ora Ghuznee Street

Big things happened in the MANE universe in 2018 when we opened our Ghuznee Street salon. It became clear that the location was everything MANE is about - surrounded by creative small businesses, beautiful stores and the Te Aro buzz. As a team, we’ve always been tight-knit so working across two spaces wasn’t always ideal. Come 2020 and post lockdown we decided to blend the two salons. We haven’t looked back since.

Let’s get digital
We know some of you will remember our handwritten appointment cards - a lot has changed since then! Our digital engagement kept our salon community alive in lockdown and the launch of our online shop meant the MANE experience was never far away (even when our doors were closed). We dream big and want to be a mecca for hair inspiration, education and creativity. We do this via our blog and social media - as of today, we’ve grown our Instagram to over 6.5k followers.

Color bar manager
Janine’s mission to make the hairdressing industry smarter and more sustainable took a huge step in 2021 with the launch of color bar manager. The app, which she co-created, is designed for salons to accurately and easily manage their inventory and reduce colour waste. Available on the Apple store, it already has clients on board across NZ and Australia!

Whole lotta love
We’ve grown, we’ve won awards, we’ve created beautiful hair… we’ve gone into lockdown (and come back out stronger than ever!). We know we couldn’t have achieved any of this without the people who make us. From a team of four to 14, including a brand & social media manager, shop & inventory manager and communications manager - we’re proud to be a creative hub in our community. The MANE whānau includes you, thank you for enabling us to do what we love to do every day - then, now and in the future. We wouldn’t have achieved any of this without you!