Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
It’s no secret that there are many hairdressers here on Mount Tamborine, but Soul House of Hair stands out for quite a few reasons, billing themselves as a ‘eco-salon’ not the least of them. We sit down with owner Crystal White to find out what really makes Soul House the soul of our community.
by Kyle Hitchmough
You call yourselves an “eco-salon”. Can you explain what that means?
We are about 97% sustainable at this stage. What it means is that we have next to zero wastage in the salon. That goes from hair, colour, products… you name it, it’s completely recycled and repurposed. We literally put one bag of garbage into a green bin a month that has biodegradables and other non-recyclables in it. Absolutely everything else is recycled or repurposed into something else, or it’s on-sold to be repurposed and that money goes to charity.
You’re involved in a lot of charity initiatives as well. Can you tell us more about that?
We recently just did an initiative for breast cancer awareness and raised $2600, so that was pretty amazing. We are called Soul House of Hair because we are part of the soul of the community. A hairdressing salon traditionally was about bringing people together in a place where they could feel they were a part of something. They would meet other people and share that bond, and that’s part of what I want to bring back to the mountain. Doing something that affects so many people and being able to do that as a part of the community is something that’s really important to us. That’s a little part of the community work we do.
You offer take-home hair care products too. Do you work with any particular brands?
We are organic as well, we’re an organic salon. We only deal with Australian owned, made and manufactured. We’re with an amazing colour company called De Lorenzo, and they’re the only colour company in Australia that’s 100% manufactured here, which is fantastic. They’re organic and vegan as well, and use a lot of recycled materials in their product. We deal with a local company called Rizvan for skin care, and that’s handmade here on the mountain an Ethical Brand Co, they do Everessents and Clever Curl which are manufactured on the Sunshine Coast. To us, it’s really important to make sure we’re supporting Australia. Our tea in the salon is a healing tea and it’s handmade on the Gold Coast, and our coffee is from Tamborine Mountain Coffee Plantation. We’re keeping everything local, Australian and in-house, that’s really important to us.
Do you have any particular specialties in the way you deal with hair?
We are a curly girl salon. We practice the ‘curly girl method’, which is quite a famous method in terms of being able to manage curly hair. That’s something that we’re really passionate about. We’re also passionate about helping clients be able to have a colour that suits their lifestyle and is simple and maintainable. On the other spectrum, we’re getting a lot of customers that are now stepping outside of their comfort zone. They’ve been going to salons for years who have told them they can’t have something, and we say ‘why not?’ That’s part of our ethos. We donated things to the Melbourne Cup Day at the Coffee Plantation, gift vouchers to the Scarecrow Festival and also to the Artisan fair. It’s important for us to be in on everything happening locally because it benefits all of us, not just the salon, and that’s part of our vision. Soul House is everyone’s house.
Do you find there’s a most common kind of haircut you’re offering?
Being able to wear your hair naturally and maintain it naturally with the minimum amount of chemicals is our niche, and being able to offer service and maintenance that’s affordable but also really good for you and the environment.
It’s often said that a hairdresser is not unlike a counsellor for their clients. Do you find that’s true? How do you deal with that?
We do, and I think that’s something I would say is an honour to be a hairstylist. Sometimes we think ‘Oh, gosh, did we really need to know that?’, but mostly it’s part of what we do, and I make sure that all of the girls that come through the salon are trained in mental health, first aid, and ways of being able to cope with any serious information that’s passed through to them.
What do you think makes Soul House of Hair a unique part of the community?
I think that Soul House of Hair provides a safe space and a welcoming experience for whoever walks in our door. We take a holistic and spiritual perspective, and it’s also a little bit diverse in that we are outspoken – we step outside of the box. You will see some crazy things happen, a little bit of shock factor maybe, but it’s all about changing the way we think and that’s really important.
Are you currently seeing any trends in hairstyles?
We are digging the mullet at the moment! We’ve done a few, male and female. We’ve got a few of our clients rocking a few different cool coloured hairstyles and some really unique foils and colours. I think it was really fun for breast cancer awareness month because a lot of our clients who are probably a little bit more conservative all got a little bit of pink in their hair for breast cancer awareness, and it’s given them a little taste of what life is like on the wild side.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
It’s being able to bring a point of difference to a community but also be a part of the journey with people as well. My girls are incredible stylists. We host a lot of students as well, we have other people wanting to enter the industry so we get them to do their work experience here. It’s really exciting to be able to show them a little bit of the mountain and why we’re so passionate about it.
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