Off The Books

Emily and Chloe never planned to run a salon together. Emily dropped out of uni after turning her parents' dining room into a full-time nail studio. Chloe was working in the police force before her beauty side hustle completely took over.

Best friends since they were babies in carriers, they went from texting during lunch breaks to taking on a run-down vape shop and completely renovating it into SIXTWENTY Salon — all self-funded, self-taught, and without taking a single day off work.

And every day, they're showing up for their team, scaling their training academy, and proving that nail techs run serious businesses!

We get into:

✨ Why nail tech pricing is "stuck in the dark ages" — and how to fix it

✨ The 7-hour round trip to Manchester after a lost passport nearly ruined their Dubai trip

✨ The chaos of self-funding a salon build with a Snapchat drawing instead of blueprints

✨ How The Nail Tech Org and worldwide retreats completely transformed their business mindset

🔗 Useful Links & Resources:

🤫 Submit your Chair Confession anonymously

📲 Follow SIXTWENTY Salon on Instagram

💅 Discover The Nail Tech Org

📸 Follow Styler on Instagram

🌐 Visit the Styler website

☎️ Need help with a booking system? Book a call with me

For the first time on Off The Books, it's not one guest but two!They started a salon when they were teenagers! Fifteen years later they run Jordan & Charlotte Hair Lounge in Darlington together — hair extension specialists, sisters, and by their own honest admission "warm, honest and a little bit chaotic."

This is what it's really like to build a business with your sister: the arguments, the balance, and fifteen years of graft from handing out leaflets in a town centre to training educators in Australia

In this episode

- Opening a salon at 19 and learning the business the hard way

- Working with your sister, and the family meetings held over lasagna

- The call from Remi Cachet: "can you be ready in 3 weeks?"

- We tackle their only one-star review

- Comparison culture, jealousy in your own town, and why they clap for everyone now

- What's next... you'll have to listen!

Plus Chair Confessions — including a couples facial that turned into a screaming row about his mother.This is the candid stuff. So sign out of the salon, keep it to yourself, and let's go off the books.

Useful links:

Submit your Chair Confession anonymously: https://tally.so/r/81ErWY

Jordan & Charlotte Hair Lounge

Download the Jordan & Charlotte Hair Lounge app

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Stacey never wanted to be a barber. She wanted to be a paramedic.⁠ But, for Stacey — the universe had other plans. From barbering in car parks to today, where she runs Stacey's Barbers. Traditional shop out the front. Sensory room out the back.⁠
 ⁠
 And every day she's making haircuts happen that parents were told were impossible.⁠
 ⁠
 Superwoman.⁠
 ⁠
 ⁠
 ✨Why there's zero SEND training in barbering qualifications — and what she's doing about it⁠
 ✨Why "quiet clippers" don't work, and what everyone gets wrong about ear defenders⁠
 ✨The MP who told her there wasn't a call for what she does⁠
 ✨The £10 that got her called a scammer⁠
 ⁠

🔗 Useful Links & Resources:

🤫 Submit your Chair Confession anonymously: https://tally.so/r/81ErWY🎵 Follow Stacey on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@staceysbarbers📸 Follow Styler on Instagram: styler.uk

🌐 Styler website: https://styler.digital

☎️ Need help with a booking system?

Book a call with me

Nicole was told she'd never get aesthetics into a hospital building. Her answer? "Give me time."

In this episode, I sit down with Nicole, founder of Dolce Aesthetics — nurse, practitioner, and the woman now working full-time from Tyneside Surgical Services, where what she's doing goes way beyond aesthetics.

We get into:

💉 From student nurse at 17 to founding Dolce Aesthetics — and why nursing never left the picture

✨ Reclaiming aesthetics — the stigma, the "big lip clinic" phone call, and what good work should actually look like

🪑 The chair doing 11,000 pelvic floor exercises in 28 minutes — and the lives it's quietly changing

👩‍⚕️ Women's (and men's) intimate health — the symptoms nobody talks about, and the treatments that exist right now

🤖 AI facial analysis — is there space for it in aesthetics, or is it Dr. Google for your face?

PLUS… we launch a brand new segment: Chair Confessions 🎙️ Your anonymous horror stories from behind the chair, read out loud for the first time — featuring a prosecco-fuelled hen do, hot wax where it should never be, and a lash client with a very bad habit.

You'll want to hear Nicole's verdict: block or rebook?

Got a confession from behind the chair? 🤫

Submit yours anonymously ⁠HERE⁠

Sign out of the salon and listen in — it's time for Off The Books.

🔗 Useful Links & Resources:

Follow Dolce Aesthetics on Instagram:

Get in touch with Tyneside Surgical Services:

Follow Styler on Instagram:

Styler website: https://styler.uk

Need help with a booking system? Book a call with me ☎️ https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/bookings/styler-demoj0rpff

What does it actually take to build a hair extension business from the ground up — and then do it all over again in a brand new city?

In this episode, I'm joined by Ellie, founder of ELRAE Hair Extensions and Training Academy, to talk about going all-in on a niche, the reality of rebuilding your client base from scratch, and the business strategy behind getting — and staying — fully booked, with a high value clients.

In this episode:

✨ Leaving school at 16 and going straight into hairdressing — and why hair was always the plan

✨ Moving from Lincoln to Newcastle mid-business and starting over from zero

✨ Why Ellie ditched general hairdressing to specialise in extensions — and what it did for her bookings

✨The truth about pricing in the hair extension industry, mates rates, and where people go wrong

✨ Booking systems: what they actually solve, how much money you're leaving on the table without one, and what you should be paying

✨ What Ellie teaches at ELRAE Training Academy — and why it goes way beyond the practical skill.

Plus some crazy industry trivia!

Follow Ellie:

📸 Instagram

🎓 Train with Ellie

Follow Styler:

📸 @styler.uk

🌐 Website

In this episode we chat to Melissa Wright — founder of Allure. What started as one nail tech has grown into two salon locations, an accredited nail training academy, and her own HEMA- and TPO-free nail product line.

With the recent TPO ban sending the UK nail industry into panic mode, Melissa is a genuine voice of reason: calm, informed, and actually building products that meet the new regulations.

We get into the full Allure origin story, plus:

The TPO Ban, Unpacked — what the ban actually means for your nail business, and what to do if the products are still sitting on your shelf.

Training the Next Generation — running an accredited nail academy, the red flags to watch for when picking your training, and the difference between being a great nail tech and a great educator.

Where the Nail Industry Is Heading — how nails have changed since Melissa started out, what's coming next, and what every nail tech should be thinking about now.

Plus a round of This or That through the Allure colour range, where we finally find out Melissa's go-to gel polish… I'll give you a clue, it has a shimmer.

Nail techs, you're going to love this one. Sign out of the salon and listen in — it's time for Off The Books.

—

Follow Melissa: @mel.k.wrightShop Allure: @allurebeautysupplies / alluranails.co.uk

Book at Allure: @allurebeautysalonsFollow Styler: @styler.ukNeed a booking system? Book a call with us: styler.uk/demo

In this episode we chat to Maeve Frances. You might recognise Maeve from Married at First Sight UK, but aside from entertaining us on the TV screen, Maeve has built a successful Aesthetic clinic and Training Academy!

Aside from a bunch of BTS and MAFS gossip... we get into:

• The Power of You: Why authenticity is your biggest competitive advantage.
• Stop "Hiding" Behind the Camera: Overcoming the fear of showing up online.
• Scheduling Like a Boss: How she balances everything from her horses to her famous Monday morning hype calls with clients.

It's time to start showing up for yourself. Sign out of the salon and listen in, because it’s time for Off The Books!

.🔗 Useful Links & Resources:⁠⁠⁠

Follow Maeve on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: ⁠⁠

Enquire about Training with Maeve

⁠Follow Styler⁠ on ⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠

Need help with a booking system?⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Book a call with us ⁠⁠ ☎️

In this episode, we sit down with a true industry icon and the visionary founder of the North East Hair & Beauty Awards, Danielle Walling.Danielle takes us on a journey through the grit and glamour of her career - from building multiple salons from the ground up and navigating high-stakes renovations, to becoming the driving force behind the region's biggest night of recognition. We discuss how she balances the demands of an expanding empire with the reality of being a busy mam of two, and why she never lets the "how" get in the way of a big "Why Not?".🔗 Useful Links & Resources:⁠⁠⁠Follow Danielle on ⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: Apply / Nominate for the North West Hair and Beauty Awards⁠⁠⁠Follow ⁠Styler⁠ on Instagram⁠⁠Need help with a booking system?⁠ ⁠⁠Book a call with us ⁠ ☎️

Welcome to the first-ever episode of Styler's podcast: Off The Books! 🎙️

In this episode, we sit down with the powerhouse behind Hair by LMN, Lyndsey—the newly crowned "Hairdresser of the Year" of the North East Hair & Beauty Awards.

Lyndsey takes us behind the scenes of her 20-year career, sharing the raw reality of opening her dream salon in Jesmond just eight weeks after a C-section. We discuss the "unhinged" excuses for client no-shows, the courage it takes to put your own initials on a brand, and how to rediscover your passion when you feel like you’ve fallen out of love with the chair.

We dive into:

• The Winning Moment: What it was like to sweep three awards at NEHBA and how it validated her 20 years of hard work.

• Design & Identity: Why she ditched the "beige salon trend" for a bold, personal aesthetic.

• The Power of "No": How Lyndsey uses Styler to reclaim her evenings with her new baby, replacing late-night DMs and no-show anxiety with automated deposits that protect her time and her income.

• Advice for the Next Gen: Why "cleaning the skirting boards with a toothbrush" is the start to long-term success.

• The Future of LMN: A sneak peek into the new team and services coming to the salon in 2026.

  
  

  🔗 Useful Links & Resources:

  • ⁠⁠Follow Hair by LMN on Instagram⁠⁠

  • ⁠⁠Book an Appointment at Hair by LMN⁠⁠

  • ⁠⁠Nominate for the North East Hair and Beauty Awards 2026⁠⁠

  • ⁠Follow Styler on Instagram⁠

  • Need help with a booking system? ⁠Book a call with us ☎️

  
  

  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review...it helps us bring more industry leaders to the mic!

Have you ever been told: "'Just work harder, raise your prices, and post five times a day.'"

If that was the secret to success, we’d all be millionaires working four-hour weeks. But the reality? You’re probably drowning in DMs, chasing no-shows, and eating lunch standing up in the stock room.

The problem isn't your work ethic. The problem is that nobody talks about the messy middle. We see the polished Instagram feeds and assume we’re the only ones struggling behind the scenes."

I’m Ashleigh, founder of Styler, and this is Off The Books.

This is the podcast for the raw, unfiltered conversations that usually only happen after the shutters go down.

We aren't just sharing success stories. We are digging into the stuff you aren't supposed to say out loud:

The clients we had to fire.

The financial fear of scaling up.

The burnout that almost made us quit.

And the actual systems, that let you take your life back.

I’ll be sitting down with hair, beauty, and wellness pros who are actually doing the work plus some experts and famous faces you will definitely recognise."

We’re here to learn, to vent, and to grow together.

Episode One drops February 1st.

It’s time to go...Off The Books!

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