Global Educator
2024 Australian Hairdresser of the Year
Salon Owner
Global Ambassador
Hi, I'm Sami-J, and whether you're brand new to this industry or twenty plus years in like me, this is exactly where you need to be. I built Sami-J Education because I wanted to share everything it took me this long to learn — no gatekeeping. Twenty five years on the floor, four years shaping global education with a small handpicked team of artists worldwide, and I'm still learning myself.
That's the whole point.
I moved from England to Australia at 17 — but I'd already been working in a salon since I was 14, back in high school. Two decades on, I'm still in it, still building, and nowhere near done.
Seven years ago, that experience became something of my own: opening Adelaide Salon SJ Establishment. Multi-award-winning, and built entirely on my own vision for what hairdressing — and the people learning it — deserved.
Built On Purpose, Not on Luck
I entered awards deliberately — not for the trophies, but for what it represented: the credibility to align with the industry's best, grow my own skills and brand, and eventually help take Australian hairdressing onto the world stage. Winning Australian Hairdresser of the Year in 2024 wasn't a finish line — it was the platform I wanted, to put me among the best in the global industry.
On The Global Stage
Four years into my role with the Matrix Global Artistic Team, my work has taken me to LA, New York, London, Europe, Bangkok, India, Hong Kong — creating new techniques for the brand, leading global campaigns, and educating rooms ranging from intimate hands-on sessions to audiences of 600 international hairdressers while educating hair live — some of the biggest crowds in the industry. I've also judged the world's biggest live hairdressing competitions in India and Bangkok as an international guest artist.
A Range, With A Specialty
My education covers the full spectrum — cutting, colour, consultation, business, content — because that's what actually running a career on the floor demands. More recently, I've become especially known for my large curly hair clientele and global education for textured hair, customising curly colour placement and dry cutting. But most of my career has been spent perfecting and educating on lived-in blonde and bronde techniques — nailing the ultimate lift and the effortless blend, sharing my systems that make it work every time, for every client. Simple but impactful sectioning. Working smarter, not harder.
That's Who You're Learning From
Here's the part that matters most: I'm still on the salon floor. Cutting and colouring clients I've had for over 20 years. Leading a team that's now known for being regulars in the Australian awards lineup. This isn't a "used to be a hairdresser, now I teach" story for me — it's current, active, and happening in real time. That's who you're learning from.
More recently, I've found myself invited onto stages and panels to share my journey — a reflection of my commitment to in-salon training, global education, and bridging the gap across hairdressing skills worldwide. Most recently, that's included MC'ing the apprentice panel at the Australian Hairdressing Council's Leadership Conference, alongside national speaking engagements with L'Oréal and small business events across Adelaide.
You can have it all — but it takes work, organisation, passion, and the right people around you to make it happen.
That's the philosophy behind everything I do. Not a life you build for retirement — a life you build for now. Mum of two, partner, salon owner, global educator — all at once, not one traded off for another. It takes work, organisation, and the right people around me, but it's proof the philosophy holds up in real life, not just on a slide.
The real passion and achievement isn't the awards. It's watching someone understand something fully for the first time — and bridging the gap between hairdressers everywhere, wherever they are in the world, through education, skill, and business know-how.
This is why I created Sami-J Education.