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Hair!

The male half of Ginger Meggs flaunts flamboyant outfits and a head of dreads. The female half moonlights as a volunteer in a neurology ward. Not your average suburban hairdressers then.

Words: Amanda Cropp  Photographs: Guy Frederick


Mike Hamel at work in Ginger Meggs, his salon in
the swish Christchurch Merivale Mall.

AN ENORMOUS CRAZED MIRROR dominates the Ginger Meggs hair salon and co-owner Mike Hamel cheerfully admits he deliberately jumped up and down all over it to create the cracks. “It distorts your image and makes you relax about how you look. It’s my way of making people feel comfortable.”

The truth is that some clients are a little uncomfortable the first time they meet New Zealand’s current Master Hairdresser of the Year, a title he’s won twice before along with many other awards. Trademark dreadlocks hang down past his shoulders. On a Monday morning, as the salon in Christchurch’s swish Merivale shopping precinct slowly winds up for another busy week, he’s wearing pale green trousers made from fabric resembling a candlewick bedspread, a bright green patterned top over a long-sleeved blue T-shirt and red trainers.

Wielding a blow-drier and with scissors and combs in a holster slung from his hips, he looks like an urban Rastafarian cowboy. In a part of town where striped shirts and denim skirts are still de rigeur for women of a certain age, Mike stands out like Nandor Tanczos at a National Party ladies’ afternoon tea. “I got dreads before it was trendy because they’re very easy to maintain. And I don’t want to look like a hairdresser. All my friends who are hairdressers have no hair so if you’ve got it, you may as well flaunt it.”

Mike and Glynis, his wife and business partner, could easily have taken their hairdressing skills to Auckland or Sydney. But for family and lifestyle reasons they opted to remain in Christchurchand it certainly hasn’t held them back. Last August they launched Mike, a range of hair-care products developed in conjunction with local biotechnology company Keratec Ltd. Mike contacted the company after hearing about its pioneering work in extracting keratin proteins from sheep’s wool without reducing their potency. The aim is to go global, with different formulas to suit different ethnic hair types and climatic conditions. Mike skin-care products will hit stores in February, followed by a line of make-up mid-year.

"I don't want to look like a hairdresser. All my friends who are hairdressers have no hair so if you've got it, you may as well flaunt it."

Meantime he puts in three 12-hour days a week at the salon. “I do 100 clients a week. Most hairdressers here and in Australia average 28 to 44.” Ginger Meggs, which celebrates  its  20th  birthday  this  year, employs 23 staff.

Customers range from sports stars such as former All Black Andrew Mehrtens to grandmothers who’ve patronized the salon since the day it opened. Loyal clients fly in from Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown, Sydney, Melbourne, New York and Germany, making appointments to coincide with business trips and holidays.

Last March Ginger Meggs opened the G Spot salon in the Contemporary Lounge, a trendy recent addition to the long-established and usually rather conservative Ballantynes department store. Mike also designs hairstyles for Stellure, a website pioneered by a local IT entrepreneur that allows subscribers to try 3D hairstyles on computer-generated models of their own faces. And on top of that he somehow finds time to enter (and regularly win) hairdressing competitions and have his work featured in top international hairdressing magazines.