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Scarlet Fever
Date Added: 2009-04-06
Dinosaurs roaming, animals clinging precariously to climbing vines and an imaginary girl in a beautiful dresses with a painted smile looks on perpetually as a grandfather clock tick-tocks the time away. No, this isn’t an episode of Lost. This is Scarlet Moon, a salon which is anything but ordinary. Sarah Andrews reports.
Martin Fox and Dean Bradwell had a dream. It was a big dream, a creative salon dream, demanding 16 inventive hour days a day, with the remainder of their time spent trawling the internet for inspiration and ideas. This dream needed a name and Martin wanted it to be meaningful.
“I wanted to name the salon after my daughter, so we called it Scarlet,” says Martin, “but as co-owner, Dean came up with the other half of the name – Moon.” This is of course was going to get the salon noticed. “Because it’s unusual, the name gets people talking,” confirms Martin, who is also a Brand Ambassador for Wahl.
When Martin and Dean began searching for the building that would capture their creative business, they came across a rather run down looking terraced house. “It was built in 1879 and had lots of character,” explains Martin, “but had been empty for three years with no central heating – very primitive!”
Little did this forlorn, forgotten building know; it was about to be transformed into Scarlet Moon, as the determined duo of Martin and Dean set about refurbishing the interior by hand, a task which took them three solid months.
Scarlet Moon wasn’t designed by some high-flying interior designer – it was pretty much created via cyber space: “We designed the interior via e-mail,” says Martin, “Dean and I sent drawings back and forth between the two of us; we didn’t sit down with an architect.” The building was planned to serve two purposes: “I also have a photography business,” says Martin, “so upstairs is my studio for art photography and printing and downstairs is the salon.”
The virtual world also played its part in providing salon furniture, much of which came courtesy of ebay. “We got a lot of vintage furniture, which suits the period of the building,” says Martin. “Contradicting this, the backwashes (from Aston and Fincher) are brand new and look interesting when juxtaposed the old.”
This type of creative thinking has also crept into other aspects of the interior, as the salon has an evolving choice of art. “The artist – Dave Earl – who shows a lot of the art on our walls, also spray painted our Manga girl onto the wall.”
The eclectic taste of the owners has caused much client comment. “We’ve added all kinds of quirks to the salon, from dinosaurs stuck on the alarm box to vintage sweets on a cupboard door and we keep adding similar detail as time goes on.”
Like all the details in the salon, Martin and Dean painted the walls themselves: “We painted the walls different colours – of course we used scarlet, light blues and duck egg green. I want to constantly change it, because we do get bored.”
Salon colours are highlighted with 39 spotlights which run on different circuits and a glamorous chandelier, imported from Italy.
This distinctive salon caters for an exclusive clientele and Martin wants to keep it that way. “We only have three staff and the salon itself is small, because we want a boutique, up-market feel to the salon,” says Martin. “We have toned down our presence and only have a small sign outside the salon. All our clients come in on a referral basis – no one walks in. We prefer to keep to people we know.”
Salon: Scarlet Moon
Address: 17 Baker St, Middlesbrough, TS1 2L
Phone number: 01642 240877
Owner: Dean Bradwell, Martin Fox
Business established: August 2008
Number of staff: 3
Number of styling chairs: 3
Number of backwashes: 2
Financing: Self financed
