Scout speaks with Paradise Cutters co-founder Paul Allen to find out how he carved a niche in the market by cutting hair and selling records.
For Melbourne, a city thriving in independent music, fashion and design, it can seem daunting for a young business owner. Yet for Paul Allen, co-founder of Paradise Cutters, a dual-hair salon and vinyl record store in Brunswick, competition is not seen as a hurdle but rather an opportunity to explore and develop your own brand.
“There’s always going to be competition, no matter what you do,” says Allen. “But that just means you have to focus on creating your own identity.
“You work in strips and there’s 20 hairdressers, but we all have a different niche and clientele.”
Paul and his wife Tanja moved to St Kilda in the early ’90s, where their love of eclectic tunes, rock‘n’roll and vinyl had them takeover and rebrand their local record store, Warren’s Record Paradise in 2009.
“I used to shop in there all the time, so did a lot of locals in St Kilda, it had been around since the ’50s. So we bought the shop, dropped the Warren name and kind of infused our own style. More modern bands, younger bands.
“So as well as us taking over his whole collection, over the last 10 years we made it into our own.”
But for Paul and Tanja, the decision to relocate to Brunswick three years later with Record Paradise, created an opportunity to blend their creative interests with the local scene.
“I’ve always been a hairdresser, half of my clients are part of the music scene and it’s the only thing I’ve ever known. My (hairdressing) clientele started in St Kilda, but have now moved to Brunswick with the opening of Paradise Cutters.
“People are happy to travel, it’s a really beautiful thing to have your old clients support you, so that essentially was what has kept me going, but it’s really exciting to have a new infusion of the Brunswick crowd.”
The salon, located near the corner of Brunswick and Sydney roads, could almost be missed if not for the trademark palm tree on the front door. With a hand-selected mix of vinyl and vibrant artwork when you first walk in, you move onto Allen’s salon, designed to his eclectic style in music and modern art.
“When you first come in here, you might be overwhelmed with so many pieces of art on the walls, which is generally musically driven, with a bit of fashion as well.”
Yet, despite Allen’s blend of creative interests, his salon has a primary focus on hair.
“I’m a focused cutter and always base my cutting on natural forms and not over-styled hair. Some people like glamorous, we do understated, simple, but street-looking hair.
“We’ve got a nice little team at the moment. The staff are really friendly.”
With long-lasting connections in Melbourne’s music scene, Allen feels that the move to Brunswick connects well with his understated hair, but also his history and interest in local, independent music.
“The music is part of the psyche, it’s just part of the Brunswick and north-side scene. A lot of clients come in here who play in bands, a lot of managers and bookers. So it all kind of blends, works in together. Melbourne has got such a strong music scene.
“Our selection of vinyl comes from our store Record Paradise just down the road. It can be heavy punk, or world music and soul, all kinds of singer-songwriter stuff. Bands that we’ve supported in Record Paradise, that we’ve supported in the store and have launched their albums.”
Allen also DJ’s across Melbourne and has created soundtracks for the NGV and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. His experience and never-ending search for music is what keeps his brand forever evolving.
“It comes from so many different parts of the world, in so many ways and qualities, it keeps it exciting. It’s never ending, you can never know everything about music.
“Our niche is independent, left field-ish music. In saying that, we have a focus on popular music, not pop chart but more part of the zeitgeist. We buy music from very small labels that drop stuff off … but we also get stuff delivered from places like Sony and Universal.”
In the future, Allen is looking to renovate and expand organically, with the aim of attracting the right people who fit in with what they embody at Paradise Cutters.
“Ultimately we focus on the hairdressing here; the record store and the music is more of my world and the world we live in, but the main focus is really doing good hair,” he says.
“I’m still a vinyl nerd in a shop, I buy records every week, we travel the world and I inevitably find something I’ve been looking for.”
