Hairdressing is as much about how you make someone feel as how they look. That has been true from day one at NOCO and it shapes every decision we make — about how we consult, how we train, how we give back, and what kind of place we want to be for the people of Bristol.
We opened NOCO Hair in 2018 with a clear idea of what we wanted to build. Not just a great salon. A place where people could step out of their hectic lives, leave their worries at the door and feel genuinely looked after. Hair, body and soul.
The relationships are the work
People sometimes ask what makes NOCO different. The honest answer is the relationships. The consultation is not a formality we go through before the real work starts. It is the real work. Understanding who someone is, what their hair has been through and what they actually want their life to look like — that is where everything begins.
We have had clients sit in the chair going through something enormous. A diagnosis. A bereavement. A life change they were not ready for. The haircut is almost beside the point in those moments. What matters is that they felt heard, looked after and, when they left, a little more like themselves.
The wash. One of the most underrated moments in a salon visit.
Where it comes from
The Care with Hair campaign grew from a single moment that made everything clear. Years ago, I was invited to give a final haircut to one of my oldest clients, Megan, in hospice care. That visit changed how I think about what we do. A haircut is not just about how someone looks. It is about being present with another person. Seeing them. Caring for them at a moment that matters.
That one act became the foundation for everything Care with Hair has grown into — over £15,000 raised for Bristol charities, 300 free haircuts given to people who needed them most, and a team that genuinely believes business should do good, not just do well.
What the salon looks like now
The salon you walk into today on Whiteladies Road is the result of everything that has happened since 2018. The award within our first year. The lockdown that nearly ended it. The BBC Interior Design Masters transformation that gave the space its Japandi identity. And the team that has been built around a shared belief in doing this properly.
Corey Taylor at work. Co-founder, Managing Director and L’Oréal Colour Specialist.
Every detail in the salon is intentional. The drinks menu. The plants. The relaxation zone with its floor-to-ceiling bamboo mural. The massage chairs. The burnt orange, navy and yellow that run through the space. All of it exists to serve one idea: that when you are here, you should feel somewhere better than where you started.
We always say clients arrive in a taxi and leave in a limo. That idea — of taking someone somewhere better than where they started — has been at the heart of NOCO from the beginning. So when BBC’s Interior Design Masters came calling and asked to transform our salon on Whiteladies Road, eventually saying yes felt right. Getting to that yes was the harder part.
The road to yes
We opened NOCO Hair in 2018. Within ten months, we won Best New Independent Salon in the UK at the British Hairdressing Business Awards. Ten months. It felt like the beginning of something significant.
Three months later, lockdown hit. What followed was one of the hardest periods of our business life. No revenue, an uncertain future, and a team we were determined to protect. We came through it, but it took everything we had.
The designer
Being part of the semi-final meant the standard was high. We found out we were working with Jack Kinsey, a Fine Art graduate who had produced some of the most memorable spaces in the series — a stunning 1930s beach hut for the NHS, a maximalist Scottish hotel room. We were in good hands.
Noel and Corey with Jack Kinsey at the start of the process.
The brief — and what Jack did with it
The conversation Jack had with us at the start was not dissimilar to the conversation we have with every client. He sat down and asked what we wanted the experience to feel like. What was the client journey? What did we want people to feel when they walked in?
We had one word: Scandi. That was genuinely all I knew about interior design. We wanted something clean, calm, natural. Something that felt Zen inside a bustling salon.
Jack took that brief and went somewhere more interesting. He combined the Scandinavian influence with a Japanese aesthetic and called it Japandi. Not what we were expecting. Completely right.
The result
Over two days, Jack and a team of builders and decorators transformed every part of the salon, with particular focus on the Welcome Area and the Relaxation Zone. The tradespeople were exceptional. They stayed behind for four additional days after filming to make the salon client-ready before it was TV-ready.
What they left us with: yellows, navy and burnt orange introduced throughout. Live plants bringing the space to life. Rattan lamps and a sunset-coloured mural in the welcome area. An abstract mountain effect at the entrance. And in the Relaxation Zone — a ceiling-to-wall bamboo and tree mural that transforms the wash area into something genuinely meditative.
The salon after the Japandi transformation. Left: the new colour palette throughout. Right: the welcome area with the sunset mural.
The reception and the Relaxation Zone. The bamboo ceiling mural is genuinely something to experience in person.
The judges and the reaction
The judges were Michelle Ogundehin and Mary Portas. Mary awarded Jack first place in the grand finale for a design she called upmarket and chic. The social response when the episode aired was immediate.
With Alan Carr during filming. Not a bad day at the office.
What it means now
The episode was delayed three months by the Qatar World Cup. We took a punt, sat on it, and waited. When it aired, it was everything. The salon today is essentially the same as Jack left it. We have made some small adjustments, but the core of what he created is still there every day.
More than the design, what the experience gave us was a clearer sense of what NOCO stands for. The brief Jack responded to was the same brief we give every client: tell me what you want it to feel like. He heard Scandi and made Japandi. We hear one thing and design something better. That is the job.
This winter, NOCO Hair is offering 100 free haircuts to people in need across Bristol. Between 1 January and 28 February 2026, our team at Whiteladies Road will open our doors to local people through a network of ten Bristol charities, each receiving ten vouchers to use however they see fit.
Each charity can gift their vouchers to someone they support, raffle them to raise funds, or use them to recognise an outstanding volunteer. It is our way of giving something back to the city that has supported us since the beginning.
Where it started
The Care with Hair campaign grew from a single moment that changed how we think about what we do.
Years ago, I was invited to give a final haircut to one of my clients, Megan, in hospice care. That visit stayed with me. It revealed something that is easy to forget in the day-to-day of running a salon: that a haircut is not just about how someone looks. It is about how they feel. Seen. Cared for. Present.
That one act of compassion became the foundation for everything Care with Hair has grown into. What started as a personal response to a profound moment has become an annual commitment to the people of Bristol who need it most.
What Care with Hair is for
The campaign exists to help people feel confident, cared for and seen, particularly during difficult times. Recipients have included people going through cancer treatment and hair loss, people in recovery, and volunteers who spend their lives putting others first.
The NOCO team. Care with Hair is a team effort, every year.
Want to get involved?
If you are a local charity or organisation in Bristol and would like to take part in a future Care with Hair campaign, we would love to hear from you.
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