Colour confident: Adriana Hanna designs Hues Hair’s bold Melbourne salon

It makes perfect sense that a hair salon specialising in colour has a bold approach to pigments, but the Australian Hues Hair has taken that idea to an extreme with its new parlour.

Enlisting local architect Adriana Hanna to design its Richmond outpost in Melbourne, Hues Hair couldn’t veer further away from the predictable hair salon typology if it tried in its new space. To begin with, the dusty pink and verdant green colour scheme is a visual assault as soon as you walk in. Add to that the simple geometries at play, dallying with form and scale to create functional zones – sinks for hair drying, stations for blowdrys – creating a genuinely memorable experience.

Adding even further to the optical illusion of the coves, arches and T-shaped cutting area are mirrors at each station, intended very much as key design elements beyond their functional role.

Beyond the space itself, Hues Hair pays tribute to other homegrown heroes too. ’The obvious choice was to start with our styling and colour products,’ explains founder and owner Jamie Hughes. ’O&M – OriginalMineral – pride themselves on removing harsh chemicals wherever possible from all their products,’ using natural extracts and active minerals instead. Touting local tea and coffee brands, Hues Hair serves a selection of herbal loose-leaf teas by Love Tea and coffee from Industry Beans.

Striking monochromatic furniture finishes off the space, with the graphic houndstooth print by Paola Navone dressing ’Eumenes’ chairs – lest your eyes should find a spot of silence amid this sea of chromaticity.