This year, Rainbow Room Howard Street has celebrated an incredible 20-year milestone.
This salon sits alongside Rainbow Room International’s Training Academy, delivering training to the highest industry standards and working to produce some of Scotland’s top hairdressing talent. Salon Director and Head of Education, Laura Leigh Kerr has reflected on the last 20 years, sharing her stand out moments that helped to build the success of the Training Academy.
As soon as Leigh started work experience at RRI back in 1996, she was instantly hooked, enjoying the buzz of the salon and watching the full styling process from start to finish. Training had always been embedded within the culture at RRI, with experienced stylists taking time in the evenings and weekends to help show techniques to trainees. Leigh loved her training and enjoyed passing on her fundamental knowledge to the next generation, making the decision to dedicate her time to train as a teacher in the Buchanan Street salon before opening the Academy in 2003. Leigh says, “It gives me so much joy to pass on my knowledge to a new generation of stylists. I absolutely love to see their progress and watch everything click into place for them when their training kicks in.”
The Training Academy offers a variety of professional courses, including barbering, classic and creative dressing, curl and texture techniques and precision cutting. This gives a comprehensive range of techniques for trainees to learn how to master. There is a strong sense of education flowing throughout the building, with the salon also providing qualifications for their own assessors and Schwarzkopf using it as their Scottish Education Hub.
Their top-class education is emphasised with their award-winning reputation. Leigh has won ‘Educator of the Year’ an impressive three times at the British Hairdressing Business Awards. She has continuously added new classes, processes and opportunities, including wellbeing days, holistic and painting days. This is an industry where you truly need to care, and Leigh pours her passion into her role with her trainees always at the forefront of her decisions.
Mental health is an extremely important topic at Rainbow Room International. Since hairdressers are talking with clients every day, some heavy and personal details can often be shared, and stylists can absorb this and carry it with them. It is therefore important that stylists understand their own mental health and how to best handle these types of situations. Leigh and the team have provided successful mental health training for all RRI salons for how to have difficult conversations and how to successfully manage certain situations.
Additionally, the salon makes sure to embrace equality and diversity within their business practices. There is a strong sense of cultural awareness and an understanding that sometimes trainees may need certain processes to be adapted due to cultural reasons. The salon adapts to ensure everyone’s needs are catered for. This inclusion helps to build a strong and diverse team.
Rainbow Room Howard Street have also connected with different cultures through travel. This includes organising exchange programmes in Sweden and Lanciano. Following the success of these programmes, Leigh helped to organise for a group to go to Tokyo in 2025 for an incredible opportunity to learn Japanese techniques and customer service. This was a truly inspirational experience for all and helped to reinforce Rainbow Room International’s philosophy of ‘Kaizen’, meaning continuous improvement. Leigh said, “providing opportunities like this is what RRI is all about. I love to see something spark within the trainees, lighting a fire within them and building their confidence. I felt so much pride watching the way everyone developed throughout the experience.”
Rainbow Room Howard Street continues to thrive after 20 years due to their incredible passion to provide world-class training in a wide range of techniques. It’s clear that cultural awareness is embedded throughout the academy which helps the salon to be inclusive and build a strong team of motivated trainees. The salon’s success is shaped by a dedicated team continuously looking at ways to help develop their training, from adding new courses to travelling to new places for practical training.