The play part of hairdressing

The Noddys team have left the salon behind. Today the styling chairs, the basins and the front desk on King Street are someone else’s problem. They’re across town in a Sydney studio, and the brief is nothing like a Tuesday afternoon at work.

A tree has been built on set. So has a cave. A rock face leans against one wall. In another corner, blue light flickers off props arranged like the floor of an ocean. The crew moves between scenes with the kind of focus that only kicks in when the work is unfamiliar. Hairdressers without their stations. Stylists working on models who will, in a few hours, be a mermaid, a rock climber, a girl in a cave, or Tarzan in a tree, all checking their phones.

This is what happens when you give a creative team a brief that sounds more like a dare than a deliverable. Kitomba told the Noddys team they could do whatever they wanted, as long as the software made it into the shot. For Shane Henning, creative director and co-owner of Noddys on King, that was permission to play.

“Kitomba is available anywhere, anytime, no matter what you’re doing,” Shane says. “So let’s have some fun with this. Let’s have Tarzan in a tree looking at his iPhone, a girl in a cave on a laptop, a girl rock climbing, a mermaid under the sea. The idea is ludicrous and silly and fantasy. But let’s sex up what are inanimate objects and make it more playful and interesting.”

It’s a creative concept that takes a category most software brands handle with stock photography and corporate stages, and instead reframes it as something fantastical. The booking system on a tree branch. The point of sale at the bottom of the ocean. A whole salon’s operation, woven into worlds that don’t exist.

For Shane, the concept isn’t a stretch from what hairdressing already is at its best. It’s a return to it.

“In the salon it can become a bit like a robot. Another day,” he says. “Whereas this is something new and fresh. It’s the play part of hairdressing, and it’s the bit that I think hairdressers get excited about.”

That distinction matters. Underneath the technical craft of cut, colour and chemistry sits a creative discipline. The Noddys editorial leans into that discipline directly. It’s not just a campaign about software. It’s a campaign about the kind of energy that pulls people into the industry in the first place, and the kind of culture that keeps them in it.

Shane’s instinct on the day was to step back and let the team take over.

“The good thing about this shoot was the opportunity for the team to contribute ideas,” he says. “We had a brainstorming session and I think this project was a really great opportunity for future projects we’re planning. When you’ve got one idea you’re working on, it seems to trigger a lot more creativity.”

“The favourite moment of the day has been the team having fun with it, and my being able to step back a little bit and let them work with the models. It’s been great for me to see them all enjoying it.”

The result is a set of images that don’t feel art-directed within an inch of their lives. They feel like a team having a good day. Special effects layered in afterwards bring the more outlandish elements to life, but the energy in the room came first.