A regular feature that offers a snapshot of the working lives of some of Uptown’s most colourful characters. This issue we meet husband and wife team Steven and Mimi Kelly, managing director and creative director of Killer Hair on St Benedicts St.

We wake up...

Mimi: When our youngest bounds into our bedroom. We would like this to be 6.45am! We start our day with cuddles with the kids and the dogs and then coffee in bed before a quick 15 minutes to check emails and make a plan.

Our current jobs...

Steven: I have been specialising in cutting since 2003. I run the day-to-day salon floor and all the business financials as well as coordinating all the cutting training for our young team.

Mimi: I specialise in colour. I work on clients three days per week, head our technical training, as well as look ahead to what the salon needs marketing-wise and organising creative projects. I am also a hands-on mum with two primary school- aged girls who keep me very busy!

We set up the business...

Steven: We started Killer Hair in 2006. It was just the two of us in a warehouse on Fleet St. We built up a clientele and moved to our gorgeous space in St Benedicts St.

Mimi: The St Benedicts St Masonic Lodge at number 24 was purpose-built in 1930 to house Auckland’s growing Freemasons. It is a beautiful building, with the kind of outstanding character and grandeur that has sadly been lost throughout this city. We had been searching for somewhere to move our salon as we outgrew Fleet St and we walked in and fell in love. It’s an amazing space to spend your days, full of light and away from the noise. For us and our clients, it’s an oasis.

A typical day...

Mimi: A typical day doesn’t exist! In this job, every day is different, but that’s what is so great about this industry and we work with all kinds of clients. We love getting to be so intimate with people, having their trust and making them feel great about themselves. There are always lots of laughs. Our team is tight and includes some of the greatest people, many we have been friends with for over 16 years, so it is a privilege and a lot of fun every day.

It all began...

Steven: We both left school and walked into hairdressing apprenticeships. I have always been a hairdresser, Mimi finished her training in hair, but then moved on to work as a chef and only decided hairdressing was the way forward after we married in 2002.

Mimi: Our big break was winning the Wella Colour Trophy and going to New York in 2004 for a month. We got all juiced up on creativity, but when we came back to New Zealand we were both so tired of the old ways of salons. We realised it was time to set up our own brand that was inclusive, supportive, cooperative and honest, or as we say, “Good, Beautiful and True”.

Our most memorable moment...

Mimi: For our business, it was changing the space from a Masonic lodge to a salon. Life-wise, it was having our girls. It was a long road, fraught with fertility issues, but we got there! Both milestones felt exhausting and beautiful and the start of something amazing.

My worst work habit is...

Mimi: Eating my first meal of the day at 3pm happens too often. You can focus so much on ensuring everyone else is good to go and then you realise that you are running on coffee alone.

Outside of work...

Steven: We walk our dogs on the beach as a family and then go for breakfast and plan what we should all do together. As hairdressers, we work on Saturdays, so Sunday is our big family day.

We chose Uptown because...

Mimi: I am a native Aucklander and a history fanatic. Uptown’s past makes it such an interesting place, but now it has a vibe like it’s just on the cusp. The area is perfectly positioned at the edge of the CBD, where inner city meets suburb. It’s still raw and not yet gentrified, which makes it a special place in this city.

Our Plan B...

Steven: I am a huge Liverpool FC fan and football has been a lifelong passion, so I would be a pro player!



Mimi: An animal rescue organisation would be my plan B for sure.