Matt Forsman Hair

Overview

Slightly before the launch of their new Summer '17 collection, we headed round to Matt Forsman Hair, nestled in beside Good as Gold on Victoria Street. Matt and his team run the coolest salon space in the city—their strong inspirations and principles around hair, coffee, music and ethical beauty make for one groovy hub of well-tressed people. We chatted with Matt about how MF came to be, amid the whirr of hairdryers, the smell of Flight Coffee and beautiful hair products, and their remarkable magazine collection (seriously—pictures to follow).

"I had my own very strong ideals about how a salon should be run, and about how hairdressing should be done. I really wanted the creative freedom to do what I wanted to do, and get my own brand of hairdressing out there." Matt and his hairstylists take inspiration from a wild variety of stylists, from New Zealand and beyond. Above all, Matt Forsman is about simple, classic hair. "It doesn't need to be wildly complicated: beautiful is generally the simplest option."

Originally from Mount Maunganui, hairdressing since he was sixteen, Matt moved down to Wellington around four years ago. After working at another salon on Lambton Quay, he struck out and opened his own. "I think there was a small gap in the Wellington market for my simple, classic and beautiful style of hairdressing. When it comes to the salon, we wanted to create an environment where myself and my hairstylists really wanted to come to work in the morning. A really great space to work in, work with the best ingredients, the best people, the best music, the best colour."

Matt has executed this vision perfectly—the space is light, with an awesome fit-out constructed from fresh plywood that offsets the dark leather of the chairs and the chalkboard wall downstairs that changes pattern with the seasons. It's a great canvas for Matt and his stylists to create within, as their customers sprawl in large chairs with copious amounts of magazines and teapots of green tea or large ACME cups of Flight Coffee.

Matt says he had strong ideas of who he wanted to involve and represent in his salon. "I'm really proud of the Sans Ceuticals range. It's made in New Zealand and is utterly beautiful, entirely cruelty free, paraben and sulfate free. We were the first to stock Sans[ceuticals] in Wellington, their brand is growing well throughout New Zealand. We try to really champion our brands because we really believe in our product. New Zealand-made beauty is awesome! So we're really into that."

As well as New Zealand-made products, Matt places high importance on the place of ethical beauty within his hairstyling. "We're all allowed to look good, and feel good, but if it can have the least impact on the environment, the better that product is. So everything is cruelty free, and where possible we use as few chemicals as we can. 99% of our colour is ammonia free, too. We're really lucky to have aligned ourselves with companies that actually listen to us." As well as Sans[ceuticals], products from O&M and R+Co can be found on the shelves and used in styles every day. "We had one of the co-creators of O&M in here the other day. They ask us what we think, challenges we've had, and then take the feedback and make it better. Being a small salon we're really lucky to have that relationship.

Matt's brand has become well-known in Wellington for his visual campaigns with local brands and identities. "We're trying to grow our own brand, work with collaborators and just get to meet other really cool people in business around town, to share our ideas and just do cool stuff really." Their #GAGgang campaign paired up with the iconic Wellington store Good as Gold, and also introduced a killer student discount of 25%, making the salon a fast favourite around town. "The Good As Gold collaboration came about because we're just cool neighbours! At the moment we're always looking for new collaborations with our branding." In-house, the team are also putting their own projects together. "At the moment we're in the late editing stages of our first collection, a photoshoot of hair and styling shot by a cool local photographer, Oliver Stent, and helped by our friends Georgie Veitch and Grace Howarth." The images are beautiful, a true representation of Matt's philosophy. They can inspire anyone to change up their look for summer: your best, well-tressed self.

Images by Dexter Murray.