This year, the team at Scotland’s largest salon group and creative colour experts, Rainbow Room International, are celebrating 45 years in business.
Rainbow Room International began with one salon situated on Buchanan Street in Glasgow in 1979, has grown to become an eleven-strong salon group. The group has grown organically over the past 45 years, with many of the Salon Directors also being with the company from the beginning, starting as apprentices or young stylists and working their way up the ranks to franchise their own salon with the support of Rainbow Room International Co-Founders, Alan and Linda Stewart.
In 2003, Alan and Linda moved the Academy to its current state of the art 7,500 sqft premises in Howard Street, which is at the forefront of today’s most advanced development programme. It delivering over 120 apprenticeships with years of flawless audits, and has helped to grow and develop some of the industry’s greatest hairdressing talents. Academy Director, Laura Leigh Kerr, has since taken the Rainbow Room International Academy to new heights and has won several awards for her extraordinary education programme. This programme has also led Leigh to become the Scottish Ambassador and Chairperson for HABIA, helping to write and develop qualifications including the brand new SVQ level 1 and shape the future of hairdressing.
Now, there are eleven Rainbow Room International salons in Scotland, including in Glasgow City Centre, Glasgow West End, Clarkston, Ayr, East Kilbride, Uddingston and Bearsden. All Directors grow their own salons and nurture their teams and have won many awards at some of the industry’s biggest events and regional events due to their incredible salon success and business acumen. Through their unmatched support to the salon group, Directors and the hairdressing industry, Alan and Linda Stewart received an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List for Services to Hairdressing in 2021.