Marisa Kowalczyk
Owner and senior colourist
Runs the floor and takes most of the lightening and corrective work. Twenty-one years in the trade, the last eleven of them here. Quietly fussy about the shade cards.
About Spimori
A Fortitude Valley salon built on second visits
Spimori is a six-chair hair salon on Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley, and we have been cutting and colouring hair in the same spot since 2014. We opened with two chairs, one borrowed mirror and a simple idea: do the work well enough that people come back on their own, without a discount code doing the persuading.
At a glance
Small, steady, local
Six stylists, two colour stations, one receptionist who remembers names. We take one apprentice a year and keep the roster stable so you see a familiar face.
How it started
Two chairs, a shared lease and a lot of nervous coffee
Marisa took over the lease in late 2013 after eleven years working in other people's salons around Brisbane. The fit-out was done on weekends with help from her brother and a second-hand bench from a closing shop in Woolloongabba. The first week of trading brought four clients. Two of them still come in.
The early plan was to keep it small forever. That lasted about eighteen months, until the chairs were booked out three weeks ahead and the wait list annoyed everyone. We took on a second stylist in 2015, a third in 2017, and slowly grew into the six-chair room we have now.
What we did not do is change the way the work happens. Every appointment still starts with a dry look at your hair, and nobody gets booked tighter than the job deserves.
The people behind the chairs
Six stylists and a receptionist who runs the place
Between the team there are four Certificate III qualifications, two colour specialists and a combined thirty-four years of trade experience. Here is who you might end up with when you book.
Daniel Okafor
Senior stylist, cutting
Handles short cuts, fades and anything with a hard line. Nine years on the floor and the person we send nervous first-timers to when they want a big change.
Priya Raman
Colour specialist
Freehand balayage, grey coverage and root melts. Trained in Sydney, moved to Brisbane in 2020. Keeps a notebook of every formula she has mixed for a client.
Ellie Tran
Stylist
Cuts, blow-dries and the person who can talk you out of a fringe you will regret. Five years qualified, currently learning colour correction under Marisa.
Callum Reid
Stylist and apprentice mentor
Long layers, textured cuts and the salon's go-to for curly hair. Four years here after a decade in barbering. Teaches the apprentice the basin timings.
Rosa Petrov
Reception and bookings
Answers the phone, keeps the diary honest and will tell you plain if a stylist is already booked out. Started as a client in 2016, joined the desk in 2019.
What we actually believe
Hair advice should survive the walk home
A salon can send you out looking great and still leave you stuck the next morning. We think that counts as a bad job, even if the photo was nice. These are the rules we hold ourselves to.
Fit the style to the routine
If your mornings are ten minutes and a hair dryer, we cut for that. A style that only works with three products and a round brush is not a style you own.
Price before the cape, not after
You get a range at consultation. If a colour goes sideways and needs more product, we stop and tell you what it adds. Nobody should be surprised at the desk.
Say no when it is the right answer
Not every hair is ready to go platinum in one session. We will tell you that, explain why, and offer what is possible instead. It has cost us bookings and kept us clients.
Work we are proud of
A few jobs worth showing
These came in with a clear brief and left with a client who could rebuild them at home. Two service types, a stack of variations, and work we still talk about at the desk.
Precision cutting
A client who had grown out a short crop for sixteen months came in wanting length back but shape kept. We dry-cut the baseline first, then refined the layers wet and re-checked dry. Two appointments, three months apart.
From $78, booked as a 75-minute slot.
See the cutting service
Colour work
A corrective job from a box dye gone brassy. Two lightening sessions, a strand test between each, and a toner that finally sat cool. The client kept her length, which was the part she cared about most.
From $165, patch test 48 hours ahead.
See the colour serviceMilestones
The short version of eleven years
No great leaps, just a slow build. Here is what actually happened between opening day and now.
Come and see the room
2013
Lease signed on Wickham Street
2014
Doors open with two chairs
2017
Colour stations added, third stylist hired
2021
Full refit, six chairs, quiet room
2023
First apprentice from TAFE finishes
3,400
Clients on the books today
Where to find us
Seven minutes from Fortitude Valley station
We are on the ground floor at 540 Wickham Street, with the door two metres off the pavement. There is metered parking on the street and a paid car park next door. If you are coming by train, the walk from Fortitude Valley station is about seven minutes, and the 199 and 375 buses both stop within a block.
Walk-ins are welcome when a chair is free, but a call ahead saves you sitting with a bad magazine. We run Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00 to 18:00.
Contacts and map
+61 7 4829 1736