Blonde BLACK Hair & Beauty is the solo studio of Bernadette — Bea — a master stylist who spent seven years owning and operating Vibes Hair and Beauty in Invercargill before selling it on 1 April 2025 to strike out on her own. She now rents a chair with Mike at Kaos HQ in the city centre, doing exactly what she loves most: bridal hair, makeup, extensions, trending nanoplasty treatments, general makeovers and, above all, blonde.
As the name promises, colour is the heart of the menu — from quick T-sections and regrowth touch-ups to full heads of customised foils, balayage, Scandi hairlines, on-scalp bleach and by-the-gram toners, plus colour correction for bigger transformations. Every colour service is built on a consultation, and Bea describes herself as constantly learning and upscaling her craft, so new industry techniques tend to appear on her menu fast.
It's a genuinely all-ages chair too: women's, men's, student and children's cuts, blow waves and express styling, hair-ups for balls and events, dreadlock tidies, and GHD curls or french braids for the under-twelves. Small touches — free fringe trims for regulars, a VIP priority list for weft-extension clients, coffee-fuelled extension consultations — reflect her stated philosophy: 'I have a huge passion for making people look great and feel great. This fills my cup!' Booking is online, and gift vouchers are available.
Step into Kaos HQ on Tay Street in central Invercargill and you'll find one very busy chair: Bea's. Blonde BLACK Hair & Beauty is the solo venture of Bernadette — "Bea" to just about everyone — a master stylist who has spent her career making local hair dreams a reality. After seven years owning and operating Vibes Hair and Beauty, she sold the salon on 1 April 2025 and set out on her own, renting a space with "the awesome Mike" in the city centre. Her brief was simple: keep doing exactly what she loves — bridal hair, makeup, extensions, trending nanoplasty treatments and, above all, blonde — just on her own terms.
Bea's own description of her craft reads like a tour of everything current in hair. She calls herself a blonde specialist and lists bridal hair, makeup, extensions, nanoplasty treatments and general makeovers alongside it, adding that anything new in the industry, she's "all over it — constantly learning and upscaling my craft." The motivation is equally straightforward: "I have a huge passion for making people look great and feel great. This fills my cup!" Clients get the benefit of that energy — she loves the planning as much as the execution, and invites everyone to "take a seat in my chair to see what I can do for you and your hair."
Colour is where this studio truly shines. The menu runs from quick fifteen-minute T-sections for hairlines and partings, through regrowth colour, root shadows and tones, and global colour in reds, copper, violets and chocolates, to the full blonde toolkit. That includes partial partline foils — home of Bea's soft, natural "Beachy lights" — half heads, and full heads of customised foils, all built on a consultation. For committed blondes there's on-scalp bleach regrowth, and toners charged by the gram so your exact shade is mixed fresh to banish brassiness.
The Scandi hairline service lightens the fine baby hairs around the face for a bright, seamless, sun-kissed frame, and a wet balayage add-on revives grown-out or dulling blondes. Balayage itself is a signature: low-maintenance, lived-in colour that works in reds, coppers, golds and lattes, not just blonde. And when a home colour experiment goes wrong or a big change calls for expertise, colour correction appointments begin with a consultation and a hair plan for the journey ahead.
Hair extensions are a genuine specialty, and they start with coffee rather than a hard sell. At a consultation you'll talk through your desired look, colour-match the hair (or plan colour first), and learn exactly what's involved in caring for longer locks. Weft services use Russian Remy hair, with mapping and placement, nano beads, a sew-in, cut and shaping, aftercare tuition, and a VIP list giving maintenance clients priority booking for any weft emergency. Move-ups every six to eight weeks keep roots healthy, and a removal-and-resew treatment day — cleanse, treatment and massage before the wefts are remapped — refreshes everything.
The wider menu covers the whole household: women's short and long cut-and-blowwaves with a GHD finish, express wet cuts for the time-poor, men's cuts and styles, permanent waves, student and children's pricing, blow waves, express drying, hair-ups for balls, birthdays and the races, dreadlock tidies, and GHD princess curls or french braids for the under-twelves. Bridal hair and makeup — Bea's self-declared first love — remains front and centre, alongside trending nanoplasty smoothing treatments.
Every appointment opens with a consultation, and the small touches are telling: fringe trims are free for regular clients, extension clients are colour-matched before any hair is ordered, and the service notes are refreshingly honest — arrive with clean, dry hair for hair-ups and express styling, and bring your own accessories. Booking happens online, gift vouchers are available, and colour services are priced transparently, with extra colour charged by the gram and discussed at consultation. Whether you're a platinum purist, a balayage devotee, a bride-to-be or simply due a tidy-up, Blonde BLACK offers something increasingly rare: one master stylist, her full attention, and a genuine love of the work.