​The Story of Leopold: A Legacy in Hair, Craft, and Curiosity

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The name Leopold traces back to Mr Robert Leopold, who arrived in Australia from Britain in 1962 and quickly made his mark on Melbourne’s hairdressing scene. Within only a few years he had established several salons across the city. One of them — tucked inside The Hub Arcade  became the place where Ross began her apprenticeship, setting the stage for a lifelong career.

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Mr Leopold was no ordinary salon owner. He was friends with some of the most influential figures in modern hairdressing: Vidal Sassoon in London, the visionary team at Mods Hair, and Jean Louis David in Paris. Through these connections, he introduced a unique training method to Australia — a blend of French and English instruction that shaped a generation of stylists with precision, discipline, and artistry.

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By 1984, Mr Leopold hung up his scissors and retired. Ross, fortunate and ready, was offered the opportunity to purchase the South Yarra salon. She continued the French training tradition with passion, passing on techniques that included the earliest form of balayage (or beliage, as it was sometimes spelled then) long before it became a global trend.

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Ross’s very first apprentice in 1984 was Angela — the same Angela who still works beside her today. The photograph to the right captures Angela’s once‑famous cascade of long, luscious curls, which have remained hidden from daylight for at least three decades.

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Ross celebrated an extraordinary career at Leopold’s. In her own words, “I am grateful every day that I had the opportunity to work and be trained by one of the best.”

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Her career has taken her into remarkable places — working in Paris with her dear friend Greg, spending time inside the studios of Mods Hair and Jean Louis David and collaborating with the legendary photographer Helmut Newton during Leopold’s work with Vogue magazine. These experiences shaped not only her skill, but her eye, her style, and her understanding of hair as an expressive medium.

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Then, in 2016, Ross completed her BA in Archaeology — a path that may seem worlds apart from hairdressing yet fits perfectly with her lifelong curiosity. Through archaeology she explored the ancient history of hair: its colours, its symbolism, its rituals, its evolution from antiquity to the present. What emerged was a deeper illumination of hair as a cultural artefact — a medium that carries identity, beauty, and meaning across thousands of years.

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Today, Leopold’s stands not only as a salon, but as a living archive of craft, creativity, and continuity a place where modern technique meets ancient curiosity, and where a legacy begun in 1962 continues to grow.