Origins of the Q name

Mid 1970’s – Refurbishment was already underway. I didn’t want to use name of first salon “Just Hair” as I wanted to diversify away from just hairdressing.

We were going to put a much greater emphasis on retail and also include a salad bar, houseplants and beauty rooms.

The idea came one evening as we were camping in the attics, which were being converted into a flat. The only paper I had was a large sketchpad and a marker pen (this is significant). I’d always liked the name Elle, a clothes boutique in London and Brighton and I felt a good logo was important.

I wrote out the alphabet, as it happens there were five spellings of Q. A friend, who was also my architect called in to check progress of work and I showed him the list and asked for his first impressions. I was already favouring Q but spelt Que. He thought I’d done an oval with a curl of hair through (the broad marker pen). He took the idea and incorporated a Kentia Palm and a bamboo border.

The sad thing is that as time went on the name Q was also used by a magazine, car dealer, even a pub in Chichester.

It’s interesting that the large carrier bags are sought after by school kids. We had clients on holiday abroad say “snap” with Tee shirts and although we’ve changed the colours the logo has remained distinctive.

I am always being asked where Q came from – now you know!

P.S. Nine months after opening a client remarked it was clever as Q is a long braid of hair in French and also a waist-long, braided pigtail worn by Chinese men, these were once cut off as a punishment.