Sixty years of Cataldo’s style, and a personal thank you for the warm Italian embrace
Posted on
In July of 1985, my mother gave me a great gift.
I was turning 14 years old, Madonna’s Get Into the Groove was charting, Canberra’s population was half of what it is today, and I had picked out a special birthday outfit of a striped chambray shirt, paired with a pair of Marcel Dachet denim overalls and Converse high-tops.
The gift from my mother was an appointment at the city’s premier hairdressing salon, Cataldo’s.
She was the most elegant woman in my life, never leaving the house before her hair and makeup were done.
Her short dark hair was always meticulously cut and styled, and I was of an age where my unruly, curly, mouse-brown hair was due for some serious attention.
We pulled up to the tiny-but-bustling Hobart Place salon, and I met what has become my adopted second family.
Cataldo’s Salon turns 60 this year and their success is the archetypal Canberra story – an Italian immigrant family arriving in the nascent capital and helping bring it some European flair. Lord knows we needed it.
The family has also helped grow the city economically, training generations of award-winning stylists, ploughing their earnings into successive and more glamorous salons and investing in the local property market. Hard work pays off.
View this post on Instagram
Patriarch Giuseppe arrived in the city in the 1957 (temporarily leaving his wife Ida and two young sons Emilio and Angelo behind in Italy) to pave the way for a new life for his family.
He took a job helping build the Cotter Dam, selling supplies such as beer and chocolate on the side, and cut his fellow workers’ hair during lunch breaks and in the evenings. Soon enough, he had saved enough to set up the Hobart Place salon and bring the family out.
I still remember this effusive and affable man, his immaculate appearance, his radiation of warmth. He would check on all of his clients, placing his hands gently on their shoulders and looking at their reflection in the mirror before declaring them “Bella!”. He loved us all, and we loved him. He cut the hair of Prime Ministers and diplomats and treated everyone, including me and my mum, with utter care and dedication.
What a deeply sad honour it was to be the one to write his obituary for The Canberra Times when he died in 2010.
Of course, we all know that Emilio and Angelo, who spent their afternoons after school sweeping the floors and standing on a box to shampoo clients at the basin, would each go on to become Australian champion stylists. Siblings Aldo and Anna would also play their role in growing the business, and Giuseppe’s grandchildren are now themselves award-winning stylists. Angelo’s daughter Claudia returned from Paris in 2022 with one of the industry’s most coveted global awards – the L’Oréal Style and Colour Trophy.
View this post on Instagram
My first salon cut was not actually by a Cataldo, but by a beautiful man called David, admittedly my first crush. He created magic upon my teenaged head – a sleek and smooth bob that I didn’t want to wash, ever, as I had no way to recreate it. I felt like an adult, an icon, as I swished my hair back and forth during my birthday party that afternoon, which consisted of seeing Desperately Seeking Susan at the movies with my friends.
It also smelt divine – the signature Cataldo styling tonic, which I would often identify when out in public, and I walked close to another woman fresh from the salon. I can still remember this scent distinctly.
A professional cut and blow-dry literally made me feel invincible. This was just the start.
As my mother explained, having well-kept hair is important. It signals self-care, self-esteem, a sense of style, and gives you confidence to face the world. Consider me converted.
I didn’t get regular cuts back then because it was expensive and indulgent for a Campbell High School student, but somewhere in my sixteenth year, I caught the attention of Emilio, who loved my crazy curls and asked whether I would model for them. In came his wife, Jennine, to do my makeup, and Hilary Wardhaugh took the photos. My 16-year-old heart could not cope with the excitement of the experience.
The first of a lifetime of Cataldo’s haircuts.
From there, things became a bit of a whirlwind modelling-wise, and I always remember my asymmetrical bob of outrageously large curls was part of the attraction. I would go on to earn a lot of money from my hair. Eventually, I got a modelling contract overseas, and while most of it was for clothing or make-up, my very first job in Hamburg was for L’Oreal. Fitting.
View this post on Instagram
But my story with the Cataldos is about so much more than just hair. This entire boisterous and enormous Italian family would take me in their wide embrace, where I would eat at their family table, interview them for various stories in The Canberra Times and HerCanberra and share in many joys and a few of the big sorrows. I have been blessed with their friendship, grace and care for over 40 years now, and on their auspicious 60th birthday, I reflect on how much this family has contributed to me personally.
Emilio opened the entire salon on a Sunday to prepare for my wedding day. He did my hair in a classic pin-curl style that I love to this day. While he focussed on me, the team focussed on my three bridesmaids.
As I arrived at Saint John’s Church for the ceremony later that afternoon, I spotted the entire family in a happy congregation outside the church – they had come to see me in my wedding dress and wish me well.
View this post on Instagram
When my two children were born, Emilio came to my home to trim my hair so I could feel a bit more “me” in those first crazy weeks following childbirth. Each new baby received a beautiful hard-cover classic book from the family that I have kept to this day
When my magnificent mum died, I arrived to get my hair done for her funeral, and all the staff lined up solemnly to hug me and express their condolences as I walked through the salon in a daze. Emilio gently guided me to a private chair upstairs so I could cry freely while he worked. Not a word was spoken, and when he finished, he pressed a GHD into my hands to make sure I farewelled my beloved other half in appropriate style.
I cannot complete this story without admitting there were a few years back when I temporarily suspended my regular visits. I decided to grow my hair, and a friend was trying to establish her own at-home salon. I felt torn as I wanted to help her financially, but it felt disloyal not to have Emilio in charge of the scissors. He saw me one day with my longer hair and hugged me with such affection that I almost burst into tears on the spot. I wrote him a long letter explaining how terribly guilty I felt having someone else touch my hair. He wrote back to tell me not to be ridiculous, and that the salon would always welcome me back if ever I wanted to return. Which I did once my friend wound her business up.
Honestly, it made me love them all the more and that return visit felt like I had never left.
View this post on Instagram
Emilio and Jennine have helped me celebrate significant birthdays, and I have always joked that in my next life, I am coming back as a Cataldo.
My regular salon visits are always a joy as Emilio and I discuss our city and our nation, our lives and our families, and I share his immense pride in seeing the Cataldo name go from strength to strength. They never rest on their laurels, always striving for better, always training, always staying abreast of the technology and the trends, always so utterly stylish.
But as I have always said, the Cataldos have style built into their DNA.
Can you imagine my emotions as I have brought my two now-teenagers into the salon to have their hair styled?
View this post on Instagram
I may even have nearly shed a tear recently when my daughter, now 15, got called in to model for some staff training. It is a full circle, hair-swishing moment. Cataldo’s hair, of course. For me, it is a way of life.
So I say Buon Compleanno (happy birthday!) to this big, beautiful family. You’ve helped style Canberra (and me!). May you have many more successful decades.
