The summer of 1980 was a terrible time to own a hair salon on Sydney’s Queen Street. The mile long suburban street had over twenty salons to choose from, and haircuts that were once $20, had been steadily knocked down a dollar at a time by each salon in turn.

The first salon to discount started doing cuts for $19, and very quickly every salon on the street was advertising $12 haircuts just to compete and stay open.

The situation was desperate, and many businesses were going to the wall for want of a better solution. Apart from one smart salon owner who created a big sign to put in his window which simply read:

We Fix $12 haircuts.

You don’t have to tell the same story as everyone else. You actually get to choose.

Image by Michael McCullough.