Going to the hairdressers can be an uncertain experience. "Our research found people didn't know how long it would take or how much it would cost," says Grant Stapleton, the co-founder of Hue specialist colour salons.
After two years doing due diligence on the hair salon market, Stapleton and Jenny Aitken launched the specialist business in April 2008, with the promise that their colouring treatments would be half the price and take half the time of the upmarket hair salons.
Over three years on, the pricing has risen to meet market expectations. A half head of colour costs $105 and $135 for a full head.
Hue is Aitken's first business - she was a production co-ordinator at New Zealand Doctor, when she was putting the Hue idea together. Years before she had also done beauty therapy at Ballantynes in Christchurch where she learned about a "service ethic".
As an entrepreneur in waiting she sought help from franchise coach David McCulloch, who introduced her to Grant Stapleton, the man behind Bakers Delight in New Zealand.