“The customers are the audience. I always build up a show.” TIA PRIEST-WILLIMOTT meets a hairdresser who’s  teaching professional performance.

Italian-born master cutter Roberto Pozzato is heading a local academy that’s training the next generation of hairdressers. 

“What I’m teaching is based on discipline because I think that talent is common, but discipline is very hard to find,” the new arrival to Canberra says. 

“So, my goal is to teach work ethics and how to bring your best self everywhere you go.”

Roberto has been making waves (and bobs, and fringes and, well, you get the picture) in Jamison since the start of this year. 

Before heading to the ACT, Roberto worked in London and Sydney for Toni&Guy, a British international chain of hairdressing salons founded in 1963.

Roberto wants the next generation of hairdressers to embrace the creativity behind the skill, from the way they wrap the cape around each client, to the way they handle their scissors.

“I’m also teaching things like body position because I believe that your body is an extension of your hairdressing tool, so if you’re using your body wrong then you can’t create the correct shape in a haircut,” he says.

“The customers are the audience. I always build up a show and that’s why I’m teaching performance.

“I want to teach them how to dance and fly when they’re giving a haircut.”

Throughout his career, he’s given models, actors, actresses and influencers fresh haircuts. Now, he’s cutting the hair of Canberrans. 

Roberto’s passion for hairdressing started when he was 14 in the small Italian village of Brandizzo.

“My hair was blonde and curly and, as I grew up, it started getting darker and straighter and I just didn’t like it. So, I went through a buzzcut phase,” Roberto says.

“My mum said to me, ‘I’m paying every week for a buzzcut. Get a different haircut or I’ll buy you a clipper’.”

Roberto opted for the clippers.

“I started giving myself mullets and mohawks, all crazy things… But it was hard to do it on myself, so I called my mates and that’s how I started and I never stopped,” Roberto says. 

“They all said, ‘Roberto, you’re actually really good at what you’re doing, you’ve got eyes for the end result’.”

A few years later Roberto went to hairdressing school, where he officially got his qualifications. 

After learning as much as he could from various Italian salons, he decided he wanted to see more of the world.

“So, I took all my stuff and moved to London without a word of English… I had to start as an apprentice because I wasn’t able to communicate with my customers,” Roberto says.

Thanks to friendly customers, classic movies and friends, Roberto learnt English and started working with Toni&Guy.

Four years later, he decided it was time to “fly again”.

So, he and his best mate packed up and moved across the world to Sydney.

“I started in Bondi Junction in Toni&Guy, then I became a national educator with them, and then in 2022 I moved to the CBD,” Roberto says. 

After seven years in Sydney, Roberto moved to Canberra for a change of pace. 

“Now that I’m here, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.” 

Alongside his passion for hairdressing and teaching local talent at the academy, he’s a strong advocate for men’s mental health. 

“In November last year, me and my best mates in Sydney helped organise a beard bash competition,” he says.

All the proceeds went to helping men’s mental health. 

Beard owners stay tuned – Roberto and his friend are looking at holding a similar competition in Canberra, with some basic plans in the works. 

Roberto has high hopes for his time in Canberra, but for now, he invites you to sit back, let your hair down and watch the magic unfold starting from his scissors and comb.