Hair stylist has got you by the short and curlies‚ judge tells salon giant

It was curling tongs at dawn when a junior hair stylist resigned from a posh salon and went to work for a competitor.

Believing that Joseph Vinciguerra‚ 21‚ had breached a restraint of trade agreement‚ Carlton Hair International went to the Labour Court in Johannesburg asking for an urgent interdict to stop him working within 10km of its Hyde Park store for a year.

But Judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker sent the salon group packing‚ saying it was “unreasonable and against public policy” to be so heavy-handed with a junior employee who qualified only six months earlier.

In its application‚ Carlton said its stylists at 23 branches nationwide had “niche personal relationships” with clients.

“It is a common feature of Carlton’s business model that customers return every six to eight weeks ... to the particular stylist with whom they have a established a personal relationship of trust and who knows and understands their unique needs and desired results‚” it said.

Vinciguerra‚ who said he earned R5‚321 a month after qualifying as a junior stylist‚ said he had only 20 to 30 regular clients.

Rabkin-Naicker said Carlton’s “one size fits all” restraint of trade document — covering all stylists from junior to senior — was problematic‚ and Vinciguerra’s client base was negligible to Carlton’s Hyde Park salon.

TMG Digital/The Times