With more than 20 years behind the chair and Australia's 2024 Hairdresser of the Year title to her name, Sam James has spent her career doing one thing better than almost anyone else: making every client feel like the only person in the room. Known for her thorough consultations, her honest professional opinion and an ability to educate clients in a way that actually makes sense, Sam brings something rare to every appointment, a genuine understanding that great hair starts with a real conversation. These days her passion sits equally across the chair and the business of running a salon that her team genuinely loves coming to, because she knows a happy team is what makes the client experience at SJ so different. By her own admission she never shuts up, is probably already close friends with most of her clients and is still taking on new faces when the timing is right because she has never been able to resist a challenge. Twenty-plus years in and she still cannot believe how fast it has gone.