The Story Behind the Vault
Colour and cut, done with conviction.
The Story Behind the Vault
Oliver Caldwell opened Knot Blend Vault in spring 2018 after eight years working in other people's salons. The name came from a habit he had already developed: keeping a locked notebook of every formula he had ever mixed, every tonal…
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The first two years were a process of working out what the Vault was actually for. Oliver noticed that a specific type of client kept finding him: people who had been turned away from other salons, or talked out of the colour they wanted,…
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The team is now three stylists including Oliver, and the book runs about six weeks out for colour appointments. Oliver still does the majority of the balayage work himself, and he still writes every formula in the notebook. The salon is…
Milestones
Oliver Caldwell spent eight years behind the chair at two well-regarded salons in the city before opening Knot Blend Vault in 2018. He trained in colour theory under a senior colourist in Edinburgh, then moved into balayage and lived-in techniques during a formative stint at a boutique studio in Manchester. What pulled him toward opening his own place was a specific frustration: clients kept coming in with reference photos that nobody was willing to actually attempt. Oliver attempts them. He keeps a notebook of every colour formula he has ever mixed, going back to his first year as a junior. Outside the salon, he grows tomatoes badly and reads about pigment chemistry well.