After spending decades doing the hair of the rich and famous aboard super yachts in the Whitsundays, Karleen (Karla) Middleton has returned to the Orange area.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Miss Middleton runs Karla Star Hair, a mobile hairdressing business that enables her to visit clients who for one reason or another have trouble getting out of the house.
"I saw an avenue that needed a mobile hairdresser, there was too many hair salons in Orange to start a new one so I decided to go mobile.
"I just saw a point of difference."
Her main specialty cuts and colours, wedding hair, hair extensions and hair straightening.
Miss Middleton has more than 30 years experience as a hairdresser.
"I started my apprenticeship in Orange," she said.
"I moved to the Whitsundays and bought a salon on Daydream Island when I was 26."
She had her business in the Whitsundays for 30 years.
"I also in those 30 years worked on super yachts for the rich and famous in the world so I worked for billionaires and multimillionaires and famous people around the world," she said.
She described the experience as "incredibly amazing".
"I got to travel to places I'd never be able to afford to go to, it was incredible, it was incredible," she said.
"I've been doing their hair since I was 17 in Sydney so I loved it."
However, she decided to move back to the Orange region to be closer to family.
"I was up there on my own," she said.
"I'm loving being back, it's nice being around honest, nice people again, genuine people, it's been great."
Miss Middleton said she can travel as far as Cumnock, Lucknow, Canowindra, Blayney, Mullion Creek and she can also go to hotels or motels and has a portable basin and her own tools.
Miss Middleton has a website for the business as well as business social media pages.
Orange Vet Hospital trial
Orange Vet Hospital is opening a trial consulting room in Parkes due to the absence of a vet in the town.
From Monday, September 4, Dr Ryan Lane will be doing consultations at the Parkes Racecourse.
The service will be by appointment and the consultations will take place between 10am and 4pm each Monday throughout September and October, excluding public holidays.
The services will include vaccinations, general health checks, arthritis/pain management and treating or examining skin and ear conditions.
Surgical, afterhours and hospitalisation cases will continue to take place in Orange.
People who visit the consulting room are encouraged to bring their pets' medical records including vaccination details to make sure the visit goes as efficiently as possible. Pets without paperwork will still be seen.
BO AND REE OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Blayney has a new clothing store with Bo and Ree's Gabriella Nixon reopening the boutique clothing store on Adelaide Street.
Situated next to Ryan's Bakery the remodelled store is looking very chic, complimenting nicely the range of women's clothing available.
As a mother of three very young children Gabriella said that opening a store in Blayney made sense because of the demands of parenthood.
"I bought the business off a family in Cowra and opened a second store in Millthorpe," she said. "But with two kids to look after, and being pregnant, travelling to Cowra was getting too hard with all the rushing backwards and forwards with pre-school and day care, it was just too much."
Once the decision was made to close Cowra, Gabriella was able to concentrate on her Millthorpe store, however the hours that that store was opened were not very family friendly either.
"I was open from Thursday to Sunday so I couldn't justify that so I saw a gap in the market here for a nice clothing store that's close for women, without them having to drive to Orange or Bathurst," she said.
A large part of her business is fulfilling the online orders that she has been receiving, and having the Blayney post office just down the road it's now all systems go.
With a focus on Australian brands from Melbourne and Brisbane the Bo and Ree collection Gabriella believes that her store's unique items will appeal to a large audience.
"We have Cartel and Willow, Charlie Holiday, Hammil and Co and Walnut Melbourne, she said.
"I want to be able to provide women of all ages a space where they can find beautiful fashion making them look and feel amazing."
Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.
Sign-up to our latest newsletter.
