Community & Business
22 July, 2025
End of the road for The Ranch Hair Designers
Long time Oakey small business The Ranch Hair Designers closed last month after thousands of hair cuts, and dozens of hairdressers trained.
Business owner Zoe Campbell made the tough decision to close The Ranch after months trying to sell.
Former Ranch owner Jocelyn Barnes, who was still working at the business is staying in the industry doing independent work.
The genesis of The Ranch was 20th May 1975 when 19-years-old Janette Drews opened Hairport Beauty on Campbell Street, next door to Oakey Electrical.
By 1980, it was re-opened as ‘Hairstyles By Margaret, and in 1982 John and Liz Custance bought the business and named it ‘The Ranch’, setting up saloon-style wooden dividers and a play horse for the kids.
Well known Toowoomba CBD hairdresser Gayle Green (then Ruhle) did her apprenticeship with John and Liz Custance in Oakey after they opened The Ranch.
“I remember it was my Year 10 graduation ceremony at the RSL Hall, and walking past this new shop and, weirdly, thinking ‘I’m going to work there one day and I’m going to own it’,” she said.
Ms Green trained under Janette Drews, still working at the business.
“Janette taught me pin curls, barrel curls, finger waves, setting, perming, colouring and hair for balls on the weekend,” she said.
After the Custances, an accountant from Pittsworth, bought the business as an investment.
“She sold when I was 18, and I bought it, father went guarantor,” Ms Green said.
The rhythm of a day working at The Ranch revolved around the different clientele who came in at different times.
“We’d get the parent coming in after the school drop off,” Ms Green said.
“The Army men would come down at 10am, lunch and 3pm, then, the abattoir workers would knock off and you’d get a wave of them.
“On the weekends, the church ladies would come in and get their hair done so it so it looked set for church.”
She said two memorable Ranch customers of that era were ‘Grandma’ Audrey Bernays “a lovely character who had lots of stories” and Kelly, who owned the Commercial Hotel.
Popular hair styles of the 1980s were perms, straight colours, and streaking.
“Blow drying was going big then, too,” Green says.
Gayle Green left the business after a few years, selling it to Rod Watson from the Commonwealth Bank who bought it for his daughter, Tracey.
In 1996, Janette Drews (now Armstrong) bought The Ranch again, training future owner Jocelyn Weise (now Barnes), who bought the business on June 30th 2008. Jocelyn then sold it to Zoe Goulding (now Campbell) during COVID.
Many hairdressers were trained locally at The Ranch including Amanda Burke, who is still going in town with her own business.
“I did my apprenticeship with Gayle Green in the early 1990s and I’ve still got a few of those clients, now in their 70s and 80s!” she said.
“I took a break, had kids and then went back there in 2017-2019 before starting my own business five years ago, which has been booming for me.
“With COVID, you could only do one client at a time, so it worked out well.”
Gayle Green is also still going strong in Toowoomba.
“I enjoy people and making them feel good,” she said.
“You get to see the result (of your work) from start to finish.”
But, she says hair isn’t a career for everyone.
“A lot of people don’t last - their bodies crack up and it’s not a high paying job,” she said.
Ms Green said the demographic of hairdressers currently are “young, working class girls with no families and commitments.”
“Plenty of salons are shutting down and there’s a lot of negative talk around,” she said.
“The industry’s changed since COVID, but if you’re good at what you do, you’ll stick with it.”
