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A Cut Above
From a 428-square-foot salon to Malaysia's premier hairstyling empire, A Cut Above survived an express-cut chain failure and emerged stronger—proving that knowing when to cut losses matters as much as knowing when to cut hair—while preparing to pass the scissors to a son who had already proved he could extend it.
Transformation Arc
In 1979, a 23-year-old hairstylist with Vidal Sassoon training and RM20,000 opened a 428-square-foot salon in Kuala Lumpur’s Wisma HLA. Forty-seven years later, A Cut Above operates nine salons across the Klang Valley and has trained thousands of Malaysian hairdressers through an academy that ran for nearly two decades—but not before its founder learned that knowing when to cut losses matters as much as knowing how to cut hair.
The 428-square-foot beginning
A Cut Above started with an unlikely partnership. A regular client at Winnie Loo’s early Kuala Lumpur salon proposed investing RM20,000 each to open a proper establishment. When that partner later exited, her boyfriend Richard Teo stepped in—eventually becoming co-founder and business manager of what would grow into Malaysia’s premier hairstyling brand.
From the start, the couple divided responsibilities strategically. Richard handled business management, marketing, and operational discipline. Winnie focused on creative direction, client relationships, and the craft itself. This complementary partnership—one of Malaysia’s most durable husband-wife business teams, later recognised with the 2017 BrandLaureate SMEs Business Couple of the Year award—would prove essential when expansion tested the brand’s limits.
By the late 1990s, A Cut Above had grown beyond its modest origins. The 1997 World Master of the Craft award—the first for any Malaysian—validated the brand’s technical standard internationally. Schwarzkopf signed Winnie as Creative Ambassador from 2001 to 2007. The brand seemed positioned for unlimited growth.
When eight locations taught one founder to cut losses
The X-Cut express concept seemed logical. Budget-conscious consumers wanted quick, professional cuts without premium salon prices. A Cut Above launched the chain offering 15-minute cuts at RM16-18, eventually expanding to eight or nine locations across the Klang Valley.
The numbers never worked. Express pricing couldn’t generate sustainable revenue per location. Rather than continuing to pour resources into a struggling concept, the Teo family made a decisive choice.
“They weren’t churning enough revenue to be sustainable,” Winnie later reflected. “The thing is, you must always be willing to cut your losses.” The entire X-Cut chain was closed. No gradual wind-down, no attempts to find a buyer—a clean strategic retreat that freed resources for the core business.
The failure taught a lesson that now shapes A Cut Above’s expansion philosophy: sustainable growth requires profitable units, not maximum locations. Today’s nine salons generate healthy margins. The peak count of 19 locations and 300-plus staff represented overextension, not success.
The school that changed what a haircut could mean
If X-Cut represented failed diversification, the A Cut Above Academy represented successful vertical integration. Founded in 2004 in Bandar Sunway, the academy addressed an industry-wide challenge: transforming hairdressing from what Winnie calls “an auntie business” into a respected profession.
“People aren’t willing to invest in hairdressing lessons to gain the skills,” she observes. “It’s because parents think their children have better things to do for work rather than hairdressing. What they forget is, no matter how bad the crisis is, your hair still grows.”
The curriculum ran one year: eight months of classroom instruction combined with three-month internships rotating through company salons. Students earned Malaysia Skills Certificates and City & Guilds Vocational Diplomas. For three consecutive years, City & Guilds London named it the best hairdressing academy in Malaysia. Winnie documented the philosophy behind this model in her 2005 autobiography, A Cut Above: Built on Hard Work, True Grit and a Pair of Scissors.
The model was self-reinforcing: the academy trained talent who then staffed A Cut Above salons, ensuring consistent quality while building industry credibility. This vertical integration—education feeding employment feeding brand reputation—created advantages that express haircut chains could not replicate.
The academy closed in 2022, a casualty of COVID-19 disruptions that made sustained in-person education unviable. But its legacy endures in the standards it set: thousands of graduates, City & Guilds certification, and a generation of Malaysian hairdressers who entered the profession through a pathway that had not existed before Winnie built it.
Nine salons, no compromises
Today’s A Cut Above operates through two complementary brands. The flagship A Cut Above salons occupy premium mall locations including Mid Valley Megamall, Bangsar Village II, and the newest addition at Pavilion Damansara Heights. The Restyle+ with Aveda concept, launched in partnership with the eco-conscious beauty brand, serves customers seeking sustainable luxury.
International brand partnerships remain central to positioning. After Schwarzkopf, A Cut Above aligned with Milbon and Aveda—brands that signal professional expertise and premium quality. These partnerships provide training, products, and credibility that independent salons cannot match.
The strategic mall locations reflect lessons from the X-Cut failure. Rather than chasing volume through numerous low-cost locations, A Cut Above concentrates on high-traffic premium venues where customers expect—and will pay for—excellence. The current portfolio of five flagship A Cut Above salons, three Restyle+ with Aveda locations, and one X-Cut Express represents the discipline that earlier failures installed: every addition evaluated not just for visibility, but for whether its revenue can sustain it for the next five years.
Beyond the salon
Winnie Loo’s 2022 appointment as first female President of the Branding Association of Malaysia—after 22 years of exclusively male leadership—extended A Cut Above’s credibility beyond the beauty sector. An adjunct professorship at Asia Metropolitan University and judging roles at international competitions in Japan, London, and Shanghai now carry the brand’s reputation to stages where Malaysian hairdressing had previously been absent. Winnie documented the philosophy behind the brand in her 2005 autobiography, A Cut Above: Built on Hard Work, True Grit and a Pair of Scissors.
The 2024 opening at Pavilion Damansara Heights signalled more than an anniversary celebration. It marked the beginning of a succession transition, with son Marcus Teo—who co-developed the Restyle+ with Aveda concept alongside his father—receiving increased operational authority as Business Development Director. The complementary partnership that built A Cut Above across nearly five decades now extends to the next generation. Marcus writes the next chapter.