As long-time friends from business school, Brittany Newby and Caitlin Whitson decided to open their salon, Frenchie’s Hair, after noticing a lack of service experience being offered in the industry.
Newby, a hairstylist for more than 17 years, realized that a typical stylist’s routine in a salon didn’t leave much opportunity for growing the client and stylist relationship. “We always talk about how we need to retail and how we need to offer an experience, but we don’t give stylists the time to really connect with the guest,” she says. “It was really important to us to maximize the experience for our clients, while making it easy and effortless for a stylist. Every single thing we do—blow- drys, haircuts, colour—is systemized and is about consistency for the guest.”
Mindfulness Matters
With wellness top of mind for its stylists and guests, the concept for Frenchie’s was born. Whitson and Newby had a fundamental role in the salon’s meticulous design, which offers clients a one-to-one experience with their stylist. “It’s about keeping our mindfulness on one guest at a time, and it can still be very profitable for a salon,” says Newby, who’s also a trainer for Eufora International. “I think we get stuck in our industry on how things have always been done. We’re still creative with hair and always finding the next great thing, but it often doesn’t translate into that full experience—the actual emotional nature of hair itself.”
Once guests arrive, they are greeted in a private waiting area and are taken to a change room where they can store their belongings before being given a tour of the space. Then, they are seated in a private area for their consultation. “We’re not only thinking about everything from the customer or stylist’s point of view, but also creating a space where people could come in and get their image taken care of but also be in a place that’s architecturally beautiful,” says Whitson. “It’s clean and evokes a sense of calm and well-being.”
Ahead of the Times
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has required salons to implement social distancing practices while limiting the number of clients in the salon, both factors have already a big part of the Frenchie’s culture. “Due to the new regulations, other salons had been forced to tell their clients to leave their belongings in their car, or that they can’t come in until it’s their appointment time,” says Whitson. “We were lucky because we already thought of that when we built our space, dedicating a location for people to lock up their things privately. We can also clean in between appointments and not contaminate anyone else. We have longevity in offering this type of approach to our guests because it’s how we did from day one.”
The salon features a hair wash lounge in a separate room, which includes different lighting and music to create a relaxing ambiance for guests and stylists. “Our wash basins are set up for optimum comfort for the guests, but they also raise and lower, which is for the stylists,” says Newby. “It’s quiet in the room, so stylists have a few moments— exactly eight minutes—every time they do their shampoos to relax and get into a meditative state. The feedback we’ve received from our stylists has been that it’s giving them a little rejuvenation and it’s a comfortable experience, so both parties are winning.”
As for the stations (or pods, as they call them), each one is kept quite minimalistic with a chair, two shelves, mirror and trolley cart, and are separated by a movable felt screen for privacy. The salon also prides itself on doing everything electronically, including enabling guests to pay at their chair. “The first day we opened, we weren’t sure it was going to work but at the end of the day, it was such a natural experience,” says Whitson. “Now, people feel so comfortable and at home.”
Thoughtful by Design
Both Newby and Whitson knew exactly what they had in mind for the design and flow of their salon, and worked with architecture design firm Wolski Design Group to bring their vision to life. “We wanted it to be unique, so we went through a deep branding exercise and worked with a graphic designer for murals of hand-drawn texture and imagery representative of hair,” says Newby. “It’s really neat because it added a lens into the design and lent itself
to help us decide on the colours and textures. It all worked so well together.”
As for the furniture, they chose classic pieces and wooden accents that would stand the test of time. “Anything we picked, we thought about our business long-term. How is it going to wear? How is it going to look in 10 years or 15 years? We wanted it to be timeless with certain quality elements,” says Newby. “We know how people are hard on furniture over time, so that was a key consideration in each element we chose.”
As for the salon’s name, Whitson says they wanted to create a space with an identity that embodies someone you want to know or have in your life. “We knew it needed to be called something and embody something, so we did a branding exercise with approximately 160 names that culminated into Frenchie’s. It’s fun to say; it’s cute, has so many elements to it, and it can mean something to everybody. You can’t say it without smiling.”
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