After knowing each other for more than a decade, friends and business partners Taylor Lynn Cobbett and Bríd O’Connell Marjadsingh decided to open up their dream salon, Trichology Boutique, in 2019.
Although the space’s aesthetic oozes luxury, their mission was to deliver an elevated experience in a warm, family-style environment. In other words, while their salon looks very high-end, the sense of warmth eliminates any feeling of intimidation.
“Each of our stations is single standing, and we call the middle part ‘the runway’ because clients love to walk up and down it with all the mirrors and everything,” says Cobbett. “They feel it’s more private with a personal mirror for them and their stylist, versus a big mirror wall, but they feel comfortable and free enough to strut down in the middle.”
All in the Details
Beyond the sleek design and cohesive blue colour scheme, they decided to turn their waiting area into an almost modern-day office space.
“Instead of a couch or chairs up against a wall, we decided to include a table instead,” says Cobbett. “Clients can eat, watch TV, use their laptop to catch up on work, or they can grab themselves a glass of water or coffee from our self-serve coffee bar.” Although the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the salon to pivot in some ways, they are still finding methods for making people feel at home. For example, they removed all the chairs from the table and got creative. “We’ve been showcasing flowers or products on the table, so it looks pretty when people come in,” says Cobbett. “Another positive is that we have a bigger space to take before and after pictures of our clients while maintaining distance.”
In addition to eliminating their waiting area, the co-owners installed plexiglass between the sinks and between the chairs in their colour area. “We opted for custom-made navy blue plexiglass to match our salon. We wanted to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible.”
While it’s no secret that the pandemic has hit the salon industry extremely hard, many salon owners and stylists felt they were unfairly targeted by provincial and regional lockdowns. Cobbett and Marjadsingh decided to take matters into their own hands with Show Your Stats TO, a social media campaign to help raise awareness about salons not contributing to the spread of COVID-19.
“A lot of people don’t realize that hairstylists are trained in infection control,” adds Marjadsingh. “Hairdressers should be so proud as an industry; we did everything we could to protect everybody and we did a really good job at it.”
The Name Game
When asked what catches people’s eye most about their upscale salon, the co- owners say it’s actually their name. “We picked a name that had everything to do with hair. Trichology is the scientific term for the study of hair and then we added boutique at the end because our salon is boutique-style,” says Marjadsingh.
“Then we realized that ‘TB’ not only stands for Trichology Boutique but also our initials—Taylor and Bríd,” says Cobbett. “So that was a fun bonus and just meant to be!”
Sustainability Matters
Another thing that sets their salon apart is their energy-efficient lighting, which enhances natural colour and shows
the truest form of whatever colour it’s shining on—including hair.
Although this is extremely beneficial when colouring hair, the co-owners were actually more interested in the energy- efficient aspect. “Sustainability is very important to us,” says Marjadsingh. “We recently partnered with Green Circle Salons so that everything can get recycled and reused in a positive way. It’s important for us to be mindful of our waste in terms of tubes, lids, boxes, foils, excess hair colour and even our lighting.”
“It’s important for us as humans to be mindful of where our waste is going,” she adds. “Now we have a small garbage bag at most, instead of a huge garbage bag, to throw away every day because of our recycling habits.”
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