Have you ever thought about opening up a salon?

Or maybe you own a salon and you've always wondered what other people's experience was like, if you're planning on it or you're curious about other people's experiences.

Well, we have a special miniseries that we're going to be releasing over the course of time.

We are talking today with Brianne and Jessica who are co owners of Darling Nikki, which is a four chair salon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvan.

They have a unique story and we get to follow their process of, from, from pre opening to opening and beyond.

And we'll follow them for at least the first year of their journey and watch them grow.

Welcome back to the Hairdresser Strong Show.

My name is Robert Hughes and I am your host.

And today I'm with Jessica Morrison and Brianne Blazowski, co owners of Darling Nikki, a four chair salon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

How you doing today, Brianne and Jess?

We're good.

We're good.

We're stressed, but we're good.

Yeah.

So I think, I think the first thing we should do is give us a little, kind of understand who you are.

So are you all from the industry, operators, hairdressers or have any experience prior to opening up the salon?

So I have been in the industry for just a little over 20 years, but I am not a hairstylist.

I've never had a license, I've never been a hairdresser.

I have always been on the management ends of salons.

Jessica and I met in college and we were in school for fashion design.

And I got a job as a receptionist in a little $10 10 minute haircut salon in Philadelphia and said, come work with me, it's so fun.

Let's, let's, I love being in the salon.

Like, let's do this.

And so she came and was also a receptionist.

And for me, from that point I just kept working in salon after salon after salon, left Philadelphia, was managing salons back home in Pittsburgh.

Then I moved to Los Angeles where I opened Angus Mitchell's first brick and mortar salon in Beverly Hills and was the manager there and then came back to Pittsburgh, managed more salons.

And so that's my experience in the industry.

I took a different route.

I went with the fashion design degree that she and I received and I went to New York and spent 10 years there designing clothes and then moved to San Francisco, design clothes there for a little bit longer and then slid into recruiting in a tech company.

And then my husband got transferred to Seattle and I had to find a New gig.

And I happened upon a hair salon chain that needed help.

And I thought, oh, it's just a chain.

And I realized that Jean Maurez Salons and Spas was one of the biggest and oldest chains in the Pacific Northwest.

I ran their home office and their call center and dipped my toe into the actual salon of it all.

Also, nearly as admin, I transferred into recruiting for them.

So I was finding stylists, I was finding housekeeping, I was finding front desk people.

And it was the most fun I had ever had since college.

And when I left Seattle and moved to Pittsburgh, I was still looking for that vibe and didn't find it yet.

I sort of fell back into fashion a little bit.

And then nonprofit work, which is very rewarding but can drive you up a wall.

And Brienne and I were talking one day very early in the morning, and someone said to me, we're buying a salon today.

Someone else said, I haven't had my coffee yet.

What?

Yeah, I was, I was on Facebook.

I, I actually also own a sheer sharpening business.

So my boyfriend does all the sharpening and I'm the base of the company.

I go in and I talk to all the stylists.

Stylist and in the salon owner since I've been in the industry forever.

And then we do all the sharpening and so we follow all of the stylists pretty much in Pittsburgh.

And I was on Facebook and somebody just put up their salon for sale that she had gotten pregnant and wanted to focus on that and get rid of her salon.

And yeah, I called her and said we're buying a salon today.

We have an appointment at 2:00.

So that's, that's kind of how we got here.

That's exciting.

So, so yeah, I.

That.

It sounds like you all have plenty of know how to, to open up and run a business.

And so the only thing you don't have is the, the skill set to do the actual hair.

And so have you.

So, so, so that's like.

But I mean you can find hairdressers, you know, you, I think the business having the business acumen and understanding like, you know, recruiting.

So like, hopefully won't.

Will be, you know, something, you know, it's in your wheelhouse.

So it's not like, you know, you're like learning how to talk to hairdressers for the first time and managing them.

Sounds like you both have a lot of experience there.

So that's cool.

That's cool.

Okay, so.

So tell us a little bit.

Okay.

So you decide to, oh, you're going to buy this salon.

And how long ago was that?

Oh, and by the way, everybody, it is Sunday, November 24th.

It is the weekend before Thanksgiving.

All right, so when.

Of 2024.

So when did you, what you call it, when did this happen?

When did you say you're going to buy the salon?

So that was in February.

We took over the salon on May 1st.

Yes.

And were able to do so with just personal investors that we found.

And that hung us up a little bit.

And we had a goal that may 1st we would take possession, make our changes cosmetically that we wished to make and be able to open by, I think unrealistically, we said something crazy like June.

And then we went and looked at things a little bit more soundly and said, okay, well it'll probably be end of July, first week of August.

And as you said, it is Thanksgiving weekend and we will be opening for clients officially on December 3rd.

That Tuesday.

Yeah, yeah.

Took a little longer than we thought.

But.

And you said something about investors?

Yes, yes.

We had just personal investors back us on this.

That's how we've been able to do that.

So very generous from friends and family and people in our lives.

Lives.

And so some, you know, you're, you're counting on your friends and your family to come through with that money and sometimes it just takes a little bit longer.

So that was the main reason that we kind of had to stretch this out further than than planned.

But we are all set now, ready to go in one week.

And we do have.

Yeah, we have some things still to finish.

But we have been very lucky that we've been able to do most of the work ourselves, if not all of it.

Okay, a little off topic maybe, but just because it came up, did your investors, were they debt based or equity based investors?

Debt.

Okay, cool.

I'm still curious to know how many, if there are any salons that start opening with like multiple parties and anyway.

Okay, cool.

So you borrow some money from friends and family, things kind of drag a little bit.

But if you put it all, all the pieces come together eventually a little longer than you expected.

Which high here is completely normal.

From all the interviews I've done, they almost everyone says double, at minimum, double the amount of time that you think it's going to take.

I mean, I don't know if that's an actual scientific number, but I get the idea, you know.

Okay, so say again?

It feels scientific.

Yeah, we thought, we thought three months.

It was six.

So yeah, we Doubled it.

So, yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

Okay, cool.

All right.

So.

So I want to get.

I want to get the specifics of your story, building it out, but I think we'll save that for talking about your.

After your opening.

We'll get the kind of like the build up to the opening, how the opening went and what.

And how it's going in about a month or two.

And so for now, what.

I guess what we all want to know is like leading.

As you kind of like gear up for the opening, what are you thinking in terms of?

What is your vibe, the culture?

Like if, say I'm a hair, I'm a hairdresser, so how would you tell me what it's going to be like?

I guess, yeah, pitch me on.

On why I want to come and work there.

I mean, not necessarily why.

I'm more curious about, like the inspiration behind things, but if you want to throw in a why, you could do that too.

I spent a lot of years of my life living in a salon every day.

And like Jessica said, it's the most fun that I've ever had.

It's my favorite industry that I've ever been in.

I've been in events, I've been in restaurant management.

I've done several things and I always come back to salons because I just love it.

And I've always thought about getting my license and just never did it.

But I just love being in and around it.

And the sharpening business has really been great because I'm in five, six different salons every single day and it's so much fun.

And I think I've always just had the dream that someday I would have my own, not really knowing what that would look like since I don't have a license.

But, you know, I don't think that you necessarily need one.

I mean, I ran all of the salons that I, that I worked in.

And I know that it's usually there's that one stylist that's going to, it's going to open, it is going to do it.

But they are spending a full to 8 to 10 hour day behind the chair, their own business, and make sure that everything is running smoothly or they have to rely on other people.

And what we came up with for Darling Nikki is something that we're calling concierge management.

That we are creating a space where the stylist can come in and be creative and have to do or think about nothing else.

They don't have to worry about the front desk because we're going to Be the front desk staff.

They don't have to worry about their appointments, checking them in, checking them out, running the schedule or the calendar.

We're going to handle all of that.

They don't have to worry about the marketing.

I mean, everybody's going to have to be responsible, of course, for doing their own marketing of themselves.

And with Instagram and social media and TikTok, obviously everybody's doing that.

But, you know, we are going to be available the entire days that we're here, just putting our efforts behind marketing the salon and marketing each stylist and getting all of that out there.

And any clients that we do bring in, we're not taking for ourselves.

They're just going to be, you know, disseminated amongst our stylists.

They don't have to worry about the cleaning aspect of it either.

I mean, we are here all day.

We're going to do the towels, we're going to hold the towels, we're going to, you know, clean up after everybody.

Inventory, that's not their responsibility.

We've adapted to a specific system that will let us know when inventory runs low.

No one's going to forget to do payroll because they had 16 clients back to back and didn't take a break and didn't eat and couldn't go to the bathroom.

That's on us.

That's not happening here.

I also have had friends who are stylists, worked in salons, got annoyed at the management, got annoyed at the politics and said, well, I can do this by myself.

Decided to have a sola.

It did not work out, but it's all on you.

So not only are you doing your hair for all of your clients, then you're sitting there trying to make sure that everything gets accounted for.

I don't want my creative people to have to think like that.

Go be creative.

Leave the boring stuff to me because I'm good at it and we like it.

I love the minutia of all of my spreadsheets and things like that.

So she does love a spreadsheet more than I thought possible.

But we're great.

It's fantastic because I can just run to it and say, oh, this is the check I need to.

Okay, cool.

Yeah.

Everybody in their lane and the stylist lane should be creative.

And I want to just give them that space that they can come in and only do that and leave and know that everything else is taken care of.

The rent is always going to be paid, the bills are always going to be paid because it's the sole thing that we're doing, and we're available to them 24 hours a day because it's never.

We're never going to have anyone in our chair taking up our time.

Our time is here spent solely for first our team and then second, our guests.

So.

And I'm super passionate about that, and I think that you are too.

And we're really excited to kind of create that business model.

Nice.

That sounds awesome.

It sounds very attractive.

And so what would, like, a customer experience be like at Darling Nikki?

Well, hopefully, you know, everybody falls in line with the concept that every client or guest that walks through the door is that of the salon.

Of course, they have their personal person that's going to take care of them, their personal hairstylist.

But we want to create a really nice family environment here that everybody knows, everybody.

We really want collaboration.

That's another part of just the way that we want to run this, especially with our first few stylists that are going to be our first team working here to kind of help us create that culture.

What do you want?

Like, let's.

Let's hear it.

You know, we are not set in any ways that we've been doing things for the last 40 years.

You know, we're here to just keep up with what's new and what's going to work.

So hopefully that client experience is really going to feel that.

They're going to feel that it's collaborative.

They're going to feel that it's new, that it's fresh, that it's not coming from a place of, you know, being tired or being bored or being jaded.

Everything just.

I want everything to feel new and different.

You're welcomed by name by everyone who's here.

Not exactly a cheers mentality, but everyone knows who everyone's client is.

You're ushered through the salon.

If your stylist isn't ready for you yet, there's a coffee bar, a nice waiting area.

Oh, would you like to buy some things?

We've got more than just product as an availability.

Then your stylist comes out, you have your conversation, you go back to our wash house and your service begins.

And it's all tailored to you.

It's personal, it's very high touch and high level so that when you leave, you know that you've been taken care of.

And us taking all of those other things off of the stylus plate gives them the freedom to have that real high touch service with their clients.

So, all right, and what about the aesthetic of this space?

What's Your all's vibe on that?

Well, it's a very interesting space that we got, which we can certainly talk about more at a later time.

But we did have some constraints that we definitely have to lean into.

But we've chosen to call the salon Darling Nikki, which is a Prince song.

I don't know how many people are familiar with it, but it's one of our favorite songs by Prince ever.

And it's a very dirty song.

It's filthy.

And when Jessica was little, she could not be stopped from performing it when people would come over at a very inappropriate age.

And I think it's the funniest thing about her story, and I love it.

And I thought that it was a perfect thing to pay homage to in naming the salon Darling Nikki.

And yes, and she agreed.

I did.

We threw around lots of names.

Tongue in cheek.

My daughter actually took one of the tongue in cheek names that we chose and drew a picture of it at school, which I'm surprised did not cause a phone call to come home, because we were thinking of calling this on I'll cut you and having scissors in it.

But we opted for Darling Making.

And our mail carrier came in and saw the sign and said, is that.

Is that a print song?

Well, of course it is.

And so it became a if you know, you know, situation.

And if you don't, it's still a cute name, I think.

But if you know, you know, and you know, we kind of.

There's definitely pops of prints throughout the salon.

Like, he's.

He's definitely here.

So that's kind of the.

The.

Just making sure that everywhere you go, you might just see a little bit of prints.

So.

Yes.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, I'm really excited for your opening.

I'm thinking for the next time we get together, I'm sure the audience would love to maybe have you in the salon and you can show us around.

I think that'd be really cool.

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

So that you see.

You heard it, folks.

We're going to get to see the inside of the salon that we're going to be paying attention to the opening and the growth.

And we're really excited to watch your story, and I'm really excited to be able to document it as it's happening.

And I think this will be a really cool experience for somebody, especially like, you know, after year one, be able to look back and see how much you've grown.

So I'm really excited for you all.

Thank you.

We're excited, too.

Awesome.

All right.

Have a.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

And we will.

We'll see you all.

I'm thinking maybe we'll do something in January, in the new year to check in, get you through your opening, through the holidays.

When the dust settles, we'll link up with inside of your salon and we'll get to see the inside and get to hear all about how the opening went.

And yeah, is there anything, any bit of piece of information that you think we should add into this or any sort of words of newly found wisdom for somebody who doesn't want to wait the year to see how it goes and is thinking they're going to jump in.

Maybe they're thinking of pulling the trigger right now and they're on the fence and they're not even going to get to wait till January.

Do you have any, anything you'd like to say to that person?

My advice is pull the trigger.

There's never a good time to do anything.

I mean, my shear sharpening business wasn't that old when we decided to do this.

And like I said, I just called her and said, we're doing this today.

Like this is a good opportunity.

Let's just do it.

And went for it.

And we're figuring it out as we go and failure is just not an option.

And every day we just put out whatever fire comes up and keep it moving.

I would say if, if anything, if you're unhappy where you are, find your heart's most passionate purpose and follow it.

It's freaking scary, but follow it.

Yep.

That's nice.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Well, if you're in Pittsburgh, go by and check out Darling Nikki.

They'll be open the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

And until then, have a wonderful holiday.

Happy, happy New Year, and I'll see you all in January.

Sounds good.

Thanks.