Welcome to All About Hair with Danise...where beautiful hair is just the beginning.
I'm Danise, a hairstylist, educator, and salon owner with more than 30 years in the beauty industry. After owning four award-winning salons, I never imagined I'd build another one...until now.
Join me as I document the real journey of creating Panache & Company from the ground up. From finding the perfect location and designing the salon to hiring a team, mentoring stylists, serving clients, and navigating the unexpected, you'll hear the honest conversations that happen behind every milestone.
Whether you're a client looking for trusted hair advice, a stylist building your career, or a salon owner growing your business, you'll find practical education, inspiring stories, and real-life lessons from behind the chair and beyond.
New episodes feature: • Behind-the-scenes salon building • Hair education and healthy hair tips • Business and leadership insights • Stylist career development • Client transformations • Honest conversations about entrepreneurship and life
Keys might be close, but the real story is everything that happens before you ever unlock the door. I’m walking you through a big week in the Panache & Company build, starting with finalizing our letter of intent and moving toward the lease being drafted and reviewed by our attorney.
I also finally share where the new salon will be located: Courthouse Commons Retail Center next to Fresh Market in Williamsburg, Virginia. The space is a corner end unit with great natural light and plenty of parking, and being surrounded by other wellness and beauty spots makes it feel like the right ecosystem for guests. On top of the buildout, I spent a full day putting our new website together so you can learn what we’re about, join the mailing list, and apply if you want to be part of the founding team. If you love small business growth, salon marketing, and watching a brand take shape in real time, you’ll feel right at home here.
Then we get into the design decisions that sound small but change the whole guest experience: exposed ceiling versus drop ceiling, how to prevent echo with acoustic materials, and flooring options like luxury vinyl plank versus buffed and sealed concrete. We also talk salon furniture and budgeting, including why styling stations cost so much, what happened when I tested a $159 alternative, and why we’re considering a Minerva showroom trip to sit in chairs and avoid expensive mistakes.
Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves hair and small business, and leave a review, then tell me your vote: exposed ceiling or drop ceiling, and concrete or LVP?
Welcome to All About Hair with Denise. This is where we talk about hair, confidence, and why a good hair day can seriously change your whole mood. It's like hanging out and chatting about life, feeling good, and loving your hair. No pressure, no perfection. So grab your coffee, settle in, and let's talk about loving your hair and yourself a little more.
Okay, wow, so many great things have been happening this last week. And if you've been following along, like on our YouTube or even these podcasts, you you know it's not always a straight line forward. Let me just say. First of all, uh thank you for being here. Thanks for going through this journey with me. It is pretty exciting. I have um a couple of things I want to update you on. We did finish and finalize the uh letter of intent. And if you don't know what the letter of intent is, go back and listen to, I think it was um two podcasts before. But what it is, it's just those main agreements that you and the landlord or the owner of the property come to terms with. And that can be the rent space, the triple net or the cam expenses, the um, in our case, we want to make sure that the air conditioner, the HVAC system, works because uh it's been standing there empty for almost four or five years, and um that's important. I've had to replace a HVAC system on a business before, and it's kind of expensive. So I just wanted that to be in there. Let's see, there's you know, a few other things like um how long is your lease, what you're required to pay for versus what they're required to pay for, if they're gonna give you any kind of tenant improvement money, um, also the like if you have any options. So if say if you have a five-year lease and then you want a couple of options or one option to sign another five-year lease, you want that written in there so you have first rights. So if if you are signing like a five or ten-year lease and they know that, they might, if you don't have that option in there, they could actually lease it to somebody else right out from under you. Most landlords wouldn't do that, but they could, I guess. But anyway, so our letter of intent is finalized, and our lease should be getting written up and sent to us in well, probably by today when this podcast comes out. And then we're sending it to our attorney, and we're meeting with him on Friday. So hopefully, if fingers crossed, everything in there is written up good and precise, and we don't have to go back and back and forth about it.
We might have our keys by next week. Fingers crossed. Um, and that leads me to let you know because I've had a few people ask. Actually, I did a few people, I did their hair. I still have my studio in my house, and a couple of local Williamsburg residents who I do their hair, they're like, So where is this located? Can you see yet? And it dawned on me. It's like, oh, I really haven't even said where it's going to be. So it's actually in the Courthouse Commons Retail Center right next to the fresh market. If you're familiar with Williamsburg, Virginia, it's off of Monticello Avenue. It used to be a nail salon. I think it was called Atier nail salon. So if you're familiar with that, like I said, if you're local, you might be familiar with that. It's got wonderful natural lighting. It's on the corner, end unit of a retail space. It's got plenty of parking, and it's right next to the fresh market. You can't beat that. There's a Starbucks nearby, there's a massage therapist, there's a Pilates place or a bar, there's a waxing place, there's a nail place. I mean, one-stop shop. Love, love, love it. So uh I sorry, I I I guess I didn't want to jinx myself and I hadn't really said where it was located before. Plus, we weren't 100% sure that it was going to go through. Remember, I told you that they had somebody else interested in that space as well. And we did have a fallback position. We did have another uh space that was a salon that had just closed down recently, and I had been talking to those landlords too. I didn't didn't really like the location as much, but it would have been a good fallback position if this didn't go through. All right, something else that was really wonderful.
Yesterday I spent the whole day on the couch on my laptop creating the website. And it's not a website that has all of our services and our appointment book and all that on there yet. It will eventually, but it does tell you what Panash and Company is about, you know, why we're different, where we're located. It's got a couple of links on there. So if you're interested in joining our founding team as either a guest service team member or a stylist, there's links on there so you could submit, you know, um, answer a few questions and we can set up an interview. It's got a link on there if you just want to get on our mailing list and follow along so we can send you updates and when we're opening, and you'll be the first to know. So we have that on there too. So go check it out. It's at www.panocheandcompanyallspelledout.com. And let me know your thoughts. Let me know if all the links work. Let me know if they've if I've misspelled anything or if I need to put some more information on there. You know, I I'm creating it for you. So just feedback is always a wonder, wonderful thing.
All right, I do have a couple of things that I need your help with. There's some decisions that we need to make, and one of them is the ceiling. I'm still getting quotes from that. We are from our contractor. Um, should we have an exposed ceiling or keep the drop ceiling? I'm really, really leaning toward the exposed ceiling. However, that does open up other issues like the sound can echo when you open that up. And so you kind of have to make sure that you have enough absorbing materials that could be plants, it could be rugs, it could be, they have these new felt systems that you can put on the wall. But anyway, to absorb the sound because the sound will start echoing, and so but I love, love, love the look of an exposed ceiling, and this time it would be completely white. My one of my salons in Chesapeake had an exposed ceiling and it was black, and so it kind of just disappeared, and it worked for that. It was a very industrial-looking space. I really just like the exposed ceiling because it really opens the area up, it makes the salon look grand, it's bigger and um or do we keep the drop ceiling? The drop ceiling to me looks like an office building. I don't know, I just don't like it. What are your thoughts? Just let me know. Uh, there is a little link in the podcast if and you can actually, I get all of those. So if you wanted to, you know, tell me your thoughts on that, that's cool.
So, and another thing I need your help with is the flooring. I know. So we got a quote on LVP flooring, which is LVP is a laminate vinyl plank or luxury vinyl plank. So it's vinyl, but it's made to look like wood. And I don't know about you, but uh I have yet to see a vinyl plank that really looks like wood. So if you're doing a vinyl plank, you know it's a vinyl plank, it's not wood. But with that said, it has vinyl plank in there right now. It's floating. I just I don't know, I just don't like the sound of it. I don't like unless I found one that I really liked. And I could. Or do we take all that flooring up and just have the exposed concrete and just buff the concrete kind of like a satin finish, not a shiny finish. It's just because the concrete is a brand new concrete floor, it looks great. I mean, once they buff it out and seal it, it'll look great. And I wouldn't worry about like the stylists standing on their feet because we're we're gonna have those pads under the chairs, so you know we have that. The cost for the concrete is quite well, it it comes to be about the same amount. There's it's like a thousand dollar difference. So it's at this point, it's not really the price, it's the look. And so again, I would love to have your opinions on that. Uh whether you you um email me or just drop it in the podcast. Uh oh, I forgot to tell you, we have a new email. You can email me at denise d-a-n-i-se at panachincompany.com. Yes, we're getting official. So Panashion Company is spelled out uh, you know, with the and company. So, yes, you can email me if you'd like. And just email my email me what your thoughts are on the flooring and the ceiling.
Another thing that we're trying to make a decision on, too, and I probably don't need your opinion on this, but I wanted to let you know that Chris and I were really talking about it because we're looking at our budget, and you know, everything costs more than you think it's gonna cost, and there's things like you forget about like plants and window treatments, and you know, all the little things that you need to make stuff look good, right? Well, I so so let me back up. We're so we're selecting the styling stations, the mirrors, the color bar, the reception desk, everything like that. We want everything to be in the same family, right? We want the wood tones to be the same. It doesn't have to be matchy matchy, but I want a lighter feel to this, like a light, not not as light as a white oak, but lighter, not walnut, okay. And I love that fluted look. If you've seen the fluted look on, but I do know that if I go with the fluted look, it's going to be dated here in a couple of years. I just know it because it's already going out of style. But I but I like that look. So we don't necessarily have to do that look, but we want a lighter wood. So I have been searching high and low on the internet for salon stations. Now, if you've ever, and you probably haven't, but if you've ever looked for salon stations and you've looked at some of the bigger companies like Collins and Minerva and things, you know, they deal with salon design. Salon stations are freaking expensive. And I think it's because they are customized or they're they're uh niched down to salons. So even this most simplest salon station can be, you know, $800 a piece, $1,200 a piece. I'm not talking some fancy LED lighting or anything like that. It's just a just a standard station. So I started looking, you know, like on Wayfair uh websites, because for stations, you can use anything for a station as long as it's quality, because it's going to be used every single day. And you want drawers, you want storage, you want it to be a certain height, you want it to look
good. It has to look the part, right? So I looked and I found one that kind of looked like the stations we're looking at at Minerva that are $800 a piece. And I found it for $159. And of course, Chris is like, yeah, right. So I just ordered one. Okay. One. So it came, and of course, it took me like two hours to put it together because it's a put together kind of thing. That's probably why it's cheaper too. And I don't know. I mean, could it work? Would the look of it look okay? Absolutely. Uh, but it's just kind of cheap. The drawers are, you know, you pull them out and they've got that like heavy cardboard bottoms, you know that's not gonna last six months. So we both decided let's spend the money on this on the things that really the salon needs. And I'm just very, very resourceful. If I could do it less expensive and do it myself and make it look nice, it has to look nice. I don't I don't want it to look hokey or you know, homemade. I don't know if hokey is even a word, but um I'm I'm all for that and I like to do it. But like Chris says, hey, we are on a timeline and we want this to look really spectacular from the get-go. We want people to come into our salon and go, wow, all right then. Yes, this look this feels good. I don't want it to be too pretentious, I want it to be friendly, open, inviting, fun. I want the music to be fun. But you know, uh I don't know. I mean, music's a huge thing. Uh but just the flow of the salon. So I'm glad that you know, Chris said, no, let's spend the money on where it counts. Because if he says it, I don't know, you know me. Okay. But so the front desk, still haven't decided where we're getting that because if you have those made, pretty, pretty hefty. I did find a company online that we might be able to get away with, and then the back bar for the shampoo stations. I think I'm gonna make that, and I think I'm gonna make it
match the color bar. I still haven't 100% decided because our color bar this time is actually gonna have a sink in it. So I can't decide if I want it to be made or if I want to buy it from like Minerva or something like that, but then it won't match everything. Again, these are decisions, and these are things you really do need to think about. So those are the things, and I think what Chris and I are gonna do, we're gonna plan a trip to Minerva, and it's in Atlanta, and they have this, it's called a uh fly-in program. So if you fly in to go to their showroom, so that way you can sit in the chairs, you can peel them, you can lay down in the shampoo bowl, you can match the wood tones, you can make your order all right there. And if you order a certain amount, they will pay for your um or they'll discount, but they'll pay for your airline tickets to go out to see them, something like that. But you have to spend a certain amount of money. So I think we're gonna do that here in the next couple of weeks, and that'll be a whole YouTube uh video in itself, Phano Podcast. It'll be fun. I've never done that before. I've always just ordered and crossed my fingers, and it somehow sometimes turned out. I do remember this one time I ordered chairs, brand new chairs. I ordered eight of them for the uh a new salon space. And um, they were too small. Yeah. Some of our heavier set guests, which is kind of sad, couldn't they just were uncomfortable in them. Kind of yeah. Um, so I ordered a two, two or four bigger chairs, and we just sold the other chairs. But um, yeah, you have that's important. Because some of these slim lined chairs are beautiful online, but they do you no good if they're too small or if they're uncomfortable or if they get stained, because that's another thing. I I was toying with getting tan chairs, but I've asked a few salon owners who have tan chairs, hey, how's the staining? What do you do about that? And they have to put clear covers on them so the hair color doesn't stain their chairs. Well, that's defeating the whole purpose. I don't like that. So I think I'm still gonna go with black chairs. Um don't really like that because I wanted it to be fresh and different. And I did look at I did look at dark blue chairs because we have dark blue in our color scheme and our logo. However, that's that's a commitment. That's a commitment, even though they're cool. Uh so I think we're gonna go with black. That way, if we ever change our color scheme or whatever, it it still goes. Black goes with everything. You guys know
that. Anyway, that's what's been going on this last week a lot. Let me know your thoughts on the flooring, on the ceiling. Check out our new website. You know, explore my new email address, you know, Denise at Panach and Company.com. But again, just I just am grateful you're here. I'm grateful that you're following along on this journey. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of um, I don't know, uh, ups and downs, if you will. So just thanks for being here. I'm super grateful. And always remember, when you know better, you do better.
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