Building Panache, The Fun Part is Starting

The lease talks are heavy, the numbers are messy, and for a minute it feels like the dream is stuck on a spreadsheet. Then we walk into the Minerva showroom in Atlanta and everything flips. Sitting in styling chairs, testing shampoo bowls, and seeing full station setups in real scale makes Panache & Company feel real in a way floor plans never can.

We share what changed once we experienced salon furniture and equipment in person: which pieces instantly moved from “sure” to “no,” which surprises became must-haves, and how we’re thinking about a brighter, lighter salon design with warm wood tones, clean lines, and pops of blue that match our brand. We get specific about the practical stuff that affects daily life behind the chair such as chair height ranges for different stylist heights, comfort for long color services, bases that are easy to clean, shampoo bowl ergonomics for clients with neck issues, and how a retractable ceiling-hung blow dryer system can reduce clutter and even protect stylist shoulders.

We also talk real-world salon build-out costs: quotes, shipping, package discounts, and the tempting moment when we find similar stations on Alibaba for a fraction of the price, then start adding up lead times, freight, tariffs, and import fees. Finally, we zoom out to the bigger mission: building a supportive salon community, recruiting a founding team, and creating an education program for new stylists that builds skill and confidence from day one.

Listen, then tell us what you’d want in your dream salon and whether you think a head spa is a fad or a future staple. If you like the show, subscribe, share it with a stylist friend, and leave a review so more people can follow the build.

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Transcript

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When The Dream Turns Real

SPEAKER_00 0:00

After months of talking about leases and the build-out costs and attorneys and the floor plans and the numbers, we finally got to do something that made Pinoch and Company feel real. We went to Atlanta and we walked into the Minerva showroom and we started picking out the actual chairs, the stations, the shampoo units, and pieces that our team and our guests are going to use every single day. And I gotta tell you, choosing salon furniture in person is very different from looking at it online. Some things I was really sure I wanted, but it changed the minute I saw them. And a few things I hadn't even considered suddenly became must-haves for our space. 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.

Lease Doubts And A New Space

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Okay, guys, welcome back. And I know last week I talked about where we were with the lease and some of the things in that agreement that gave us pause and why we decided to take another look at a different space here in Williamsburg, okay? I have to admit, part of this process has been really disappointing. We've spent months imagining Pinoch and Company in this one specific location. We've worked through floor plans, we've met with three different contractors and given different estimates, we've had different build-out ideas, and all of those little details that start to make a space feel like yours, right? So when the lease came back with things we weren't comfortable with, it really did take some of the wind out of my sails, I have to admit. But at the same time, looking at this other space reminded me that this whole process is still just full of possibility. Because we're not tied to just one address. We're building Panachan Company for our community, and the right space needs to support the business we're trying to create on paper and in real life.

Atlanta Trip And Minerva Showroom

SPEAKER_00 2:26

So after a kind of disappointing week of the lease language and dealing with attorneys and numbers and brokers and a lot of serious conversations, I went to Atlanta to meet my husband there. He was on a business trip, so it worked out. So we could do something completely different. And I tell you, we had a good time. My husband was stressed out about work. Uh, we went to dinner with some of his team and their wives, and I actually got to meet some of his people that are important to him at work and actually put a face to a name. So that was really nice. It was, and it was super nice to see my husband show his appreciation to his team and to the wives that have to put up with their long hours working at the bank. So, um, so that was fun. And then we woke up the next day and we headed uh about an hour out of Atlanta, down some country roads and things in our rental car, and we went to the Minerva Showroom. Minerva is one of the companies here in the United States that actually just deal with salon furnishings. And it was amazing. I've never been there before. I've always wanted to. I've I've ordered from them before. I've ordered chairs and stations, and they've always been the highest of quality. This time I just wanted to do something a little bit different because I'm designing it from the floor up, right? From the ground up. And so my husband and I went there and we started picking out our salon furniture. And I tell you, it just brought the excitement right back.

Should We Add A Head Spa

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I forgot about the lease for a minute. I forgot about dealing with all these people. Um, I, you know, I got to sit in the styling chairs, compare different styling chairs, compare the feel of them, compare the shampoo units, the differences in them. Got to look at one of those head spa things, a few of them, wondering if we should have one in our salon, which makes me ask the question what do you guys think? Have you heard of these head spas where you lay back on this table and and you spin like 45 minutes and a stylist will massage your scalp and then it has these different spray mechanisms and you know, it could be a whole thing. But I just don't know if that's just one of these things, it's a fad, or should it take up that much floor space or room space? I don't know. What do you guys think? Let me know. Um, and when we walked into the showroom, you know, we got first of all, we saw our old furniture we had in one of our old salons. Um, and they had it tucked back in, not on the main showroom. So it's almost when you go into a furniture store and they have like the clearance in the back. Um, it was kind of like that. So it just goes to show you trends change, okay. Um we can't we kind of had a laugh a little bit. So um, I don't know, we had a great time. So I want to talk about that. I want to talk about our experience there and um just some of the decisions that we've kind of started thinking about. And I just want to share those with you. And if you guys have any I, you know, uh anything you want to share with me, of course, if you're listening to the podcast, you can actually leave me a message. I do get all of those. You can email me, you can uh leave me a message on YouTube if you're listening to this on YouTube. I read all of those, I answer all of those. That is me. You're you're getting okay. So if you have any ideas what you would like to see in a salon, or if you're a stylist and and your salon that you're working at right now is missing something, or you think it could be better, or maybe it's something that we have this and we never use it. It could be one of those steam machines for your hair, it could be um uh not a blow dryer, but um a hairdryer, you know, that you sit down in a chair. Uh they have different ones now, like this. Uh she was showing me this one that actually sucks the moisture out of your hair, which is kind of odd to me. I don't think I would want that, but I would think that it would suck the hair up up in it. I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, any thoughts you have, let me know. Okay, so why did we go to Atlanta to this showroom and really like spend our money and time and all that? And then I already told you I was I was there, Chris was there already, and so he said, Hey, why don't we make this a whole trip? And like I had mentioned before, we did make it like a date weekend. We spent some time other than work. We went and saw Hamilton and loved it. I have to tell you, if you're in Atlanta, you I think it's only good showing there this month, but um I tell you, the king stole the show. He was so good. He was actually, dare I say, better than the original. And I know I shouldn't say that. But his expressions and his his delivery, uh, and if you've ever seen Hamilton, whether it be on TV, on the Disney Channel, or you know, in person, you know what I'm talking about. The king is pretty brilliant. And but all the characters, they were great. They were great. The singers, this the quality. I loved it. I love Hamilton. I I can't see it enough. And uh funny fact, my twin sister has never seen Hamilton and never listened to the music. That is just it's like, are you my sister? But if you know, you know, her and I are complete opposites, so it doesn't really surprise me.

The Look And Feel We Want

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Okay, let me talk about the salon furniture, okay? Um, all right, we went to Atlanta because I need to see, I needed to feel, I needed to look at it, see the quality of it. And sometimes you just need to physically see the furnishings. If you've ever ordered a couch online, you're just crossing your fingers and hope, hopeful, hoping for the best, right? Is it comfortable? Uh, you know, the chairs, they look beautiful online, the styling chairs, but you know, I wanted to see how far up do they pump? How far down do they go? Because you've got different heights of stylus. I wanted to sit in them. Are they comfortable? Does it feel like you're gonna fall out? I wanted to see the scale of the stations. Is it gonna be too chunky? Are they too small? Does it have plenty of storage? I wanted to see the finishings, and we did get a sample of the finishings of the the station that we picked out, so we can actually match that wood tone to other wood tones, so everything will match. I love, love that. I mean, uh Alisa, who was our salesperson, she was dynamite, dynamite. Um, but make more importantly, you know, I just wanted to make sure that everything worked together in one salon. I didn't want it to look like we were buying something off Wayfair and something off, you know, uh Amazon, or I wanted it to look intentional, okay? I didn't want it to look put together. And so we just kind of wanted to see what they had. So the first time, first immediate time we walked into the Minerva showroom. Wow, that's all I could say. It was so big and so many different salon setups put together. They had shelving, they had um uh mirrors, every type of mirror, every type of reception desk. Uh, it really did give you more of a sense of what it would look like in a bigger space. And it it does feel different seeing the stations, you know, put together and right there in front of you. I mean, you could look online all day long, but I don't know. It was just really exciting and really fresh. And um I could just see it, see it coming together right when we walked in there. Okay. All right. What we're looking for when we're designing Panachi Company, I have to tell you, my last two salons, they were very industrial looking. They had a lot of black, they had a lot of black piping, dark walnut wood. We did a lot of it ourselves. Uh it worked, and it worked, it worked great. And at the time, I mean, talk about, you know, we started, let's see, 2011 to 2021, 22, 23, something like that. So it worked at that time, okay. This time around, I wanted to feel fresh and light and bright and welcoming. Uh, I think we are going to go with white exposed ceilings. We're gonna go with the light wood flooring, the LVP. We've looked at a few. We've took our sample that Elisa at Minerva gave us and we went to a couple places and matched it up. It's gonna look great. I do want those pops of blue because we have blue in our new logo. Pops of blue, little bit of yellow shining through some places. I want those warm wood tones, but not too dark. I want clean lines, but I don't want it to look too modern. I kind of want it to be timeless. And I want it to feel elevated, but still comfortable, if you know what I mean. I don't want that furniture to scream, oh, this is salon equipment. And you know, when you've walked into salons before, maybe you don't know, I've walked into salons before and it looked like salon equipment. It looked like every other place. Uh, I just wanted I want something that looks inviting. Like it's almost like coming into somebody's home. Okay,

Chairs That Work For Everyone

SPEAKER_00 12:38

let's talk about the styling chairs. Now, I have ordered styling chairs in the past that were awful. I've ordered some that were too small. That was that was sad. Um, so I wanted, I mean, the salon chair, the styling chair is the big workhorse in the room. Okay, it goes up and down, up and down, up and down, spins around. You know the deal. And I want the guests to feel comfortable when they're sitting, especially for these longer color services. It could last for hours. But I also want the height to be good for the stylists. I want it to, I wanted to see how low it would pump, how high it would get. Heck, some of the shorter stylists, sometimes you need a, we've had this happen, you need a little uh uh step stool to get up. Anyway, I wanted um the durability. Oh, and this, when we were looking at the chairs, and this is just a small thing, but you know, sometimes the small details are a huge thing. Our salon chairs that we used to have in my older salon, the base of them, it was a circle, it was a silver base, but it had this rubber gasket going around it. Oh my gosh, it was awful to clean the hair out of this rubber gasket. And then if the gasket came off of the chair, it was almost impossible to get it back on there. And I get it, they have this rubber gasket, I guess not so you don't scratch your floors. I don't know. But they have a new base that is so clean looking. It doesn't have this rubber gasket, doesn't cost any different. That's the one we're getting. It just looks so, so nice. Um, but we did sit in a few different chairs. We did ask what's the difference in pricing? Because pricing can be anywhere from $300 a chair all the way up to $1,200 a chair. And what she told us was it's where they get the chairs from. And the Italian chairs are the more most expensive because they I guess they have real Italian leather. I don't know why you would have real Italian leather on a styling chair if you might get color on it, but everybody's got has their own thing, and and I don't know why you'd spend like twelve hundred dollars on a styling chair, not just me. Um but they were nice to feel, and I have to tell you, because our theme is you know, our color scheme, it's got blues in it and yellows. They had this navy color. I'm still debating. What do you guys think? Should I get this deep navy chair? I mean, it's almost black, but it's navy. I kind of really love it, but I am afraid of will it stain? It's still really dark, but I don't know. Or will it go out of style? Black is always in. And yes, I was looking at tan chairs too to lighten up the space, but even Alyssa at Minerva said those stains so badly. You have to put these coverings on it, you know, these plastic coverings, and then it looks like grandma's old furniture. You know, if you know, you know. Um, and I just don't want that. So we're either thinking black or navy blue styling chairs. Help me out with that one because we we haven't ordered anything. Chris says no to the navy blue. I say yes. I just really like it.

Stations And A Matching Front Desk

SPEAKER_00 16:06

All right, then we looked at the styling stations, and we had a few in mind that we really wanted to look at. And, you know, the styling station matters because first it has to have a workspace, a top on it, right? It has to have enough storage for the stylists to store their stuff because they might want to put their purse in there, they, you know, their their personal things, but it also their tools, they need to store their tools in there too. But it does need electrical access, it needs to look nice, right? Um, especially, you know, with all the clutter that we tend to have in the salon. Uh, we looked at some, we wanted everything to match. We didn't want because of the floor layout, we're gonna have some salon styling stations on the wall, but then we're also having some floating out in the room that we can move in case we have education. Well, not in case we will have education, but when we have education or events in our space, so we need some back-to-back ones, and so we wanted those to all match. We we didn't want it to look like it's an afterthought, and we wanted to see how that would affect the flow of the salon floor plan. And I think we got some really, really good ideas. And again, Alyssa at the Minerva showroom, she gave us some great ideas with different pictures of what other salons do and um how we could take different stations and put them back to back just by building something in between them to make it look intentional. So it was kind of cool. But I think we did pick out, and and and we did pick out the stations that we originally went looking for. Okay, the one that we had printed off that's been on my my um, actually I hang have it hanging on my whiteboard in my office. That's actually the one we're still gonna go with. We really, really liked it. We were hoping that there was going to be a reception desk that kind of matched or was in the same family. And they said, eh, they they didn't have that yet. But I was gonna save this for the last, but but as we were leaving, Alyssa came running out to our car and said, Hey, hey, I just talked to somebody in the in the um storage facility, I don't know what you want to call it, warehouse. And they had the prototype made of the desk that goes with the stations. And she goes, It's in the dark walnut color, but you can order it in the same color, but do you want to see it? So they took us back to the warehouse, which was really nice of them to do, to see the prototype, and it was just a prototype of the front desk that would match the stations. Now it was a little small for what we were thinking, but how nice was that? And we got to meet a guy who um just got back from I think he said China, um, to some of the warehouses that make these things, and he showed us on his phone and he was all excited about it. It was it was really nice. She didn't have to do that, it was nice. Um, okay, I want to talk to you guys about uh when we're talking about our stations. One thing that we're really, I just really, really love, and I don't we could easily not do it because it costs a lot of money, but I'm doing

Hanging Dryers Worth The Splurge

SPEAKER_00 19:33

it. I love it, and it's the freestyle hanging dryer system. We had it at our last two salons, and it just, if you've never seen one, it's the blow dryers that hang from the ceiling that's on a retractable cord. So you push them up and they turn off and they hang from the ceiling above the stylist's head. You pull them down, they automatically come on, and you blow dry the hair. What's wonderful about it, it there's no clutter, so you don't have blow dryer cords everywhere, and it gives the stylus more working space. It's a cleaner look, it's very impressive when you walk in, too. And it becomes a part of the overall design of the space because it's hanging above the chair. I I love them, and it also takes all the um weight off of the stylist's shoulders from holding the blow dryer up. Okay, it it's it's just one of those things I I just want to spend the money on. And it'd be easy not to because, like I said, they it's kind of expensive. It's like twelve hundred dollars a station times twelve. I mean, that's like a new car these days.

Shampoo Comfort For Necks And Backs

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Okay, let's talk about the shampoo area, okay, because um I laid down in a lot of shampoo uh units in the showroom. I was surprised by some that weren't very um comfortable because I'm looking for neck comfort because I have some clients even here in my studio who can't lean back in the shampoo bowl because they've either had neck surgery or, you know, um they have a bad neck or whatever. I don't know. But that's very important. So the neck comfort is extremely income, uh extremely important. I want to stand behind bowl for the stylist to stand behind to really get that massage and so they're not hurting their back by um standing sideways and reaching over. I wanted the bowl positioning to be, you know, not too high, not too low. Uh I wanted to see how easy it was for the stylist to move around the chair. And I also wanted to see how comfortable it was to lay down in the bowl for, you know, long services, because if you have a toner on and you are laying back in the bowl if you don't take them back to your station. Some people do, some people don't. Uh I I just know that if you pick out the wrong bowl, uh it can be really, really bad if it's designed poorly. And it's it could be bad for the client and it could be bad for the stylist. So we took our time picking that up and picking that out. I also got one that has a footrest that comes out. So when you are leaned back that you know the client can raise their feet and it'd be comfortable. Okay.

Mirrors Lighting And Waiting Areas

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Now let's talk about all the supporting pieces. So we've talked about the styling station. The mirror did I talk about the mirrors? Yeah the the mirrors I mean they're all going to match um I don't think I'm going to get the LED mirrors because I just first of all again it's a pricing issue but I think we're going to have enough lighting in there. I might get LED mirrors for the bathrooms though because I really like how that um makes somebody's face look. Really do. I just don't want to order 12 of them. We are going to probably build our own retail shelving but again match the stain to match the stations and then sofa I think I'm going to get a sofa for the waiting room and I think I'm going to get it a either a navy blue or a bright cobalt blue somewhere in between. But I think I'm going to do have something fun in the waiting area and maybe in the processing area. We're going to have a processing room that's semi-private that's going to have our dryers and our processors are in there. But it also if you're a guest sometimes you don't want to be just sitting out there in the middle of the styling floor with foils all on your head or color on your hair or whatever. And it's so it's just a semi-private room heck maybe you can we could put um little tables in there so you can get some work done like on your laptops and stuff. But I'm probably going to have a matching sofa in that area as well because I'd like to carry the blue theme throughout but I don't want blue everywhere. Let's see we are going to have a coffee bar again. We're going to try to match it to the furnishings. We're going to, you know, we're going to have a storage room we actually will have a storage room and hopefully when I'm picking out the lighting and the finishes and the hardware that's going to be the that's like the jewelry of the place right so I am still trying to decide do I want to go with like a brushed gold or a brushed nickel? My husband says nickel because he doesn't like gold but I do know the gold would play off the warm wood tones and the blues and I just and it's a little bit more modern. What do you guys think? I I know I'm asking all kinds of questions but I really need some input here because I want it to be great.

Costs Shipping And The Alibaba Question

SPEAKER_00 24:58

All right so what changed after seeing everything in in person well I found out that I even I that Chris and I both loved the station we had picked out we even loved it more the quality was really really good it's made out of all wood. There's some things that we ruled out immediately like the mirrors. They're mirrors at Minerva I'm sorry to say it's I think they're too too expensive. You can get mirrors online same shape same dimensions for a third of the price um you know we did look at I don't know we looked at some of the reception desks I just don't want to pay five thousand dollars for a reception desk uh I just think it could be built and be built to our specifications and we did realize that some some things were too small some things were too big. So it really gave us um a different feeling okay so it's you're not just taking it on paper you're not looking at online and we really really we did look at the finish we we have our sample we did really like the the wood um I guess one of my biggest um lessons and it kind of just I don't know brings it home is you don't want to furnish your salon from a computer screen a hundred percent you need to be touching it and feeling just like if you were buying furniture for your house right but I do have to tell you this wow we did get a quote okay and um Alyssa did say because we're we would be buying it all in one big package she could work with us they do have financing we're probably not going to go that route but um but they could work out some kind of discount because it's like you're buying you know more so you can save um I do have to tell you though that the um the shipping cost shipping cost is a lot I mean a lot over a thousand dollars just to ship it from Atlanta to Virginia um and salon furniture doing it this way it adds up fast I've been um watching this girl on Instagram um that she's building a huge salon huge like 20 shampoo bowls 20 color stations over 20 styling stations I mean it's huge it's got a big coffee cafe in it and um she I mean she's investing like a million dollars just for the build out it's crazy but I but I enjoy watching it you know just like you guys are following along with my little thing here that you know I'm I'm the same way I'm curious but she said that she ordered everything from Alibaba. Now Alibaba is a Chinese company I don't know if you guys have heard of it and it's um they do have a business to business side of it and I think that's where she bought it. And so we did look up our stations and they have the exact stations exact everything that we looked at. We found everything we looked at at Minerva on Alibaba. Okay so and it's probably a fourth of the cost a fifth of the cost yeah so you're probably saying well duh why don't you just do that first of all uh you're dealing strictly with people in China and I'm not saying we're not gonna do it I'm not saying we are doing it we're just learning the process and then we learn that uh it might be cheaper but then it's a lot more expensive to ship it because you are shipping it from China all across the water on a boat to you you know and then they have to deliver it to you um it could take two or three months to get it but then you also have to be the person paying the import fees and the tariffs so what you think is a lot less expensive this is at least how I read it a lot less expensive in fact it's not at the end of the day. Now we are still researching this I'm not saying this is we're not doing it or we are doing

Recruiting Stylists And Training Program

SPEAKER_00 29:48

it. I just think it's an interesting conversation to be had so uh you know once you start adding the shipping the tariffs the import fees and all this other legal stuff I don't know if it's worth going that route so okay okay let's talk about um how this trip made me feel my goodness it really brought it full circle I mean it really it it made me start imagining you know stylists working I and I have to tell you I've had like three or four people no wait five six six stylists reach out to me um and wanting to know what's going on meaning hey is this a place I want to work that they're very interested in in what what we're doing because I really think that um stylists today are looking for support a community education flexibility uh did I say education education I know I said education but um I don't know I'm just getting excited I'm I'm getting excited to build my community again and helping our community and teaching and watching brand new stylists come out of school and learning and get seeing all those light bulb moments come on and experiencing our wonderful wonderful industry I just I just love it I'm developing this education program it's it's gonna happen on the salon floor I think I think I'm gonna call it the Panach Style Lab something like that um and really help these new stylists brand new out of school develop their confidence and their skill set and we well we I I have a 14 week program to help them do that. So wonderful I mean it's it just made me see it this is really happening. So just visiting that showroom just made me think oh my gosh this is happening it's happening because tell you the truth for the last couple of months I mean all I've been doing is dealing with spreadsheets and leases and having conversation legal conversations and you know standing there in the showroom it really made it feel real so what happens next you're probably wondering well we're we need to to well we need to get a lease right we've been talking back and forth to one place and we're looking at another space so I really see them both I don't know that's another podcast I I maybe that's next week and I'll fill you in on all that because everything is up in the air

Next Steps And Listener Input

SPEAKER_00 32:42

right now. So we do need to make our final lease decisions. We need to meet with our contractors and if we we um pick this new space they need to reevaluate it and all that good stuff we need to pick our colors our paints our equipment we need to recruit our founding team which is gonna be fun fun fun um I want to visit beauty schools and introduce them to the Panache training program. There's so much stuff and it's finally becoming real and and it's so exciting. I know uh somebody said hey don't you want to slow down I mean you guys are like actually it was um it doesn't matter who it was but um and my husband and I both said no no this is fun this is not work to us this is fun now of course yes it is gonna be a lot of work but we are the type of people that I don't know if we slowed down too much we'd be I think we'd be depressed we definitely would be uh I don't know unsettled we would be tapping our fingers we we both need reasons to get up in the morning and goals and I just think this is gonna be a blast so so as you can see we are getting closer to Pinochan company becoming a real thing and it's becoming a place that you can actually visualize walking into at least I can um there's a lot of decisions still ahead but this trip to Atlanta was one of those I don't know milestones that I've been waiting for. I I really really enjoyed it and when those chairs and that furnishing and you know the chairs the the pull down blow dryers when they all start to arrive oh my gosh I'm going to remember exactly what it felt like standing in the Minerva showroom because that's where the vis visualization started started really happening for me. I just loved it and I tell you I again another shout out to Alyssa she was fabulous and so patient with us because it was like stepping into a candy store if you're into that kind of thing for a salon showroom. It was great it was great. Anyway you guys thank you for listening today thanks for going through this journey I cannot thank you enough and please if you have any suggestions if you'd like to you know to put your input into this design let me know I'm what I am open to it. I oh actually somebody did reach out to me and say hey what about name tags? Name tags and it doesn't necessarily have to be a name tag it could be you know when we wear our aprons maybe our name is on our apron but it made me think how many times do you go into places and first of all you don't know who works there and secondly you kind of want to know who you're talking to right so maybe I mean it's just it is something to consider right name tags. I don't know. Anyway thanks for being here always remember like I always say when you know better you do better. I'll see you next week