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Featured Salon
Posted 08-21-2009 2:34 pm by

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September's Featured Salon - Helmet Head, Seattle, WA 

Our featured salon this month is the only salon to be found in Seattle’s up-and-coming Georgetown neighborhood – Helmet Head. We chatted with Helmet Head co-owner Heather Tubbs about her life in the biz, her salon’s personality and how they’re getting ready for the upcoming holiday rush season.  Heather Tubbs

What did you do before Helmet Head?
I worked at one other salon before we opened Helmet Head, which was where I met (co-owner) Sammie. It was a shi-shi, foo-foo place downtown, so I got really good exposure to some very high end clients.

 So you must have learned a lot there?

It was a good start and taught me a lot about how to NOT run a business. Seeing the mistakes made in that salon taught me to spend within my means and grow at the right pace.

 What made you choose the name Helmet Head?

It was Sammie’s idea. This area is kind of… well it used to be… so, there’s lots of motorcycles and scooters here, lots of dudes, we didn’t want to be scary to men and still appealing for women. 

How has Helmet Head grown over the years?

At first it was just the two of us, then we added another stylist, then a nail tech, now we have 12 people.  We moved to our new location in April of last year, it’s three times as big as the last one! We also now offer spa services – facials massage and nails.

What do you love most about working there?
I love the client aspect of it. I love just making people’s day. You can completely change their attitude, the way they appear and the way they treat others because of their increased confidence level.  

Can you describe Helmet Head’s unique personality?

Our motto is “uptown skills down-home attitude.”  People often tell us we’re the most comfortablePepper salon, we have no pretenses and we try to make it as family-like as possible. We’re not intimidating, our stylists don’t wear all black – plus we have our dogs here! Pepper (a pug), two Chihuahua’s and a Chihuahua-wiener dog. Pepper sits on every client’s lap, and they love it!

Helmet Head was recently featured on Split Ends, what was that experience like?

It was fun. It was a lot of work, a very weird glimpse into what TV is all about. Ohhhh boy… yeah it was really fun, we gave the girl (a stylist who was traded from another salon for the show) some awesome challenges and that was really fun, but I was glad when the week was over.

What is the average Helmet Head client like?

A lot of blue collar dudes that work down here. Lot of dudes for in-and-out clipper cuts. A ton of professional women, lot of people from Boeing, people from the neighborhood.

We also get clients who saw our story in Seattle Magazine two years ago that come all the way from Redmond or Bellevue. It’s really all over the place – our clients are conservative to punk rock.  

What product lines do you carry?
We started carrying Kevin.Murphy because one of our stylists who has 20 years experience had been using it. She insisted we carry it and now it’s our best seller!

We love Loma, the way it’s local and they are so natural and respectful of the environment. We also do refills when people bring in their old Loma bottles, we refill them and give them 20% off. 

How do you choose the product lines you carry?
We really like having some products that are styling heavy and some product lines that are light and natural. Something that works for natural hair won’t work for crazy punk rock hair – we cover the whole spectHelmet Headrum.

How do you decorate your salon for the holidays?

We were just talking about that! We’ve always been very heavy decorators – but our shop is so much bigger now – it’ll be a lot of work!

What does your holiday décor entail?
We are VERY into sparkle and silver – it’s going to looks really great in here, we’ve got a silver tree and go for a very sparkly winter look.  

How does the holiday season affect Helmet Head? More busy, less? More retail, less?

The holiday season is very important for us. We’re going to order a bunch of Kevin.Murphy gift sets and heavily promote our gift cards.  Sometimes we’ll offer a deal for, say $10 off your service when you buy a gift card.

Are you generally busier during the holiday season?

Well, you know a lot of people are going to see their families so they want to look their best. We do get pretty busy.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the beauty industry?

Everybody’s been freaked out by the economy, but the only way we notice it is that people go about an extra week between treatments.

I see that people can schedule appointments right there on your website.

People can put in a request and we’ll give them a call back.  Our business is one of those businesses that will be never taken over by a computer!

How do people typically hear about Helmet Head?

You know, one of our biggest deals is Yelp*. Ever since we’ve had our website our presence on Yelp has gone up so much more. Everybody gives us fives stars. I’d almost say that 3 out of 4 costumers come (from recommendations) from Yelp.

What would SSS's readers be surprised to learn about you?

By the look of our salon think it’s more of a dude place, but we have some really talented people who’ve been in the business for the years who do amazing work.

Seattle’s Georgetown is sort of an up and coming neighborhood, what’s that like?Helmet Head 2

Everybody in the neighborhood is really into supporting each other businesses; we have links to other neighborhood businesses websites on our site.  Plus we’re the only salon down here.

What special offers, events or promotions does Helmet Head do in a given year?
Well, we’re new at having a big salon, so we really need to get on this! When we’re settled we’re going to get everyone involved and plan some big things.

To learn more about Helmet Head, visit their awesome website, www.helmethead.biz.  

*Yelp.com is a website where your clients can leave glowing reviews about your amazing services. Putting a link to Yelp lets people read your reviews on the spot – a great way to help potential clients decide if your salon is right for them. To learn more about Yelp, send us an email, we’d love to help: marketing@salonservicesnw.com.        


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