Tabatha's Salon Takeover recap: episode 1.1 "Ten Salon"

Salon Undercover

First, Tabatha sits down with the couple (Kwawna and Chris) that own Ten Salon, and looks at a video of how the salon runs on a day-to-day basis. To make things even more sneaky, Tabatha sent in two female clients to see how the staff would respond. Bad salon experiences are a dime a dozen. Ten Salon is just another salon to add to the mix. The receptionists, if you can call them that

Chris predicts that 75-80 hairstylists have been through the doors in the past two years. They estimate they should make $2500 a day to keep up with the salon’s expenses and right now they make between $2000, tops. Yikes. They have put in about $500,000 into the salon, and Tabatha doesn’t know where. The salon is stark and cold, and doesn’t make for a welcoming space for clients.

Photo: Barbara Nitke

The Staff Meeting

Tabatha sets up a staff meeting with the entire staff, sans Kwwana and Chris. The response from the stylists? The couple is too pushy, too strict, and don’t allow them to have a personal experience with their clients. Several have been written up, but they understand that without the salon, they’ll be out on their butts.

The Assessment

Tabatha brings in her own clients, all which are armed with celebrity pictures. The hairstylists will have to recreate the celeb haircuts, but adjust them to the clients own hair types. Danny pisses Tabatha off when he insults his client by saying that frosting is “an ancient term.” Tabatha is right, and I’m glad she points this out. Hairstylists at high end salons can often be obnoxious and overbearing, and don’t always hear what a client wants, or addresses what they want with giant terms that no one who hasn’t been through cosmetology school has ever heard of. Tabatha teaches the clients how to go through a consultation and make the client feel welcomed.

The hairstyles come out good, but not great. Most of the stylists go through and semi-butcher the haircuts. Either they don’t take a great enough risk, or they have decided not to go in the direction of the haircut at all. I didn’t catch the name of the gentleman who turned out the best haircut, but he’s the same stylist who Kwwana won’t allow on the floor because of protocol.

As Tabatha points out, the point of a hairstylist is to socialize, style great hair, and bring in new clients. To do this, the salon holds an event outside where they offer free haircuts to the public

The Reopening

Everyone is at the salon and ready for the big reveal. Tabatha forced Kwwana and Chris to dismantle a station themselves before before coming in with an entire new look for the salon. The stylists love it and Kwwana is slowly accepting the changes. The marketing and investment in the physical changes of the salon have resulted in a full book of clients for the day.

Of course before that day kicks off Kwwana goes into panic mode and is overwhelmed with all of the changes. I sort of feel bad for her, but if it’s for the better and going to pull her and her husband out of 50K worth of debt, accept the changes! It’s hard (trust me, I’m the worst with changes!), but well worth it in the end. Tabatha tells Chris that he should console Kwwana and let things cool down, while she deals with the staff. At the end of the day, she doesn’t want that shifty attitude to leak into the staff, which are already pumped up about worked in a new fabulous space.

Everyone is working hard to create a great atmosphere for the salon. Chris is simply milling about, and that’s probably because he doesn’t have much to do. He’s supposed to serve as manager, but at the same time, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and certainly isn’t contributing. Initially he was supposed to serve as Kwwana’s partner, but since he doesn’t know how a salon works, it’s difficult to do that. Tabatha points this out, and Chris feels the same way. He says that, “if it makes business sense” to be out of the way, that’s what he’ll do.

Tabatha makes sure that before she leaves, Kwwana and Chris have an idea of what staff members should be given more responsibility and which should sit back and learn a little more before taking on clients of their own.

The Follow-Up

Tabatha returns to Ten Salon six weeks later to check on the staff, and everything is still moving ahead. Kwwana says she finally came to terms with the salon’s change and loves it. David, the previous head receptionist, is now serving as manager and tells Tabatha he has, “a little bit of Tabatha” in him. The staff is motivated and moving forward with the changes, which were all for the better.

More Tabatha’s Takeover recaps:
Tabatha’s Salon Takeover recap: episode 1.2 “Di Cielo Salon”