Category Archives: Salons

Royalty Barber & Beauty Shop to open at Oxford Square in July

June 14, 20135:00 a.m.

WICHITA — After years of working for others, Paris and Mark Walker are opening their own business.

Their Royalty Barber & Beauty Shop will open next month in Oxford Square at 21st and Woodlawn.

Paris Walker says “just the independence” of having their own place appealed to them.

“That motivated us,” she says.

She’s a cosmetologist, and Mark Walker is a barber. The shop will employ at least two other stylists and two other barbers as well.

Paris Walker says where she works now is not particularly kid friendly.

“I’m a very family oriented person,” she says.

She says she’ll welcome children of employees at the shop.

Don Piros of Landmark Commercial Real Estate handled the deal.

Walker says she and her husband like the traffic in the area and that it’s close to dining and a beauty supply store. She also thinks there’s a lot of people near there who can benefit from the shop’s services.

“It was just a really good area as far as the neighborhood.”

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , Filed under New business, Oxford Square, Salons | Comments

Shear Voltage to leave the Collective for expanded space at the Garvey Center

May 1, 20134:23 p.m.

WICHITA — A salon is opening in the former Bob’s Place barber shop at the Garvey Center downtown.

Jennifer Collins and Shelby Cheatum are moving their Shear Voltage salon from a small suite at the Collective near 21st and Greenwich to the Garvey Center on July 1.

“We’re just really excited to be in the downtown area and continue to grow our business,” Collins says.

She and Cheatum have been cutting hair together for about seven years and opened their business almost two years ago. They purposely started small because they heard the first couple of years in any business are particularly rough, Collins says. She says they’ve been successful, though, and are ready to grow.

The new space is 1,512 square feet.

Adam Clements and Larry Weber of Builders Inc. handled the deal.

The expanded salon will have eight stylists and offer a range of services in addition to hair care. That includes spray tans, massage, body waxing, makeup, eyelash extensions and, eventually, manicures and pedicures.

Collins says it makes sense to move downtown now.

“I think we’re hitting it at the time that we can grow with the downtown area.”

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , , Filed under Downtown, Garvey Center, Salons | Comments

Planet Hair bows out of Art Aid, but the Positive Directions fundraiser will go on

April 30, 20135:03 p.m.

WICHITA — The owners of Planet Hair are bowing out of producing Art Aid’s hair and fashion show, but the show will go on.

“It’s bittersweet for us in a lot of ways,” says Graham Ross, who along with partners Tod and Linda Ernst started their fundraising fashion show in a small club in 1993.

“Things change,” says Cody Patton, executive director of Positive Directions, an AIDS service organization that benefits from Art Aid. The show grew into an art auction, show and party.

“There are definitely no hard feelings on anybody’s part,” Patton says. “I told them I completely understand where they’re coming from and appreciated the years they contributed to it.”

Ross says he and the Ernsts became involved because they wanted to do a fashion show.

“We had some fun inspirations and looks we wanted to do.”

He says they thought it would be great to raise money for AIDS causes, and the show benefited several organizations through the years.

“We wanted it to get bigger, and it did,” Ross says. “It became so big that it just got really, really hard for us to try to run our salon … and do the event (in) the way we needed to do it.”

A few years back, the Plant Hair owners began alternating years for the event, and Positive Directions threw an Art 4 Life event on the years Art Aid was off.

Patton says last year’s Art Aid was a fabulous event that raised $114,000, but he says there were a lot of frustrations, too.

Read More »

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , Filed under Fundraisers, Salons | Comments

Platinum Salon Spa & Boutique and Salon Bella to merge on west side; Color Bar Salon to open in Clifton Square

April 26, 20132:50 p.m.

WICHITA — There’s news with a few salons and stylists in the greater Wichita area.

First, Platinum Salon Spa & Boutique and Salon Bella are merging.

Susan Wardle and Tammy Kudlock are moving their Salon Bella from 119th and Maple to Tambra Hiser’s Platinum Salon at the northeast corner of 13th and Maize Road on Tuesday.

“I wanted to grow, and I don’t want to do it … one by one where it takes months,” Hiser says. “I came up with this innovative idea.”

She actively sought other salon partners by cold calling a few.

“Basically I decided to knock on some doors,” Hiser says. “I wanted to see what salon owners were faced with, some challenges.”

She and Wardle and Kudlock thought they would be a good fit and be able to offer complementary services. Hiser says they decided, “Wouldn’t it be genius to mix these two staffs together?”

She says education is a big focus for both salons.

There will be 11 stylists who will share nine stations.

In addition to hair services, there will be facials, nail care, massage and body wraps among other things.

Hiser says the trend lately has been for stylists to branch out on their own, but she says she and Wardle and Kudlock see benefits to combining their services in one place and under the Platinum name.

“Adding two heads is better than one,” Hiser says. It’s “going to be incredible.”

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By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Filed under Clifton Square, College Hill, New business, Real estate, Salons, West side | Comments

Chicken Poop founder opening new headquarters, salon and event space

April 10, 201311:07 a.m.

Chicken Poop founder Jamie Tabor Schmidt (right) is moving her business to a new 7,000-square-foot building at 611 S. St. Francis that she also plans to use for events and as gallery space. At left is Schmidt’s brother-in-law and director of operations, Michael Schmidt. Also pictured is Jamie Tabor Schmidt’s 4-year-old son, West.

UPDATED — Chicken Poop lip balm founder Jamie Tabor Schmidt is moving her business from the Fisch Haus to a 7,000-square-foot building that she and her husband, Eric Schmidt, bought at 611 S. St. Francis.

“It’s just a really great space,” Jamie Tabor Schmidt says. “We’re renovating it right now. … It’s a big project – bigger than I imagined.”

In addition to being what Schmidt calls the Chicken Poop World Headquarters, the new building will house an art gallery and event space that she is calling Ffarquhar.

“It was Eric’s grandma’s dog,” she says. Schmidt chose the spelling.

“I had to make it as weird as possible, you know.”

Schmidt says the new building offers several advantages over the Fisch Haus space on Commerce Street. Her business is on the second floor there, so she says the new space will be easier logistically.

“It’ll just be easier to ship stuff.”

Also, Schmidt says a lot of people want to rent event space at the Fisch Haus, but since there are several owners, there are more layers to go through for scheduling. That will change with Ffarquhar.

Eric Schmidt, an artist and inventor, also will use the space for his work.

In addition to the main building, there’s an 800-square-foot building on the property where Jamie Tabor Schmidt is opening a second business.

“I’m ready to open up a salon again,” she says.

Read More »

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , Filed under Events, Real estate, Retail, Salons, South side | Comments Off

Java Salon to move to Central and Maize Road

March 11, 20135:01 a.m.

WICHITA — There’s a new salon coming to the northwest corner of Central and Maize Road, but some people may mistake it for a coffee shop. It’s a little of that, too, actually.

Christy Crites is moving her Java Salon from near 135th and Maple to Central and Maize.

The 1,400-square-foot space will have a coffee bar and free Wi-Fi.

“We want to have, like, that coffeehouse feel,” Crites says. “All of the colors and the ideas just kind of spark around that.”

She says it’s something her customers like.

“It was all inspired by them.”

Crites says the new space also is “a little bit more centrally located for our guests.” She says she thinks traffic flow is better in that area, too.

Java is a Redken Fifth Avenue Salon that sells Redken and Pureology products.

Crites says there’s a noncompete where she is now due to another salon that has nail services, but that will change with her new location.

“We’ll be able to expand our services.”

That will include manicures and pedicures.

Kirk Short, a broker with Re/Max Realty Professionals, handled the deal.

Look for the new Java space to open by May 1.

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , Filed under Real estate, Salons, West side | Comments Off

Chez Belle salon to move to Mill Creek

March 6, 201311:03 a.m.

WICHITA — Chez Belle, a salon that’s been near Central and Woodlawn for 11 years, is moving to the Mill Creek shopping center on the northeast corner of Central and Rock.

Owner Michaela Santiago says she’s ready to “grow the business and get a little bit more visibility from the street.”

Currently, she says, the salon is a little hard to see behind the Williams Ace Hardware store.

“We’ve hired some new stylists, and we’re going to start doing more … package spa-type items,” Santiago says. She says she wants to help the newer stylists build their clientele by being more visible. Chez Belle has 11 stylists.

Don Piros and Ken Saville of Landmark Commercial Real Estate handled the deal.

Santiago says the salon offers a range of services but focuses mostly on hair and skin.

Chez Belle is in 1,800 square feet.

“We’re pretty spoiled right now,” Santiago says. “We’ve got a lot of space.”

The new space, which will open April 2, is 1,620 square feet. Santiago says the trade-off for more visibility will be worth it.

“We’re making every square inch count.”

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , Filed under East side, Mill Creek, Real estate, Salons | Comments Off

Former Planet Hair stylists open Studio 11 Hair and Beauty in Riverside

March 4, 20134:07 p.m.

WICHITA — A couple of former Planet Hair stylists opened their own salon March 4.

Jaime Pratt and Carla Sumner opened Studio 11 Hair and Beauty in the building next to the new R Coffeehouse – formerly Riverside Perk – at 1136 N. Bitting.

The 500-square-foot space is attached to the restaurant.

Pratt says she and Sumner looked to numerology for inspiration for the salon name. She says the number 11 is significant to them.

“It’s kind of a really goofy,” Pratt says. “It means new beginnings, and I needed a new beginning. … I was just ready to do my own thing, mostly.”

The numbers in their address add up to 11, and the business is on the corner of 11th and Bitting.

Another former Planet Hair stylist, Tricia Huntley, will rent space at Studio 11.

Pratt says the salon will carry Eufora products.

“Not a lot of people have it around here.”

She says the product line uses aloe vera as its base.

“It smells great, and it’s really cool.”

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , , Filed under New business, Riverside, Salons | Comments Off

PyT Portraits to open near Harry and Oliver and share March 2 grand opening with Image Source Barbershop

Feb. 21, 201310:49 a.m.

WICHITA — When the portrait studio within Babies R Us closed last summer, Phylisha Guiden and Tierra Gilbert took it as a sign.

They’d been the district manager and manager of the studio, and they decided it was time to open their own place.

PyT Portraits opens March 2 near the southeast corner of Harry and Oliver.

“We both decided it was time for us to do something on our own,” Guiden says. “We saw the opportunities. We thought, shoot, we can do that.”

They named the business after themselves — P for Phylisha and T for Tierra — but Guiden says, “A lot of people think ‘Pretty Young Thing’ by Michael Jackson.”

That’s not the meaning, but she says she’ll take it.

The two will offer family portraits, boudoir pictures and off-site photography, such as for weddings.

“We’re still setting up the studio,” Guiden says of their almost 1,000-square-foot space.

Read More »

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , , , , Filed under New business, Photography, Real estate, Salons, South side | Comments Off

You don’t say

Feb. 13, 20134:33 p.m.

“Hair and Botox are the two things that I haven’t been able to successfully transition to Tulsa.”

– Sarah Haertl, formerly of Intrust Bank Arena, who now is director of marketing for Tulsa’s BOK Center and the Tulsa Convention Center but still returns to Wichita for salon services

By Carrie Rengers | Tags: , , , Filed under Arenas, Salons, You don't say | Comments Off