Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Ep. 21 Behind the Scenes at Heirloom Salon: From Solo Stylist to Thriving Community
Meet Skye Lewis, the passionate owner behind Heirloom Salon who transformed her business from a one-woman show into a thriving community of eight skilled professionals. After seven years at the helm, Skye shares candid insights into her journey from salon receptionist at age 17 to successful entrepreneur.
What started as a desire to maintain client relationships has evolved into a nurturing environment where stylists grow through well-structured apprenticeships and assistant positions. Skye's approach emphasizes the value of confidence, patience, and mastering fundamentals before tackling more complex techniques. "Start from the bottom," she advises newcomers, highlighting how essential those building blocks are for long-term success in the hair industry.
Beyond business wisdom, Skye reveals exciting hair trends breaking away from the "white blonde" standard toward more natural, flattering options like buttery and bronde tones that complement individual skin tones. She dispels common misconceptions about service timeframes, explaining that today's sought-after looks often require 3-5 hours to achieve properly while maintaining hair health. Located near Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach, Heirloom Salon offers a comprehensive range of services including specialized curly hair treatments, extensions, bridal styling, and makeup applications. When she's not transforming clients, Skye balances entrepreneurship with motherhood, spending quality time with her one-year-old and five-year-old children through camping trips and adventures at local parks.
Ready to experience the personalized service and expertise that's built Heirloom Salon's stellar reputation? Follow their work on Instagram @heirloomsalonvb or book your appointment anytime through their online booking system.
Heirloom Salon
Skye Lewis
2728 N Mall Dr #105
Virginia Beach, VA
757-515-5867
IG: HeirloomSalonVB
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Denise Taylor.
Speaker 2:Today I'm here with Skye Lewis from Heirloom Salon. Thanks for being here, skye. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited, of course. So first of all, tell me a little bit about Heirloom Salon and how long you've owned the business.
Speaker 3:Okay, so Heirloom Salon has been Heirloom Salon for seven years come April. Congratulations, that's awesome. I know Lucky number seven, right? Yeah, I'm thrilled to say I was a one man show but realized I just couldn't do it all and service all of my clients, so I was having to kind of divvy them out to people in other salons and then I never saw them again, and so I I felt like that was the next step was to have kind of like my umbrella, that I had stylists that I could recommend my clients to, and still be able to connect with those clients and still, you know, have them. A part of what I built, which was Heirloom Salon, yeah because they already trust you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, they trust you with their services, with other people because you trust them. Yep, and it's a shame to think about sending business to somebody else. Yeah, tell me how many stylists are currently in your salon? I have about eight employees.
Speaker 3:Okay, I have an apprentice, so I typically have an apprentice regularly and that, in case people don't really know what that means is they're pretty much doing their schooling under my license. They learn all of the hands-on experience they need to become a licensed stylist through me and through my employees, my other stylists, and then they do their book work online and with that they you, they deserve a chair at the salon as a full time stylist after they finish. So I offer apprenticeships and then we have two or three assistants. That kind of an assistant typically is licensed. Typically is licensed. They finish hair school but then, you know, there's that little bit of a window where they're not fully confident to be a full-time stylist. So they continue to do their learning and get their hands-on experience as an assistant before switching to behind the chair.
Speaker 2:So that's an interesting word, confidence, because I think in most business roles whether you're owning your own business or starting a new sort of job yeah, one of the biggest things is gaining that confidence. Tell me how long you typically see for a stylist to be able to go on her own or on his own, to be able to do that without being under the assistant or apprenticeship?
Speaker 3:Honestly, I kind of go off of their, their you know vibe, their confidence, their skill level. I can typically tell when somebody is ready they will be an assistant until literally they don't have any more hours to be an assistant because now their books are starting to fill up on their styling days. So I follow their lead, you know, like if they're confident and they they're ready to take it full on, I'm going to support it because at the end of the day that's their goal, that's their career right?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, that's fantastic. So tell me how you actually started in this business. When did you decide this? Is you know the route you were going to take with your life?
Speaker 3:I mean it was pretty early on. I don't remember a time where I really dreamt about doing anything else. My best friend growing up, her mom, owned a hair salon locally and it was the it Salon where I grew up. So I really envied that and it's such a like a girly community and fun, fashion forward environment. I just really gravitated towards it. So that was like one of my first jobs was actually being a receptionist at her hair salon. Oh wow yeah, so I kind of started the reception job.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. How old were you when you started with the reception job?
Speaker 3:I well, first off I was a shop kid, like we would go to the salon, you know, after school and just hang out until her mom got off work. So you know I was familiar there already. And then when I took the position as a receptionist I want to say it wasn't as young as you would think, I want to say like 18, maybe 17. And then, yeah, I started going to hair school, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:So did you grow up in Virginia Beach?
Speaker 3:No, I met my husband, who lived in Virginia Beach. I grew up in Portsmouth. Oh, ok, yeah. So all of that part of my career that started was in Portsmouth.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's fantastic, yeah, so tell me, what do you think one of the top misconceptions of your business would be?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good question. That it's easy, yeah, and that it's easy if you enjoy your job, but it's not easy because you're dealing with. You know, if you're a busy stylist, behind the chair you're dealing with a lot of personalities. And then you add, being a salon owner, you're you're dealing with employees that you're trying to make happy all day, every day, and it takes a lot to like, eventually learn, like that's not gonna always be the case and you have to be okay with that you know, that you can't appease everyone um so that's a great misconception.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great lesson, for any business owner is being able to say I've got to do what's best for the business and it may or may not make everybody happy, yeah, yeah. So tell me um, outside of working and owning heirloom salon, tell me um what you like to do in your free time.
Speaker 3:Well, I have two kids, two very young kids, um, so I try to stay as busy as possible with them because they wear me out, so I have to wear them out, right? So we're, we're always on the go, we go camping, we do a lot of like. You know the jump parks, the adventure parks, you know hunt club. My husband owns a gym locally, so I spend a lot of time at the gym as well. That's great, yeah. So, yeah, I'm always doing stuff. How old are your kids? I have a one-year-old and a five-year-old, okay, so they are super young.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they're so fun though Um would you, what advice would you give to somebody just starting out in the hair industry?
Speaker 3:Start from the bottom, because I think when you like to be honest out of school and they want to skip a bunch of steps because they want to focus on the money making part of the industry, and I think you can't succeed at those steps without starting at the bottom and really being successful, being great at each step of the way. You know you've got to like really be good at the bread and butter clients right, those are the easy clients, the one solid color clients or, you know, just a haircut. Be very good at those services, the bottom services, the easy services, in order to be super successful at the luxury services.
Speaker 2:Okay, Absolutely, yeah, and enjoying the process sounds like a big part of it. Absolutely so that you do fundamentally have those, those pieces in place as you're moving forward with your career. Yes, so you've owned this salon for seven years, um, and it was just you, and before that were you um at another salon in the area so before heirloom, I was pretty much a self-employed okay stylist.
Speaker 3:so I worked in a it's called a suite, oh yeah, so it's like a giant building with very little rooms that were like individual salons. So you were by yourself for the most part at that time, um, so I was by myself, um, and I got very lonely and I was ready to build a salon community.
Speaker 2:I think the when I think about a salon, I do think about that camaraderie and that kind of fun atmosphere and sitting in the chair and people talking to each other. Yeah Well, I could see how that would be very lonely. So, from a stylist standpoint, what do you see in terms of trending, what's coming up that you're excited for people to try, or anything new that people may not realize that's coming on board in terms of hair try?
Speaker 3:or anything new that people may not realize that's coming on on board in terms of hair. I think that I'm really excited for there's. There's this idea of when you're a blonde, you're like white blonde and if you're not white blonde, then like your blonde is bad right, and I'm that's my daughter, yeah, and it is. It's a lot of blonde blondies. You know I'm so excited for I can see it trending where buttery blondes and warm tone blondes, like white isn't your skin tone is very important, you know, when making these like tonal decisions, and I think people just kind of disregard that when it comes to being a blonde and they're like I want it see-through white and I'm like, yeah, but you know you need to do something that's flattering, you know, for you, you personally. So I'm really excited to hone in on the buttery blondes, the warm blondes, the brawn blondes, the beachy blondes this year.
Speaker 2:I love the brawn blondes. Talk to my daughter about that. Yeah, Well, I had as a baby. Obviously that changes and she still wants to be that toehead. So you're healthy. We've got to kind of figure out something else. Yeah, People come to do a service like a blonde. That's pretty dramatic. What is the time commitment for that?
Speaker 3:That's a great question, and I think there's again. Another misconception is, I think, a lot of clients that aren't like regularly in the salon these days. They have this idea that it's we're still in like 2007, where you did a highlight and there wasn't any extra steps and you're in and out in an hour and a half. That is not the case for the looks that they're throwing at us these days. These more lived in, these more natural looks, they end up taking longer and so to have to like really perfect that it takes three to five hours sometimes, especially when you're trying to maintain a healthy head of hair. You're not you're, you're not like pushing the power in, you're letting it go kind of low and slow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, because, let's be honest, slow and steady wins the race absolutely, um, to keep that healthy hair for sure, yeah, yeah, tell me exactly where you guys are located for our listeners and well, before we get to that, yeah, what other hair besides like cut? Are you guys doing extensions?
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, I myself am an extension specialist. I do a couple different methods, but, but I have actually gotten the majority of my girls um certified in extensions as well. So we do a lot of extensions.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then what other services besides hair do you do at the salon?
Speaker 3:Um, honestly, I think, like between the entire salon, um, but between all the stylists I have, we can specialize honestly in any service. Um, when it comes to hair, um, I'm really excited about that. That's where we're currently at is, um, you know, we have a curly specialist, we have extension specialists. Yeah, we have men's cuts in the salon. We do, um, there's bridal styling, there's up styling for events. I just hired a makeup artist. So, um, yeah, we do do a lot of that. We do facial waxing, Okay, um, so, yeah, a little bit of everything.
Speaker 2:I didn't know there were curly stylists yeah, and that's actually really big.
Speaker 3:Now, um, people are embracing their natural texture and it's, it's, it's becoming really big, so I'm excited to have someone in the salon for that yeah, again something I need to talk to my daughter about.
Speaker 2:Who has curly hair? Who wants? Yeah, absolutely embrace it yeah, it's so pretty. I love, love it. Yeah, I'm sure. Okay, so tell our listeners where you're located and then how to get in touch with you guys.
Speaker 3:So we are located, um, I can literally see Lynn Haven mall through my window. Um, we so we are in the Lynn Haven area, um, right off the interstate next to Lynn Haven Mall. So that's a pretty good landmark for most people in Hampton Roads. They're familiar with that mall and you can contact us at our phone. You know our phone number, which is 757-515-5867. We have an Instagram page. We have an Instagram page. We have a Facebook page. It's Heirloom Salon VB, and each stylist has their own personal page that you know. You can check out their work. It's kind of like our resumes. And we also do online booking. So if you get a wild hair at, you know, 11 pm, you can absolutely book a hair appointment at that given time from your bed.
Speaker 2:And what's your website.
Speaker 3:We don't actually have a website. Currently we use Vegaro. But if you go on Google and you just type in heirloom salon, it'll have a book book here. Button.
Speaker 2:Okay, perfect, yeah, people, what's your Instagram handle?
Speaker 3:It's heirloom H E I R L O O M salon VB as in Virginia beach.
Speaker 2:Perfect yeah, so much sky for being here today.
Speaker 3:Yeah it, yeah, that was um.
Speaker 1:It was great talking to you, awesome thanks thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpvirginiabeach. com. That's gnpvirginiabeach. com, or call 757-797-8852.