How Bilal O'Hair Artistry Built a Client Base That Lasts a Lifetime

What does it actually take to keep a business running in the same location for 25 years? In this episode, we sit down with Michael Zennedin, co-owner of Bilal O'Hair Artistry, to talk about the realities of building a loyal client base, staying consistent, and treating competitors as community instead of threats.

Michael breaks down why he and his brother renovate the salon every 8-10 years to keep it feeling fresh, why "never take your loyal clients for granted" might be the most important rule in any service business, and the honest truth behind those "make 6 figures working 3 days a week" claims floating around social media (spoiler: there's always a tradeoff).

We also get into how social media has changed client acquisition, how to navigate content creation when you have a client in front of you, and Michael's new initiative, Between Appointments, a free monthly meetup for stylists and salon owners to learn from each other instead of competing.

If you run a service-based business or are building any kind of loyal client base, this one's full of takeaways you can use right away.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We just wrapped up a shoot with Bilalo Hair District. We were at Park Hill, Melrose because you're celebrating 25 years. 25 years in Wirelow Region. That's absolutely. So I feel like there's gonna be a lot to talk about in this episode from like how you guys got started, the marketing behind it. You've been in the same spot for 25 years.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Absolutely. Yeah, on Weber Street. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yeah. Let's start from the beginning. Sure. Actually, before we start, let's just introduce you.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Sorry. Yeah, I got you. My name is Michael Zenidine. I co-own Bilallo Hair Artistry with my brother Bilal Zenidine. We started June 19, 2001, in 100 Weber Street East in Kitchener. And yes, we've been in the same spot since.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Your brother started when he was 15. Yeah, he started when I was 15. He got into hairdressing school and then he graduated. He worked at a salon for 10 years, built up a great clientele, learned the business very well, and then opened his salon at 21. I was still in high school. I was pursuing a dance career. I was in and out of the studio. Sorry, the salon, just assisting and helping cleaning. I remember when he showed me the location at 1500 Ribree Street. It was a winemakery store. I remember looking through the glass because the door wasn't open. Yeah. And then I would assist him here and there. And then four years later, I went to hair school. I graduated in 2005. And yeah, next month will be 21 years for me doing hair. Wow. So yeah, it's been a long time.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

That's crazy. Yes. We we had one hairstylist on before. Yeah. On episode, it was like six or seven, I think. Um, and that was more so just like talking about the content and kind of what goes into getting people to the salon. Absolutely. And she talked a lot about how we also talked about it last time, how it's more one-on-one. And like you you're there for your clients for a long time. Yeah. And so you build such like these relationships. Yeah. And now it's more, it's less about the hair, it's more about the conversations that you have with your clients now.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

So a lot of people ask me, what is your specialty? What kind of hair salon are you? Because there's, and I will say it right away. And I love all the industry of hairdressers in our city. We're all amazing. We all support each other. I absolutely love it, especially the new. I say they like the new age, because now social media, everybody's supporting everybody, which is amazing. In the early 90s, if you went to a hair show and you saw another salon owner in your city, you walk right past them. And it was just, it was like that in the 90s. I was there. Like I remember. But I love how now the industry has changed and we all support each other. And I think that's the best. So going back to like when we talk about what your specialty is, I always say that we're owned by a family salon and our clients are family. That means we have grandma and grandpa and mom and dad and grandchildren and their kids and their kids and their kids. Like I was saying when we're doing our photo shoot, I've been doing your hair since you were nine years old. And look at you now. Successful, beautiful, working couple, you guys are. And I keep on saying, I'm so proud of you, what you've done since you were at nine years old. Yeah. So I love seeing that we're a family salon owned by a family, but also our clienteleur family. So it's like you see them grow with them. That you get that amazing connection with them. Totally. It feels like a full circle of doing a photo shoot for you guys. And I've been going to your salon for absolutely since I was nine years old. I know. It's amazing. It's an amazing ride. And I that's the best part of our industry. But then you have to look at the other side when you were young doing the client's hair and they were elder at that time, and now they're no longer with you. So we're used to going to weddings, to bar mitzvahs, to slavas, all the Europeans, but now you're going to visitations and you're going to funerals. Yeah. And then that just it's like a knife in the heart. You're like, oh, that's the hard part. Yeah. And then you'll have family members that say, My mom used to love getting your hair done. She would love every time in six weeks to see you. She always talks so highly of you. And I I had I have a four-year-old son, so she knew Malik when he was born. And then now they're not with us. That's the hardest part of our industry when it comes to that.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

I feel like it's so hard to find when you find a good salon or person. Absolutely. It's so hard to if they move away. Of course. If you're so loyal to that one person because you've been going there for so long. Of course. It makes that process of finding out an entirely new.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Of course. The big thing I tell about our industry is I always tell clients or other hairdressers when I go and do my teaching is never take granted of your loyal clients because it will leave you as fast as the regular client. Yeah. Because they're expecting that service to be amazing. They're expecting you to be dead on. They're expecting you to be on time. They're expecting even the pricing to stay the same. Not one visit that's here, the next visit, it's all over. So you want to be consistent and you want to be loyal to your number ones and always take care of them, never take advantage of them. And I think that's a big one in our industry where I think sometimes we forget, oh, don't worry about Shelly, she'll be back. No, if you mess up Shelly's there and you've been with her for 20 years, she's leaving, right? So you always want to stay consistent. Just as I say, spend the same time you do with a new client to win them over for the coming to see you. Do the same thing with your day one clients.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Yeah, like the consistency in customer service is huge. Yeah. And do you think the family aspect is what sets you apart from other salons? Or what is the biggest difference when people walk through your door?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Yeah, the again, there's a lot of great salons out there. So they're all different because like I've normal, they're good friends of mine. I think just Bilallo and I are always there. Like when you open the door, you'll see one of our faces. It's like we don't go home.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah. You are the fade of the other. We are, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

And we have an amazing team that they're just like us. Our team is just as welcoming and as family like everyone else. So we're very lucky with that. But they always see our faces and we're always there. And I always say that if something happens at the salon, this dispute with a client or something, we take it very personal. So it's not like, oh, that's okay. Don't worry about it. No, it's we worry about it, we'll stress about it, we'll figure out what we can do to make it better, and then we'll do it. And this is why we're very grateful. We're ranked really high on Google Reviews because we just don't ignore the issue, even if we know it's not our fault. We know that, you know, we've told them about the consultation. It is not gonna happen. We will try our best. We break everything down and they still expect that look, but we're always there to help them. Yes. And I think that's very important where it's a family salon, we take it very personal. We don't just forget about it.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

I feel like you guys have evolved quite a bit too throughout the years I've been going to you from just the way the studio looks like, the painting, the stuff you're bringing in. Yeah, I feel like when you guys opened, it definitely looked a lot different than it does today. Yeah. So I kind of want to talk about like how it has evolved from just opening it to now in 2026. That's a good question, Matt.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

So yeah, absolutely. So if we all remember, like in 2020, in 2001, everything was yellow, purple, orange, green, glass blocks. It was so tacky. But hey, it worked at that time. So we have a thing that my brother and I say that every eight to 10 years, we close a salon for one week, we put all our belongings in a seacan, and we just go renovate the whole thing. God forbid we never leave our plaza, but I don't even want to know how many floors of tiles we have on top of tiles because we've done so much work to the floor and to the paint. Yeah. Again, I'm very fortunate. I do a lot of teaching. So I walk into a lot of salons and I see a lot of salons. So sometimes I'll walk into a salon and be like, okay, great salon, but it definitely needs an upgrade. Or I'll walk into other salons and I'm like, wow, they're like on top of it. So then I judge our salon the same way. I remember in October, I walked into the salon in the morning and I said, No, we're done. I'm like, this front desk is not where I want it. I don't like the color. I don't like this. So from October to just in February, we just went through another reno. This one was we didn't have to close for a week, but on the weekends we worked with the painting, with the front desk, with the wallpaper. Yeah. Because we've been open for 21 years, 20, 25 years, we have a lot of clients that are surprised when we tell them we've been here for this long. And the next question they ask is same location. Yeah. That means we've been renovating it. So it's very important for us because it's like our home. We live, we work more than we live at home. Yeah. And for the clients, I never want them to come in feeling bored. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

And I want to be excited. There is what we talked about when you were cutting my hair last week. Yeah. How you have clients that look forward to two weeks so they can come in, have their coffee, and just sit there and have a conversation with you.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Absolutely. They look forward to it. Like uh getting a haircut is it's a special thing. And even I have a barber myself and I enjoy seeing them. And people are like, but you own a hair salon. What do you mean you go somewhere else? Because I enjoy getting a haircut. I enjoy talking shop with other salon owners and other hairdressers. I love it. It's it's I got a nice clean fade. We could talk shop.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

So it's nice to have that connection. Yeah. And they look forward to it. And you want to be consistent. Yeah. And every two weeks you want to hear about what's exciting with them and where did they go? And I'm excited to hear about your trip when you come back. Like I can't wait.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So it's I'm looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

We touched on competition versus community. And I feel like a lot of people who just get into even photography space, they look at as every photographer as competition. Yeah. Whereas when you start to look at it as more community, and you like you said, you talk shop, you talk about new ideas, you collaborate. Yeah. Probably the same thing with salons too.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Yeah. Again, now with social media, everything's so easy at reach, like messaging and everything. So I get a lot of messages from other hairdressers and salon owners asking me questions about commission, about overhead, how you promote and this. So I've really I've been wanting to do it for a while, and I'm starting like a networking group called Between Love Between Appointments. And I must give a plug to Judy. That was her idea. So she came up with a great name. So thank you. It's called Between Appointments, where one Monday a month we are going to meet at the salon and we're going to just talk shop. It's going to be free. It's going to be for everybody, junior stylists, salon owners, spa directors. And we just want to help each other. Because there's, I always say that there's 710,000 people in Wireless Region. That's enough heads to cut. Yeah. Like, really, we don't need to compete against all those people. There's enough of us to help each other. Because I might have an answer, but I also have lots of questions where I'm like, how do you do this? Because I have no idea after 25 years. So it's definitely helping each other, then competition.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Really? How do you guys navigate social media now and marketing in general? Ugh.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

You can hear that sound. This is a big thing that us hairdressers always talk about. And I did a post about this two days ago. Thank God, knock on wood, we had a very busy day. We were swamped clients after clients and putting out fires here and taking care of clients. We're at to the end of the day. I didn't have time to post nothing. And I felt like I'm losing something. I'm like, I should have posted. But I was like, but wait a second, you did your job. You were taking care of clients behind the chair. So this is where I tell a hairdresser is that if you're busy, amazing. Don't worry about the other stuff because that bread and butter is going to pay. Is that client behind the chair? Yeah. Now, when you have time and in between appointments, then social media is huge. Back in the day, they would look at your before and after pictures to choose you as a hairstylist. They're like, oh, look at the before, look at the after, look at your competition work. Now they're looking at you, who you are as an individual. They're looking at you, are you that character they're going to get along with? And this is why we did the photo show with you today. And I said, I do not want it at the salon. I want it to be personal. I want to know who they are. Yeah. Because then the stylist will be the client out there be like, wow, they look like a fun group, or I love her style, or he's really edgy, or I'm going to connect with that hairdresser. Yeah. Then they book it. Yeah. So that's why social media has changed out with that kind of content. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

How do you feel about the hairstylists that create content while they have a client in the chair?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

It's good. I don't mind it. You have to watch who you're doing it with. The elder clients, the more old school clients, they don't like it. So get off your phone and throw it away. Yeah. Don't be on your phone. They're paying for your time, right? If you're charging good money for a service, you better give that and distract everything away and put it away because it's not worth it. And they will let you know and you will lose a client. The younger clientele, they like it because it's exciting. You get to tag them and they're beautiful and they look cool. Absolutely. So I'm all about it, but I always go back to what pays the bills, right? Social media is amazing, but you better work your butt off behind the chair, take care of that client so they come back to you so you can get paid. Yeah. Because bottom line is money.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah. Because Liv, the hairstylist she goes to, she will go what every couple months. Yeah. But instead of just going there for her haircut, they use it as a collaboration where they basically create content during the entire process. So she's there for six hours, and it's agreed that they're there to create content, but also there to do your hair too.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

And this is a big part where I talk a lot about between appointments, is you got to know what you're focusing on. Okay. So a lot of people, and I said this, I did a post where I can't stand anymore looking on social media and seeing a lot of salon coaches or all these mentors saying you can work three days a week making over a hundred grand a year. And I'm like, how? I have so many questions to ask. What's your overhead? What's your competition? Do you have a business loan? Like how many staff do you have working with you? What's your payroll deduction? What's your HST tax? There's so much. So at the end, I think you have to figure out what's what you want to live off, what's your budget? If you want to live a good life and enjoy and travel, guess what? You're going to be cutting behind the chair a lot. Or you do salon content where you do Fashion Week and you do all this hair shows, which is amazing and they pay amazing, but it's going to be a give and take. You're not going to be behind the chair as much. Your loyal client won't be as much because you're always traveling. I've seen it. I've seen it both ends, right? It's just what you want to choose and what you want to do. And just don't believe everything when it comes to like social media as a hairdresser because everyone is different. So just do whatever works for you.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yeah. We didn't really touch on how you're also you have an MK professional. Yeah. Where you go and teach other hairdressers and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Yeah, so I'm I certify hairdressers in MK hair botox treatments. It's a smoothing treatment out there. It works amazing. You do it at the salon. It lasts six to eight months. It's a full service treatment where you do only at the salon. It gets rid of the frizz and static. And it's an amazing service. We do it at the salon all the time. But yeah, I have to go into the hair salons and certify them. It's a lengthy appointment. It's about three to four hours long. And you're taking up to 300 to 400 bucks for the treatment. So it is worth it. But again, you need to be certified. Teaching is very important to know the steps and what you're doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Anything that what got you into wanting to teach other stylists?

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah. So it goes back to being a dance teacher, like being a dancer, right? I love to dance when I was younger. Like I said, I was a professional dancer. And then from there I got into choreographing, then I got into teaching little kids and then the juniors and then the seniors. I was very fortunate. I taught for the Toronto Raptors back in the day. No way. So yeah, the dance pack there. So I think it just goes into the teaching. Yeah. Where I enjoy performing, I enjoy talking to people. My dad will always say, Of course you do it. You've been dancing in front of 5,000 people. Why are you not going to talk in front of me? What's wrong with you? Why did I spend all that money on you? It's true. So I'm like, yeah, that's very true. So I think because I'm very passionate about the industry, but I'm also very passionate about the business side. Because I always say, and you know, in the dance world, you can be one amazing hairstylist or one amazing dancer, but doesn't mean you can run a good dance studio or a hair salon. I know a lot of just average, really good hairstylists, but their salon is banging with income. Yes. And then some who are the amazing artists who are killing the competition, and the business side is not so much. So it's a balance of both, which we're very lucky, my brother and I, we balance each other on that. Let's wrap this up. What's next for Ilalo? What is next? That's a good question. We want to build our team. We're always building our team. Yeah. In our industry, there's a lot of like great where you have seven, eight staff and you're killing it and it's amazing. And then a couple months later, you're down to two staff, right? So now that we're back at building our team, we have a new junior stylist that joined our team. Judy, we're very excited for her. She was with our salon for four years. Now we're getting her on the floor. I have my sister-in-law, Abilala's wife, joining us for her being a medical ethnican. So she'll be doing Botox and fillers and face fillers and treatments. Yeah. So she'll be joining us once a week. So it's a good calibration for both of us. Yeah. And just keep what we're doing. Have you been in that space before?

SPEAKER_01 15:53

For which one? Like the Botox and Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

So we did spa back in the day. We did the pedicures and manicures, especially before COVID. It was good. We tried facials. If anyone's been to my salon, our salon and heard my brother and I talk, there's no relaxing. There's no waterfalls, or there's no we're pretty loud because we get excited what we do, and the clients love it. It's entertainment. Yeah. So that didn't work well for us, but we're excited to bring back to do the Botox and the fillers. I think that'll be really good because that's big now in our industry. So what a great way to bring her clients into the salon, and then we can do their hair and then our clients that we already have to go visit her. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

So it's a great team there. It's everything is relatable back to social media and content. Yeah. Because it's trial and error. You put out a bunch of stuff and you see what works and what doesn't work. Absolutely. And then you just go hard on what is working. Of course. Yep. Yeah, it is the same in real life. Yep. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I'm excited for you guys. Yeah. You guys are doing a lot, so I'm proud of you guys. We let's talk a little bit about the photo shoot. Yeah. So, yeah, today we just did photo shoot for you guys. Yep. Basically, just to celebrate 25 years, but also to give an announcement as bringing on new team members. Of course. Yeah. We're at Park Hill, Mel Mel Rose. What was your experience like?

SPEAKER_00 17:11

It was amazing. You guys are great. You guys are awesome. You have good eyes. Again, the reason why I chose you guys, because again, we know there's so many amazing photographers out there and everything, but I really like to watch and see how people work and see what they have and what's different. Again, just back to the hair salon. So you guys were always on my radar. So that's why we kept on going back to you and talking back and forth. And I'm so happy and blessed that we made it work. Yeah. And it's definitely not going to be the last. We have a lot more in the future, especially when we do the between appointments. I really want you guys to come in and do some video shoots of there. Cause then other salons will be there. Yeah. Other hairdressers will be there. So they'll meet you guys. Right. So let's just help each other. Let's help each other grow. And I think we'll do wonderful, all of us together.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Thank you guys. Thank you. Take care.