My experience with opening a salon during a global pandemic.
Toni Jennings and Tyler Cochran, owners of Hair House in Austin, TX
My fiancé (Tyler Cochran, @tyler_the_hairstylist) and I met several years ago when we were both living at the same apartment complex. We occasionally saw each other in the parking lot, but it was never more than a casual ‘hello’ (and me secretly thinking he was cute af). I knew he was a hair stylist, and a damn good one at that, but that’s really all I knew about him. After him and I both moved on from the apartment complex, we ran into each other and the rest is history. After two years of dating, we got engaged and discovered that we both shared a strong passion for our work. After countless conversations about our career paths, we realized that we wanted more. We wanted to be our own boss. We wanted our own salon. We wanted to use our knowledge, passion, and experience to create our own brand: Hair House ATX.
In early February 2020, we started looking for property around Austin to make our dream a reality. It was nearly impossible to secure a location, but one finally fell into our lap and we were so excited! It was a little space on the first floor of a residential complex in downtown Austin. We signed the lease, found a reputable General Contractor, and got approved for a business loan. Within weeks, we were putting our vision into motion!
At the beginning of March, we were half way done with the build out of Hair House when the news of COVID-19 began circulating. It was only a matter of days before COVID-19 made its way to the US, and everything came to a grinding halt. Most of city shut down. People lost their jobs, including Tyler and I. Our original goal was to continue working while we worked to get Hair House open; but as things on our to-do list and unforeseen challenges added up, we realized pretty quickly that losing our jobs was actually a blessing in disguise.
Hair House Salon pre build-out
Despite the circumstances, we pushed forward. We submitted plans to the city for approval. They made us re-submit them three times. Days of waiting for approval turned into weeks and months. In order to pay rent at Hair House while we waited to open, we worked out of Air BNB’s, borrowed salons, and did house calls. It was incredibly stressful not having our own space to work out of. We were well into July when we finally got approved by the city, so we hit the ground running. We designed our logo, found a CPA, purchased the salon supplies, designed our website, and decided on a booking software. We moved the new furniture, hung the artwork, and installed all of the equipment into the salon. It was starting to feel like ours and things felt like they were moving! By this time, the city was beginning to re-open. All we needed was a final inspection by the Austin Fire Department to issue our Certificate of Occupancy (CO), which would allow us to remove the paper from our windows and officially open the doors of Hair House ATX!
After the Austin Fire Department’s inspection, they informed us that they could not issue the CO because the entire building where Hair House was located was “out of code”. The building failed a fire inspection in 2019 and the landlord failed to disclose that information. So there we were, facing yet another obstacle that was out of our control.
Hair House ATX October of 2020
Fast forward to October 26th, 8 months into a project that should have only taken 2-3 months. After many phone calls, legal advice, and a lot of stressing, we finally received our CO and were given the green light to open. We couldn’t believe it WAS REAL. Ripping that damn paper off the windows was one of the most fulfilling, cathartic experiences I’ve ever had. We gave everything we had to Hair House. We hustled, we cried, we fought, but we made it to the finish line. Hair House was finally open.
Every morning when I wake up, I’m excited to go to work. Every evening when I’m done working, I don’t want to leave. When I drink my morning coffee at the salon, I take a look around the space we created and I am in awe. I am so incredibly proud of what we overcame and of this salon I call my own. We went through hell getting Hair House open, and I wouldn’t change this experience for the world.