We recently connected with Kathleen Stanley and have shared our conversation below.
Kathleen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Our mission is to set higher standards in the beauty industry through first offering love + purity within our atmosphere as well as within the products we offer. The first part has been no easy feat.
I have worked in several beauty establishments where the tension could be cut with a knife. In one salon, I trained directly under a team leader who micro-managed me every chance she could. She watched every foil I placed, every strand I cut, she even tried adjusting the way I swept the floor! I remember during my interview she let me know that if I got the job I would have to dress “really nice” each day I worked. Considering I showed up in a pencil skirt and button-up shirt I didn’t see any potential issue with the request. About 6 months into the job, she started critizing my clothing options. One day she said, “It doesn’t have to be a fashion show every time you come to work, you know!” I just felt so crushed! I had worked so hard trying to make sure everything I did was what she wanted, even going above and beyond what I was originally hired in to do. It just wasn’t ever enough!
The sole purpose for opening Agape was to create opportunities for industry professionals who haven’t always felt valued or have felt like they fit in. I wanted to train artists well and then watch them get comfortable in their OWN way of doing things. I wanted a team who felt they could have discussions with their guests without feeling like I was judging their interactions. I wanted a tribe who was down to earth and genuine.
Our industry is catty. Instead of being a group of women who one-up each other, we are a tribe of women who support each other. With this foundational value in place, our creativity soars!
Kathleen, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Growing up I cut everything I could. I cut my sister’s hair, every doll and Barbie I could find, I cut carpet, pillows, my brother’s deer hide. I just loved taking things and turning them into something “better”. School wasn’t always my cup of tea. Though i excelled in every art class I’ve ever taken, math was always sore subject. Unfortunately for me, you can’t graduate college by acing only art classes. Defeated, my mom put the idea of beauty school in my head. I finished school and never looked back.
After years of trying to find a salon family to settle in with, I thought opening a single-chair studio would be the final destination in my journey. I was creative, motivated and extremely hard-working. I had a vision of owning a salon that was clean, comfortable and that offered products that differed from the typical products you’d find in any other salon. I thought being alone in a studio would solve the problem of not feeling like I fit in with other women. Six months into my LLC, I started getting lonely. I missed having co-workers to bounce ideas off of and people to talk to during lunch breaks. Being in a studio didn’t solve my problem. I was just one room in the mix of several others and all of us were competing to be the best. I’m all about healthy competition but it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.
I spent a full year in my studio before opening Agape. I was actually getting visions of myself standing in the street looking into big windows. Inside was a beautiful, all white salon and the people inside were so happy. The guests were casually sipping tea, the interactions looked happy, and although it looked busy, it just looked so pure. I was very intentional about every detail of the build-out. I knew I wanted private rooms for those women who weren’t comfortable discussing hair loss in the presence of others, I wanted a private, cozy skincare area, I wanted the pedicure chairs in the back so they weren’t front and center. Every detail was thought out to make the space feel private and comfortable. During that time, I was reading about an underground salon in Japan that specialized in men’s haircuts. The space looked raw but inviting. I used that salon as an aestetic muse during the building phase. I chose bright white colors, raw materials, industrial lighting, avoided baseboards and stripped the floor down to only concrete. As soon as the perfectly smooth walls were finished. I grabbed a hammer and some mud and starting distressing the corners. I got up on the ladder and flung mud from top to bottom. I still remember the looks I got while doing it! I kept saying, “just trust me, I have a vision!”. Once the raw aestetic was in place, I was happy to place our professional line on the shelves.
We use OWAY hair color, hair care and skin care in our services. It’s truely the purest line I’ve found on the market. Sourced in Italy, it goes through rigorous testing and upholds higher standards than those found here in America. Offering our guests genuine interactions, transparency in our products and house-blended teas all while not jeopardizing the health of those we serve just fit so well with the creative vision I was going for. It feels so good to have succeeded in offering something totally different from anything else in our area.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I’m blessed to say that Agape grew very quickly from day one. We had a team of like-minded artists who really felt like family. Six months into our new salon, COVID shut down salons in Ohio. It was one of the scariest moments in my life. My family had invested money, time and every last bit of energy into creating the salon and in one short sentence at 2:15 one afternoon, it was taken from us. I can’t explain the amount of guilt I had knowing I couldn’t pay my tribe while we weren’t open. They had families to provide for and I couldn’t deliver on the income I promised! It was a horrible feeling. Even the guilt of turning away the requests of clients when they begged us to let them come in to get their hair done haunted me. I felt like I had failed.
A few girls from the team suggested we start making at-home videos to keep our guests engaged and to bring some type of “normalcy” into their lifes. We did product videos, styling videos, at-home skin care videos, even at-home hair coloring videos! Our guests began purchasing gift certificates to use at a later date, bought hair color from us to use at home and they bought products from us online. It’s because of their compassionate spirits that we never missed a rent payment. People continued to book their appointments in hopes of us opening soon and even though those appointments got moved several times, they never lost their eagerness to get back in!
When we were finally allowed to open back up, we were flooded with support. Not only did we not loose any of our previous guests but we also increased our clientelle by 15% within the first 6 weeks of opening. I know if our tribe can get through that, we can get through anything.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I’m not exactly an extroverted person. I love people and enjoy their presence but I wouldn’t consider myself overly outgoing when it comes to meeting new people. Before opening Agape I knew it would be an area I needed some help in. I managed to recruit my best friend to co-own the salon. It was the perfect fit. She was the networking guru, the smiling face guests saw when walking through the door, the happy voice answering the phones, and the best part of all was she was my best friend! What more could you ask for then fulfiling your dreams alongside your bestie?!
Of course owning a business with a friend had it’s ups and downs and we didn’t see eye-to-eye in everything but we always worked through it. I was completely devistated when her husband got the call to move out of state for his job. We each had ideas on how to make a long-distance partnership work but it happened to be the only thing we couldn’t seem to make a decision on and, unfortunately, I lost my best friend in the proccess.
Loosing her was like loosing a part of myself. We had been best friends for 18 years and not having her in my life was completely devistating. I mourned her loss like one would mourn the death of a loved one. When she moved, my life completely changed. I had to muster up the courage to network myself, I had to slow down my A.D.D. brain enough to respond to emails, I had to do interviews by myself and besides that, I had to make sure my staff would continue to be happy at Agape with just me. The devistation went far beyond the salon’s walls. I was forced to change my friend group, I was pushed into becoming more extroverted in social situations, and the worst part of all was that I just felt so alone.
It took a long time to shake the heavy feelings of loss. It wasn’t until a year later that I really started to feel like myself again. I made an entire group of new friends, go out often, and am proud to say that when it comes to running a salon I am absolutly not alone. The tribe at Agape didn’t think twice about helping me get things back in order. The loss of a friendship has not only made me stronger, but it actually helped spotlight the strengths I never knew I had and turned many of my weaknesses into a fulfilling story. Though I wish things could have been different, I believe God had, once again, took something bad and turned it into good. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.agape-salon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agapeorganicsalon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agapeorganicsalon/
- Other: https://www.vagaro.com/agapesalon1
Image Credits
Kelly Kubicki