A collaborative environment, in-depth education, and opportunities for growth give Spoke & Weal’s hairdressers a chance to do their best work

The salon industry needed a shake-up. 

My business partner and I saw too many salons using antiquated systems to train hairdressers and manage guest booking. They relied on outdated styling methods which took too long to complete and provided inconsistent results. We also saw how these processes put everyone in silos, leading to an inability to collaborate effectively and adapt as trends and technology change.

We founded Spoke & Weal as a direct response to these struggles — and Boulevard helped us build a foundation to realize our vision. Here’s how.

Bringing Fashion Week into the salon

I’ve been styling hair for over 40 years, and the most memorable experiences of my career were leading teams for shows at Fashion Week in New York. 

It was a magical experience — a bustling backstage full of hairdressers working on dozens of models off to prep for the runway. There was a feeling that everyone was in the trenches together, which created a spirit of collaboration and team work that you just didn’t get anywhere else. 

We wanted to recreate that dynamic in our salons — the electric energy of stylists and colorists all working together to give every single client a premium and customized look that they couldn’t get anywhere else.

It's in that desire that Spoke & Weal was born. We opened our first location in San Francisco in the fall of 2013, and now we’re 10 locations strong in major cities across the US.

A stylist-forward salon

Building the Fashion Week experience in-salon meant creating a place where stylists can communicate, perform, and feel supported in all aspects of the operation while maintaining the autonomy that attracts so many to this industry.

This started with our open-air design. It’s built to function similar to backstage at a fashion show — lots of space, giant mirrors, and bright bulbs, with plenty of room to collaborate with other specialists if clients need color or extensions. It’s utilitarian, designed for the functionality a hairdresser needs to do great work while feeling modern and high end for our clients.

Consistency is critical for us. Any salon lives or dies by its ability to deliver stellar service to every client, and we wanted to develop processes that would enable staff to provide that consistent level of quality, even as they craft highly individualized looks for our clients.

Our training process plays a huge role in maintaining the high level of consistency we require. Every stylist (even experienced hairdressers who we onboard) undergoes our rigorous training program. We built our program from scratch with educators at each location focusing on technical training from the foundations of hair health through advanced cut, color, and styling techniques for all hair types. Our training program aims to equip each of our specialists with the tools and knowledge they need to bring their own aesthetic to the services they provide, as technical excellence and creativity are not mutually exclusive. 

We also believe that hairdressers do their best work when they have 360 support to back them up and coach heavily on the long game. We offer our hairdressers health insurance, gym memberships, growth opportunities, and even a 401k matching — things that are extremely uncommon in our industry.

By providing a space that puts the hairdresser’s needs in focus, we’re not only attracting top talent, we’re developing their skills and retaining them for the long haul. 

Tech as an asset

What initially attracted us to Boulevard was the ease of guest booking. Creatives attracted to this industry are typically wanting to spend as little time as possible on the admin side. We wanted guests to schedule online as often as possible. Boulevard provides the fastest and cleanest guest experience. This helps us focus on our core work.

To envision our dream of a stylist-forward salon, we also needed to think about how the tech we use in our day-to-day operations could give our stylists easy access and flexibility. We needed booking and salon management tools that could be virtually invisible, working to make all of our specialists’ lives easier and freeing up time in their busy day for client work.

Creating customized color and hair styles that change with the seasons along with diagnosing the hair and building the right home care plan for guests requires note-taking. Keeping that information on hand for each client is a lot of work; having easy access to client profiles, notes and docs helps us keep track of thousands of guests’ needs from coast to coast. Our platform allows us to create digital client profiles that contain a variety of notes — color formulas, styles they like (or don’t like), product preferences, medical conditions to be aware of, and so on — that live with the client throughout their journey with our salon.

Boulevard automatically creates the profile during the first booking, it’s easy to update with each new appointment, and it’s available for anyone who works with that client so they can provide fantastic service even if their preferred specialist is on vacation. Plus, if one of our clients in San Francisco needs a touch-up while on a business trip in Chicago, Boulevard ensures that their profile travels along with them.

We also wanted to make coordination between haircutters, colorists, and extension specialists more seamless. Boulevard automatically takes our client bookings and places them within our service providers’ schedules to optimize everyone’s day — minimizing staff downtime while maximizing client results. Onboarding is also generally much easier now, meaning our specialists don’t have to ask as many questions to figure out how to use the platform.

A bright future

Even with 10 locations, we’re still finding new ways to grow our business and expand our offerings. The beauty of our stylist-forward approach is that it’s allowed us to stay flexible and adapt to the evolving needs of our clients while training the next generation of hairdressers to do the same. I believe there are still communities out there hungry for something fresh and new — I can’t wait to see where we end up next.