Blow-dry-only salon aims to keep women looking their best
Most women only enjoy a blowout when they have a hair appointment. They leave with bouncy, beautiful locks and spend the next four to six weeks mourning the look their hairstylist’s round brush granted them.
Two women in town have opened a salon designed to make the blowout less of a stranger. It’s called iBlowdry, and it makes the fresh-from-the-salon look accessible without the snip of scissors or the fold of foil. This salon doesn’t give cuts or colors, just blowouts.
Melissa Bordinhao and her co-owner Tasha Jordan arrived at the idea through necessity. Bordinhao works as a bartender at Pure nightclub, a job that calls for late hours and a polished image. Jordan works as a hairstylist. Not a lot of hairstylists will work after hours and even fewer will do it for a blowout, but Jordan made an exception for her best friend time and time again. They got to thinking how much easier things would be if only this town had a late-night blow-dry bar.
Six months later, they’re the proud owners of one.
iBlowdry is open until midnight seven days a week. It’s also centrally located at 5120 S. Decatur Blvd., Suite 102. Both were strategic in accommodating industry people, like Bordinhao.
Since both owners (they have a silent partner) are single mothers, they also wanted to make sure the cost didn’t scare anyone off. Daytime blowouts run $35 and late-night ones (8 p.m. to midnight) are $40.
"Not everyone is able to afford a high-end blow-dry," Jordan says. "We wanted our prices to target everyone."
Each style is named after a flower to play off the salon’s logo that features a blow-dryer blowing a dandelion. Customers can choose from eight looks, varying from the signature dandelion, which is comparable to Kim Kardashian’s loose curls, to the tulip, stick-straight locks, to daisy, tight curls like Taylor Swift’s. Even little girls have a designated style for $25, baby breath.
The salon’s mostly white palette, with accents of blues and browns, lends the chic tone you would see at an upscale salon. Eight white chairs sit at the front of the salon, divided by mirrors and flat-screen TVs that show movies such as "Sixteen Candles." Charging stations for cellphones and other electronic devices are at each chair, as well as rhinestone-studded purse hooks.
A pair of regal Tiffany-blue curtains fall from the tall ceilings and separate the blow-dry bar from the nail stations. Manicures start at $20, pedicures at $35. With two makeup artists on staff, makeup applications are also available (starting at $35 for just eyes) for a head-to-toe beauty tune-up.
The blow-dry bar concept is slowly but surely picking up steam in Las Vegas. The first of its kind, Platinum Blow Dry Bar, opened to great fanfare in 2010. In the wake of its success, plans for competing blow-dry bars are under way at Tivoli Village and on the Strip.
The idea of frequent salon visits was last commonly practiced in the ’60s, which is why some senior women still get their weekly set and curl. Some habits are hard to break, sitting under an automatic blow-dryer while reading a magazine being one of them. For the trend-obedient, the ’70s and all its naturalness ushered out that practice. iBlowdry and the other blow-dry bars opening could be an indicator that it’s coming back.
"If you need to uphold a certain image, you need to be getting regular (blowouts)," Bordinhao says. "And, if you want just a blowout, most hairstylists aren’t going to waste their time."
As a means of "giving back" to the community, iBlowdry is partnering with Dress for Success, a program that helps disadvantaged women prepare for the workforce. Before their job interviews, iBlowdry will give these women a professional look they wouldn’t otherwise have the means to attain.
"Me and my best friend (Jordan) have three kids each. We know what it takes to get here and how hard it is," Bordinhao says. "We want to help get them there, too."
Call 256-9379 or log onto iblowdry.com for more information.
Contact fashion reporter Xazmin Garza at xgarza@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0477. Follow her on Twitter @startswithanx.
