Articles

LadyWalks Into a Bar... and Gets Her Hair Done

Salons Push Later Hours
With DJs, More Drinks;
A Visit From the Feds


IT’S NEARLY 9 O’CLOCK on a weekday night and Dawn Harris, a New York litigation consultant, sits on an orange suede banquette sipping a passion-fruit martini. The lights are dimmed and Brazilian lounge music trills from the sound system.

From the looks of the place, you’d think Ms. Harris had come for the nightlife, but that’s not her first priority. She’s getting her hair done.

At spas and hair salons across the country, the old tradition of handing a complimentary glass of wine to the customers has morphed into something much more involved. Thanks to everything from a nationwide boom in new beauty businesses to the peculiarities of liquor laws and changing views about what constitutes a “night out,” more salons are reeling in customers by refashioning themselves as satellite nightclubs
with late hours, cool music and complimentary drinks served by bartenders.

The vibe is getting so festive that one Miami beauty boutique opened a winebar on the premises. Employees at a Connecticut salon have started flickering the lights to let customers know it’s closing time. The trend has even started to attract the wrong sort of attention: One champagne-serving salon in Toledo, Ohiowas raided recently by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. This unlikely mix of spirits and hairspray doesn’t sit well with some customers, who find the whole thing enormously distracting. But to spa operators, it’s becoming a matter of necessity. While the number of day spas in the U.S. has almost doubled in the past four years to 8,734 and revenues for the day spa industry have eclipsed $5.4 billion, the competition is only getting more pitched. According to a study by the International Spa Association, the number of spa visits
grew by 49% from 1999 to 2003—not quite enough to fill all the new pedicure chairs.

Extra Treatments

To compete for customers, many spas and salons now offer more services, stay open seven days per week. By keeping later hours and serving alcohol, owners say they have a better chance of encouraging customers to relax, turn off their phones and order extra treatments they would have skipped in favor of a dinner
engagement. At an average of $75 each, those facials and reflexology sessions can do a lot to pad the bottom line. Trena Ross, spa director at L’Institut Sothys New York, which takes its last appointments at 8 p.m., says the later hours are becoming unavoidable. “If we can’t accommodate a client, then someone else will.”

At the root of this change is the notion that a beauty shop visit can also be marketed
as a social experience. Jeannie Sullins, a cash-register products distributor from North Carolina, is one example. Together with three girlfriends, she celebrates birthdays at the Dashing Diva nail salon where the big draw, in addition to the manicures, is the complimentary pink cosmopolitans. Last summer, her
group was having such a good time that they splurged on bright pink pedicures with rhinestone-enhanced nail art rather than their usual pale pink. And when the song “Mustang Sally” came over the
sound system, they took to the tile floor in the pedicure lounge to dance with the bartender. “We just let loose and enjoyed ourselves,” Mrs. Sullins says.

So far, these inducements seem to be working. This summer, the New YorkCity hair salon Butterfly Studio added complimentary drinks and later hours. It also started hosting monthly events called “Social Butterfly,” where customers were treated to drinks, music, minimakeovers and a chance to see the latest products from jewelry designers. In the six months since, the salon says it has increased revenue by $50,000.

Insurance Policies

The concept isn’t without risks. For one thing, it requires an investment. In addition to upgrading their sound systemsand supplying the booze, salons pay $10 to $15 an hour for bartenders and up to $500 for liquor permits for special events. Some spas that serve alcohol have had to amend their insurance policies to protect themselves in case a patron leaves the scene and has an accident. After hiring an attorney, one California hair salon and spa, Frank Studio, discovered it can serve complimentary drinks only if they’re not an inducement to buy services—technically, anyone of legal age can come inside and demand a
drink without making a purchase.

But none of this compares with the scene at David Broadway Salon & Day Spa in Toledo last February, when federal agents burst in and confiscated 17 bottles of champagne. The infraction: The salon had served a glass of bubbly to an undercover agent the day before. “They came in here and I thought it was a drug bust,” says manager Kara Broadway. The salon was later forced to pay a $300 fine, plus court costs.

One obvious problem with all this is what to do when customers have a little too much fun. At the Warren-Tricomi salon in Greenwich, Conn., the staff has resorted to flickering the lights to break up its mingling spa-goers. Almost as soon as Miami’s Rik Rak Salon reopened with a wine bar, employees found themselves
telling the bartender to cut a patron off. “He said OK,” a salon spokeswoman says of the customer. “I think he
was just having one of those days.”

Occasional Incidents

Ever since Lisa Xavier started serving complimentary apple martinis at her hair salon and spa in Santa Monica, Calif., she’s had to behave, at times, more like a bouncer than a beauty consultant.
When she’s not rebuffing underage girls asking for drinks, she’s dealing with the occasional incident: After one regular customer had overindulged a bit during her last visit, the staff made sure not to put any alcohol in her martinis the next time. Oddly, after three of them “she was falling over in her chair,” says Ms. Xavier, who had an assistant drive the customer home.

While they might be staying open later, not all spas have been able to embrace the “lounge” concept. Since some of its stores are in malls where alcohol isn’t permitted, the chain Georgette Klinger doesn’t offer drinks at all of its locations. Likewise, most medi-spas that offer more serious dentistry or dermatalogical
treatments say they would never consider serving alcohol.

Some patrons and spa owners don’t like the idea. When the wine and fattening hors d’oeuvres circulate at her favorite beauty stop, Dallas stockbroker Nan
Shertzer White ignores them. “I’m there to take care of myself,” she says. In New York, 53-year-old marketing consultant Tanya Mandor ditched her regular spa when the “chatter” became too overwhelming.
“If I want to socialize, I’ll go to a restaurant,” she says. Anita Neumann, owner of the year-old Allure Pilates
Spa in Beverly Hills, Calif., served champagne when the spa opened, but she decided to drop it because it made her evening clients want to hang out past closing time. She’s since switched to white tea and cookies. “It was just too much,” Ms. Neumann says.

Nonetheless, most spa-goers seem to like the idea of adding cocktails to a night of pampering. Dawn Harris, the Manhattan litigation consultant who frequents Butterfly Studio, says she finds herself getting dressed up to go to the spa and inviting friends to meet her there, even if they don’t take treatments. “This place is my refuge,” she says.