As more public places open up, such as indoor dining, catering halls and movies, more people may want to get that long-awaited hair and nails grooming appointment.
Getting a cut, color or even washed, can be hairy when face-mask ties get in the way. To avoid that nuisance, one local salon owner got innovative and created a special face mask. Kim Knorr of Fredon, owner/stylist of Hair Designs By Kim in Hackettstown, has modified disposable face masks so her customers can feel more at ease when visiting her shop.
Established in June 2015, Hair Designs By Kim just rang in its five year anniversary when it reopened on June 22 after being mandated to shut down on March 19 from COVID-19. While many businesses have struggled to stay afloat, Kim Knorr, who prefers to be referred to as “Kim” has faced her challenges head on.
“When the going gets tough the tough get going,” and Kim is the perfect example of that popular cliché. Instead of closing her doors, Kim is expanding her shop and even hired another stylist to her employee list.
Hair Designs By Kim offers many services such as haircuts for men, women and children; hair color; highlighting; hair extensions; Keratin treatments; specialty highlights such as ombre and balayage; formal hair and makeup for proms and weddings; manicures and gel nails; waxing; and eyelash extensions to come.
A professional hair stylist for the past 15 years, Kim is certified in hair extensions and Keratin smoothing.
She knew from a young age that hair styling is her forte.
“I love it,” says Kim who learned the secrets to her trade from Capri Hair School in Succasunna. “It’s something I always wanted to do. I always did hair on my friends,” and would cut her dolls’ hair.
Before attending school for hair in 2004, when her youngest child enrolled in kindergarten, Kim worked as an account executive for a medical advertising agency for 10 years. When she left the corporate world, she took on a job as a hair receptionist for five years, triggering her path into hair styling.
“Now that I have my own shop, I do enjoy coming to work and I have a great group of girls,” says Kim. “We all work together. Teamwork makes the dream work. I enjoy my employees and my customers. That’s all you can ask for.”
Providing a service that allows her customers to look their best is the highlight of her career.
“Making people feel happy,” says Kim, and “making people feel good about themselves,” is her greatest reward.
“Hair is our passion because we believe that your hair is your best accessory,” says Kim. “When your hair looks amazing, so do you.”
Expansion & Growth
Not many business owners can close their doors for three months then reopen with an expansion, new services and an additional stylist.
It was during the pandemic when Kim received a phone call from her landlord informing her that the business across the corridor of her building was being vacated. Knowing that Kim always wanted a larger space, the landlord asked her if she wanted to rent “the other half of the building,” explains Kim.
“The lawyers next door left,” says Kim. “The landlord asked if I was interested.”
While the timing was not the best to expand, Kim decided to jump at the opportunity.
Work on the expansion began at the beginning of August and is expected to be completed in the beginning of October, she says.
With the expansion, Kim will be able to provide a reception area, waxing, eyelashes, nails, separate bathroom for customers and a back room for her employees to eat.
Mandated to adhere to social distancing at six feet apart, and limit indoor capacity, Kim is grateful that she decided to expand.
“With the pandemic, it will help us work on more customers at a time,” says Kim. It will also provide her customers “more room to sit and relax after a hair color.”
Her current shop is 500 sq. ft.; after the expansion she will double the amount to almost 1,000 sq. ft., she says.
Also after the pandemic, Kim took on another stylist-Traci Buccino, who has been in the business for 35 years. Her other experienced stylist, Stacy Stanaback, has been styling hair for 28 years; and Kristina Smith, for two years. Her receptionist, also named Traci, is a stylist and manages the appointments “and keeps everything in check.”
Smith is currently attending school to be certified in eyelash extensions. Once certified, Kim is excited that she will be adding individual eyelash extensions as a new service in her shop.
With facemasks becoming the norm, the eyes speak volume. Eyelash extensions maybe the latest and greatest beauty necessity since the pandemic hit. Stay tuned for this new service.
“All the stylists at Hair Designs by Kim are always up to date on the current hair and nail trends,” as well as beauty trends, says Kim. “We firmly believe that education is an important way to keep our clients adorned with the latest trends which also keep our skills honed.”
Sticking To The Rules
As a business owner, Kim is serious about adhering to the mandates about social distancing, sanitizing and face masks in her shop, and installed plexi-glass in front of the reception area.
The stylist’s chairs are separated six feet apart; they service one customer per stylist “from start to finish;” sanitize everything in between customers; closed its waiting area; and stored away the coffee pot, as well as the cookies and magazines.
“Anything that can be commonly touched, we don’t have,” she says. Customers are invited to bring their own reading material if they wish.
There is “never more than six people at a time” inside the shop, she says. Before the pandemic, the stylists could rotate multiple customers at one time.
Kim explains they “can’t do that anymore.”
Now they have an organized routine for the customers, and appointments are required.
“When they arrive, they call us from their car to let us know they are here to let the stylist know,” Kim says. “They come up to the front porch, take their temperature” with a touchless thermometer, and fill out a health questionnaire required by the N.J. Department of Health and N.J. State Board of Cosmetology.
Once they pass that screening, they are invited in and go right to the stylist’s chair rather than in the waiting area. Masks are required to be worn at all times by the stylists and customers.
Each station is sanitized in between customers with hospital grade disinfectant, she says. At the end of the visit, the customer pays, and then the next customer waiting outside in the car will be called in to enter.
The greatest challenge has been the masks, with the ties around the ears that can get wet or soiled.
