May/June 2011 issue, The Industry Source
When Michigan hairdressers Michelle Fair and Brandon Phillips decided to strike out on their own and start a business as co-owners of a West Bloomfield salon, they both thought their combined 37+ years of working in the industry was ample experience to prepare them for the task of designing and opening a brand new salon.
“We were so naïve,” Fair said. “We thought we could decorate fairly inexpensively, picking up things here and there. But [ Phillips] and I quickly learned there were so many things we hadn’t thought about.” While Fair and Phillips originally thought they could do it all themselves, a chance encounter with Leslie McGwire™, President of sales and design at the Salon & Spa Design Center located in Farmington Hills, Michigan, changed everything for the better.
McGwire is a member of ASID-Allied (American Society of Interior Designers), has 26 years design experience and has won 12 awards including Salon of the Year awards in her career. While at the Salon & Spa Design Center Showroom Sale in November 2010, Brandon Phillips ended up meeting with McGwire and the die was cast.