The votes are in!
Being able to talk to anyone is an essential skill for stylists, but few would walk up to a stranger in Target, people working out in the gym, or a crowd of parents watching their kids play football and ask for their vote in a beauty competition. Yet Alisha Helseth did exactly that when her salon made it to the final three in the Vish $28k Vish Color Bar Makeover Giveaway in October. Armed with a QR code she created, Alisha was immediately out canvassing for those votes, and so was her team.
”“We asked everyone we knew from clients to friends and family to complete strangers,” admits Alisha, who in 2013 relocated her business - Salon Fusion in Inver Grove Heights, MN – to new premises where she kept the existing color bar. “We pooled our skills, with some making videos and posting to TikTok while others built content for Instagram and Facebook and printed materials for the salon. It really brought us together and brought home to us what a great community we are part of, and how willing people are to support us.”
More than 50% of the thousands of votes cast for the shortlisted salons went to Salon Fusion, which means they won the ultimate giveaway – a color bar rebuild by Vish and Minerva Beauty, with Vish providing an inventory restock of the new shelves, and the Gift of Vish, complete with iPad, scales, stands, mixing mats, and team training, all worth an incredible $28,000.
The current color bar at Salon Fusion is a pokey, L-shaped room at the back of the salon with no communication with the busy salon floor. Alisha’s dream for the rebuild is to see walls tumble and a clean, uncluttered space emerge, with Vish center stage. She is going to redo the floors, have the salon repainted, and erect a new sign on the door at the same time. They’ll complement the new workstations she had installed at the beginning of the year. However, Alisha is as happy to have the Gift of Vish as she is to have a new color bar.
“I’m as excited to have Vish as the team is to have the new color area,” she adds. “I’ll be honest, I have no idea how much color is overmixed and thrown away or if color is used and not charged for as the color room is so hidden away. I think in a busy salon with guests back to back it’s difficult to remember exactly what was mixed.”
”“Introducing Vish after all the excitement of the giveaway is much easier as the team is 100% on board and the clients understand exactly what Vish is and how it will improve our service. It will be so good for everyone, but it will be particularly good for profitability.”
It’s also been good for awareness-building locally. When Alisha announced her win at the gym everyone cheered. “These are not people I have a relationship with, so it was really cool to see how excited others are for us,” she says.
To stay up to date on the latest Color Bar Makeover news, follow us on Instagram @vishsalons.
