Have you ever experienced sticker shock when paying for salon services? How about spending twice as long in the hairdresser’s chair than you’d anticipated? That won’t happen at Canvas, a Powell salon that offers high-quality hair and skin care services for women and men. With experience in the beauty industry as a hairdresser, educator and consultant, owner Stefanie Fox has paid attention to all the things that customers don’t like. “A lot of my experience revealed why people go to a salon once and never go back,” says Fox.
Fox is passionate about helping people become their best selves, and she directs her efforts toward her staff as well as her customers. She has created a space where beauty experts feel valued, supported and encouraged, which translates into an exceptional experience for the guest.
“I believe that feeling good is directly related to how you look, so hairdressers have a very powerful role. We create an image for a person – and it can affect how they do in their career, their lives. I want to be a place where we make people look and feel their best,” she says.
But why the unusual name? “Because we create art out of hair and skin,” says Fox. “You are the canvas, and we are the beauty experts.”
Fox emphasizes that at Canvas the whole system of hair and skin consultation is different than at other salons. “It’s not one-size-fits-all,” she says. “You’ll never sit in the chair and hear the hairdresser say, ‘What are we doing today?’ We consider ourselves beauty professionals, and our philosophy is you don’t have to know what needs to be done. You just have a need.”
At Canvas, hair and skin care consultants are trained to understand and assess that need. What’s going on? What do you like and not like? What image do you want to project? They then offer alternatives, along with price quotes and estimates on how long each option will take. Every service is customized, there is no set menu.
For Fox, changing the way customers view beauty professionals is a priority. She wants to set higher standards for the industry, from both an employee and consumer perspective, and raise the level of perceived professionalism.
Community involvement is also important to Fox and her staff. “I reached out to Experience Columbus because I love that it promotes everything happening in Columbus,” Fox says. “I wanted to be part of an organization that had so much going on.”
Since joining in June, she goes to Evening Exchange every month and has met several people who have become clients. “For me, the biggest thing I want from being part of Experience Columbus is to reach people from inside and outside of the area to let them know that we are the salon for professionals in Columbus.”
The calendar of events on the Experience Columbus website also is extremely valuable to Fox. “My team and I learn so much about what’s happening in Columbus that it makes for great conversation with our customers,” she says. “We can recommend restaurants, attractions and events. I tell the team that this is a place to have fun and talk about what’s going on in the city.”
To learn about the benefits of membership in Experience Columbus, call Melissa DeGraw Metz at 614-222-6126 or [email protected].
For more information on Canvas Salon & Skin Bar, go to thecanvassalon.com.
