When Bethany Duffy opened Space Salon, she didn’t want to simply replicate what she’d experienced over 15 years in the business.
The hair salon, which opened in downtown Warren in 2020, instead uses a business model intended to break down bias and outdated practices that Duffy says have long permeated the industry, for both clients and stylists.
Duffy, now going on 17 years as a hairstylist, had long pondered the idea of opening her own business. When salons were shut down in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to use the extra time she suddenly had on her hands to develop that notion into a solid business plan.
As her plans materialized in downtown Warren, one issue Duffy wanted to stand against was “the genderizing of salon services,” she said, and long-standing trends such as women being charged more than men for similar services. At her first workplace, this pricing could add up to a $30 difference.
“A men’s haircut and a women’s haircut take just as much work, and the time is about the same,” she said, “and it was like, why do [men] get to pay less? … It never made sense to me. Moving forward in my career, I kept encountering this, and people still just let it go.
“Then I started renting a chair and was in control of my pricing,” she continued, “and I said, ‘I’m going to base everything I do on the amount of time it usually takes.’ ”
Duffy carried this idea over to Space Salon, where all stylists base prices on their personal hourly rates. She also decided to do away with tipping and open based on appointments – practices that mitigate gender and racial bias and promote a “work smarter, not harder” mindset, she said.
“In salons, there’s this hustle mentality,” Duffy said. “I’ve done it. I’ve burnt myself out working a bazillion hours a week, and it’s not sustainable. So, with this model, stylists now pick how many hours they work and they know how much money they’ll make at the end of the week.”
The salon also doesn’t have noncompete agreements, so Space stylists are free to work at other salons on the side, and it offers employee benefits such as unlimited time off and regular educational opportunities such as biweekly coaching.
“I want everyone to be independent and achieve things, open their own salons and educational platforms, or as a social media influencer,” Duffy said. “We’re always touching base and setting these goals. … That’s my main goal now, to help other stylists.”
Duffy also wants these workplace practices to establish a mindset of hairdressing as an art form. To further this idea, she recently launched an event, the “Hair Jam,” intended to bring stylists together to experiment with new styles.
While Space Salon’s neon lighting, futuristic aesthetic and starry logo may bring outer space to mind, Duffy actually had the artistic concept of space, and the possibilities it comes with, in mind when naming the salon.
“Space is something you create,” Duffy said. “It can be anything you want.”
OWNER: Bethany Duffy
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Hair salon
LOCATION: 507 Main St., Warren
EMPLOYEES: Three
YEAR FOUNDED: 2020
ANNUAL REVENUE: WND
