Hansen: Business is picking up, but clients are still family

Somewhere along the way, a haircut became intimate.

It starts with the slow wash and the scalp massage. By the time you sit for the cut, you’re relaxed and ready to confess anything.

And do you ever.

You talk about your partner, kids, mother and neighbors. You complain about work, weight and thinning hair.

You plead for something new — or at least something halfway cool.

Enter the hairstylist and someone like Greg Verbenec, the soft-spoken owner of V Salon in Laguna Beach.

Verbenec, 48, has heard it all in his 20 years in the business, but it’s his discretion, flexibility and fairness that are paying off now. He’s expanding his salon and nearly doubling the number of stylists. His new grand opening will be Aug. 1 at 1454 S. Coast Hwy.

He will have 16 stylists, plus estheticians, nail technicians, make-up and eyelash artists, and all of the other staff that comprise the modern salon.

“The time was just right,” he said. “Everything just kind of came together at the same time. I’ve had the opportunity to expand to that space a couple times before, but it just didn’t make sense at the time. My salon wasn’t full, and I just wasn’t ready for it.”

More small businesses are making moves like this. If it seems like the vacant shops around Laguna Beach are filling in, they are. For the first five months this year, building revenue from fees — a key indicator of growth — is up 30% compared with last year to more than $1 million, according to city reports.

That means more shops, more confidence and more fashionable ‘dos.

For Verbenec, the right mix and timing for expansion depended not only on the economy but on the stylists. In the hair salon business, there are two types of salons: commission and rentals.

Commission salons are generally bigger and carry a brand name. The owner gets 40% to 50% of everything. In the smaller salons, the stylists essentially rent the chair for a couple hundred dollars a week, Verbenec said.

Many stylists will start out at a commission salon, build up a loyal client base, then move on. Verbenec rents his chairs.

“I believe in being fair to everyone,” Verbenec said. “Of course I want to make some money too, but I want everybody to come out ahead with this. I’ve always felt that way.”

When Verbenec talks about people or his stylists, his voice slows, revealing his Kansas City, Kan., roots. An avid motorcycle rider, he blends good-ol’ boy with SoCal surfer.

It’s not surprising, given that he didn’t land in Laguna Beach until 1999. Floundering in K.C. with jobs he hated, he finally gave himself permission to do what he really loved: cut hair. So he visited his brothers out West and promptly moved.

“I realized I can do hair anywhere, so I turned around and went back home and filled the car up with everything I thought I needed and came right back.”

He paid his dues at a salon in town for a couple of years, then opened his own place, which is next to Selanne Steak Tavern, formerly French 75.

“I used to go to French 75 a lot, and I just saw a sign,” he said.

He soon started decorating his new salon, which led him to a unique hobby: collecting vintage “swag lamps,” nearly 200 so far.

“Everybody tells me that their grandma used to have one of these lamps down in the rec room, so it takes them back to their time.”

For years, he spent weekends going to swap meets, hunting down the lamps, traveling to Pasadena, Santa Monica and other cities to add to his collection, which he rotates at the salon based on colors and seasons.

“I just like the way they’re all different shapes and different colors, and they just take me back to when I was a kid. And everyone who comes in the salon, they all have a story to tell about the lamps.”

This storytelling and personalization is a hallmark of Verbenec’s approach to business: Make it like family.

“You have this relationship with this person,” he said. “You’ve seen them with their hair wet, you’ve seen them with hair colored and smashed down. You see them at their most vulnerable.

“And you’re right in there with them close up. They can tell you anything and they do. There’s a lot of stories I hear, and they’re all in confidence. It’s more than just being a hairdresser; you’re friends.”

The real payback for Verbenec is not the gossip, the big tip or the expansion. While all of that is good for business, it’s not his primary focus.

Like his “heart of America” Kansas City slogan, Verbenec feels more at home when he has served his clients.

“When they look in the mirror and they tell you, ‘That’s just what I wanted,’ that makes you feel good. You can’t do that all the time, but the majority of the time you do, and that really gets you right in the heart because that’s what it’s all about. It’s a service job.

“A lot of people are coming in on a bad day, so you got to talk them through it, and they leave looking beautiful and they’re happy. You’re helping people out. And a great haircut or great style is just icing on the cake.”

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at [email protected].