Shaping a movement

Opening a business is all about timing. That’s how Brittany McNaughton, co-owner of recently opened Forecast Salon, looks at it. 

She and Mark Hyde, also a co-owner, searched for a space for their own salon for about three years.

“She’s always wanted to have her own salon, and I’ve never really wanted to until the last three or four years,” Hyde said. “And we work so well together. I guess she’s just the first person I really wanted to go into business with.”

The duo initially worked together at Salon U for about five years, and Hyde approached McNaughton knowing she had always wanted to own a salon.

“Everyone always just assumed I would have my own [business] one day,” McNaughton said. “You know that it’s your destiny … It almost chooses you, you don’t choose it.” 

Their doors opened at 1707 28th Ave. S. in May.

“I felt like being in Homewood, we’re kind of in the salon mecca. It’s a great location, and we’re central for a lot of people,” McNaughton said.

Now, together with their experience and expertise, they are ready to “Shape a Movement.”

“Our tag line is ‘Shape a Movement,’ and by shaping a movement, we’re not only doing that here, we’re really just trying to give back to the community,” McNaughton said. 

Not only do they want to support other local businesses, but they are also hoping to be involved with charity work.

“I think, also, we’re really focusing on our staff and educating them,” Hyde said. 

New stylists will complete a thorough apprenticeship training program, in which Hyde said they will be taught everything from how to greet a customer, to which styling and cutting techniques should be used, to how to be a business person as a stylist.

McNaughton said the salon’s stylists will be given full access over their clients as a way to empower them, which most salons don’t do.

“They earned those clients; those are their people,” she said.

Because their business name is Forecast Salon, Hyde said, all employees will be in-tune with new trends, and they are hoping to work on more editorial content for magazines or print campaigns as a way for their stylists to expand their creativity. 

“I think it’s important as a stylist to do work like that, because it gets you out of your head, and you can really do more with your client,”he said.

Clients of Forecast Salon will be greeted by music, offered a local beer or a cocktail and enter a welcoming atmosphere, they said.

“It’s almost like your … getaway,” McNaughton said, describing it as having “the amenities of a spa, but more chill.” 

Hyde said it’s relaxing, too.

“Everyone is so connected nowadays; we wanted to create something where you can disconnect,” he said.

“We want to have that warm, cozy, at-home feel,” McNaughton said. “We just really believe in the boutique salon feel and making it more about the customer experience.”

Forecast Salon

WHERE: 1707 28th Ave. S.

HOURS: Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. except the last Saturday of every month, when close is at 1 p.m.

CALL: 506-0500

WEB: forecastsalon.com