Beverly Hills Body Shop
YUKI SHARONI BEAUTY AND LIFESTYLE PROVIDES
MASSAGES, FACIALS, HYDROTHERAPY AND SCRUBS
By Laura Dunphy Beverly Hills hairstylist Yuki Sharoni didn’t
rush to get into the day spa business when it became the
trendy thing to do a few years ago. Sharoni, who had been
running his hair salon since 1991, wanted to find just the
right location. He wound up on the outskirts of Beverly
Hills, near the Peninsula Hotel. Where he turned a former
flower shop into a two-story beauty salon and day spa. The
place doesn’t exactly stand out - there’s no name
boldly emblazoned on the storefront and just a barely visible
street number - which, of course, is just the way sharoni
likes it. “A part of my personality is being shy.”
He said. “I believe in doing and not talking. With
the location. We’re in Beverly Hills, but yet we’re
far from everything.”
Sharoni’s demeanor hasn’t
prevented him from landing high profile clients like Ileana
Douglas, Kim Delaney, singer Meredith Brooks and actor Mickey
Rouke. Sharoni has even gained some recognition himself,
from talking about hairstyle trends on shows like “Entertainment
Tonight” and “Hard Copy.”“The whole
day spa industry is growing at about 20 percent annually,”
said Andrew Finkelstein, president of Beauty Matters Ltd.,
a New York-based salon and spa business development company.“
The number of hair salons in the United States has not changed
for many years. It’s basically flat growth. Customers
now want more lifestyle services based around not just beauty
care but health and well-being….We have baby boomers
worried about aging, and part of that is driving the trend.
It really has taken off in the past five years.” He
said. Sharoni’s Salon combines a full-service hair
and makeup salon with a day spa offering facials, massages,
body scrubs and a unique hydrotherapy treatment. “The
way people work today. People have less and less time to
move from one place to another. Sharoni said.
Customer service has always been the driving force been
the driving force behind changes in the hair styling business.
In the 1960’s and ‘70s, hairdressers had to respond
to the needs of newly working women, who no longer had time
to come in once a week or more to keep a style looking fresh.
Now, it’s not just about hair anymore. It’s about
total health and beauty for men and women.
The spa at Yuki Sharoni Beauty
and Lifestyle offers several types of facials and massages,
including mud and seaweed body wraps to detoxify the body
and skin, and a skin loofah treatment to remove dead cells
and clear the skin. (The treatments run from $85 to $125.)
There also is the $120 “hydro aroma therapy” combining
a half-hour soak in a tub of oils and a half-hour treatment
with massaging water streams and special natural skin cleaners.
During all the treatments, Sharoni’s staff lights aromatic
candles and turns on soothing music to help the client relax.
As another part of the one-stop-shopping theory of spa-going
, Sharonie has a natural food catered from Ammo, a local
health-food company. Owning a hair salon and opening a trendy
day spa in one of America’s wealthiest communities
didn’t happen overnight for Sharoni, who was born and
raised in a small town in Israel. At age 10, he decided
to be a hairstylist (much to the chagrin of his traditional
family). He began cutting hair at age 16, making appointments
and even going door to door. His only pause came during
a mandated Israeli arm stint from ages 18 to 21. Even after
botching a cut for his older sister’s graduation pictures
(he used his father’s old razor with disastrous results),
he wasn’t swayed from his career decision. He got his
formal training in Israel and dove head first into the business.
Sharoni opened a small ship
on the outskirts of Tel Aviv at age 22. closed business
at 25, and left to cut hair at various salons in Europe
and New York. He finally settled in L.A. in 1984. “for
a small town (person), I was looking for a big village.
I found L.A. to be the biggest village in the world,”
he said. After working door to door appointment, just as
he did in Tel Aviv, Sharoni built up a reputation and clientele.
He opened Hair by Yuki Sharoni in Beverly Hills in 1991.
With just three employees comprising his first staff, he
worked to make a name for his business, hoping to gain new
clients by word-of-mouth referrals. But that year, he hardly
covered expenses with what he called “surviving dollars”.
In 19997, the salon on Camden
drive pulled in revenues of about $592,000. Including his
original salon and the new salon and day spa, Sharoni now
oversees 30 employees. Getting clients is still about word-of-mouth
referrals. My best clients come from other people seeing
them and chasing them in the market” to ask who cuts
their hair, he said. “ I don’t believe in straight
advertising….I feel you work sells the best.”
Spotlight- Hair by Yuki Sharoni
Year founded: 1991
Core Business: Full-service hair salon with day spa
Employees in 1997: 15
Employees in 1999: 30
Revenue in 1997: 592,000
Revenue in 1998: 604,000
Revenue in 1999: $650,000 (projected)
Goal: To offer clients the best hair and spa services in
the competitive field
Driving Force: Time-crunched clients seeking one-stop-shopping
for health and beauty needs
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