The Dream

Years ago, I had a question: Why was it so difficult to find high-quality hair extensions salon where not only the hair was installed properly, but that the experience was exceptional?

Not long after I graduated beauty school here in Denver, CO, I found myself brainstorming a solution. I started studying everything I could get my hands on about Hair Extensions, the types, the application styles and how and where they were sourced from and what made the difference between bad, good and great hair. I worked at several different salons centered around my passion for making women feel beautiful about themselves inside and out. I felt like the salon culture at the time was really lacking in the area of stylists who could apply hair extensions well, and apparently this sensibility connected with many women all over Colorado.

What started as an entrepreneurial experiment and outlet for my passion quickly grew into much more than just applying hair extensions.

That was in 2011. I started my own little 10x10 booth rental hair salon called “My Elite Beauty” and had a reasonable book of guests after leaving a commission salon, but things accelerated quickly and all of a sudden, women started calling from all parts of Denver and Colorado to have hair extensions applied. The time, effort and attention to detail I was putting into their service was really well received, and before I knew it, I was bursting at the seams of my little booth rental and needed to make a decision: call it a success and be happy where I was, or find a way to keep this unexpected success going.

I decided to keep going.

My husband and I decided to set some big goals, hire some new staff and start seeing where we could take this whole idea. Then things really started to take off when we re-branded the salon to “Glo Extensions” and created a new website and started marketing.  

Going Full-Time

Through the first two years, we continued to build Glo by working long days and nights to refine the systems & processes, hiring on new assistants, and developing relationships and certifications with the top hair extensions distributors. Each new certification brought more knowledge and experience, and knowledge of the Glo brand spread organically through word of mouth and online. My dream of starting my own Hair Extensions Salon was no longer just a dream.

I decided to follow my passion and make the jump.

Just before Glo’s 4th anniversary, we decided to make the scary step to invest in our own 2,000 square foot salon in Greenwood Village, hire a full-time staff and begin the process of training others to do what I had learned over the past 10 years. As part of this change, my husband and I decided to own and manage the business together, he would do the back-end work so I could focus on our guests and training the new staff and managing the day-to-day in the salon.

It started with a simple idea & our mission remains the same: Make women feel incredibly confident and beautiful by transforming their look with high-quality hair extensions, and an unmatched guest experience. An experience that I would want to buy myself.

Glo didn’t initially start with a formal business plan, in fact I had zero background in business. Rather than following the “traditional” model of starting a business, I just tried to apply common sense and experience to figure things out as they came up. I’ve found that the best way of learning is by doing.

It’s more than just hair extensions.

It’s someone’s confidence.

Glo always has been a project rooted in my passion for making women feel beautiful inside and out. It’s not about reinventing the wheel, but about creating incredible experiences, and making women in awe of how they look in the mirror. This mindset of creation and attention to detail has allowed us to find success in unconventional ways, and to pioneer our own path as we’ve grown into a full brand.

Of course, I never could have gotten the brand to this point without the support of our wonderful Glo family of stylists and staff and the people who appreciate Glo and want to tell their friends about it. We’ve relied almost exclusively on word of mouth, and with the help of the Internet and social media, our reach has become truly statewide and in some cases, nationwide. We’ve had women fly in from states away just because they heard about us and our work and wanted nothing less than the best. We are flattered beyond measure when those women fly in.

Keeping it Personal

Even as we grow, one thing that I’ve always wanted for Glo Extensions is to maintain the personal touch. We don’t try to make Glo look like a big chain salon. We are as transparent as possible. This is why we share a lot of the behind the scenes at Glo and how and why we do what we do. No matter how big Glo gets, I always want to be accessible to our guests and those seeking a true experience. I love connecting with people on Instagram and Facebook.

A Family Affair

Glo Extensions is truly a family-run business. My husband is my business partner and marketing guru, and has been a huge help in a variety of ways over the years. Making it a family affair has been fun and exciting.

What’s Next

Ever since the beginning, Glo Extensions has been about my passion for making women feel beautiful. Yes, as we have grown, I have had to put more time into growing the business and less time behind the chair, but I still do as much as I can. After all, that’s still the best part. We’ve grown in a lot of ways, but at our core, we’re still the same. Every single guest is still given a truly personal experience so they look the way they always dreamed of.

I quickly discovered that there was a lot more to running a brand, but it’s still the creative process of hair extensions that fuels me to keep going. Glo will always remain a guest-driven brand where quality and a personal touch come first.

The Face Behind the Brand

I’m Heather.

I live in Aurora, CO, with my husband, our 3 girls, and our Great Dane, Apollo. Here are a few other things you should know about me:

1.

I once cheered in the Citrus Bowl

2.

I’m kind of obsessed with dogs. It’s a well-known secret among our guests that we love when they bring their pets in with them.

3.

I follow a plant based diet. (Chances are really high that I’m enjoying some meals right now while you read this)

4.

I grew up near Sarasota, Florida and was born in Stamford, Connecticut.

An invaluable part of our team has been the creator of our Salon Website and Digital Marketing - Phil & his team from SalonGuru.net who have given us the best salon website.