Grand reopening set for Sunday
Sydney hair salon bounces back after hard year
A resilient business owner in Sydney is happy that her hair salon is finally getting back on track after a hard year that was caused by floods that hit Cape Breton in October of 2016.
Alma Head, the owner of Alma’s Family Hair Salon & Spa, said it has been a particularly tough year for her business, but her employees and client’s were supportive through the entire ordeal.
“It’s probably the toughest year I’ve had in business, but with the help of clients and the community, it’s been a great year and we got through it. Honestly, I thought for a while ‘how am I going to make it?”
Throughout the year, Head said that her insurance company did as much as they could — considering the vast amount of people affected by the flood last year, that was dubbed “Floods Giving” — but she put over $90,000 of her own money into making sure the business didn’t slow down and all 20 of her employees kept their jobs.
“I put every dime I had into the salon and the girls and I worked through it. We cleaned up the mess ourselves. We couldn’t really close because I have a lot of employees and a lot of them are single moms,” said Head.
“They really can’t afford to go without a pay cheque — and also our clients were great; they dealt with the construction, they came in and still supported us.”
Head also said the CBRM municipality’s workers have also been helpful throughout the year by trying to prevent another flood from doing damage to the area like it did during last year’s flooding.
“The city workers have been great. They tore up the road and replaced everything for me, they even check on me and the business — it’s amazing what people will do for others in need,” said Head.
For the past year, the salon has been doing renovations and has transformed the look of the interior while still managing to keep the business open. Alma’s Family Hair Salon & Spa will be having a grand reopening on Sunday — something Head thought unlikely to ever happen.
“I never thought I’d see the day that we’d be having a grand reopening but my staff and myself are really hyped and we’re hoping the community comes out and looks at the salon and thinks ‘wow.’ From a year ago to now it’s a whole completely different salon,” said Head.
During the grand reopening that’s set for Sunday from 5-8 p.m., there will be door prizes, basket giveaways, grab bags and the first 200 costumers who spend over $50 will be given a gift bag worth at least that amount.
Head said she feels that her costumers should be rewarded for staying with her business despite the troubles the business has had to handle since the flood.
“I just really want to give back. It was a hard, tough year and I’m so excited that we can have this grand reopening. The staff is so excited and I just want to say thank you because they (customers) could have went elsewhere — they could have said ‘no’ and come through the mess and the floors that were tore up — but they did and they came and sat down and said they didn’t care.
“They just wanted to get their hair done.”