Drybar gets to the roots of hair care with new Las Vegas shop
A group of men dressed in gray suits roamed the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort on Friday armed with yellow roses to hand out to women at the mall.
Their kind gesture wasn’t just meant to brighten the women’s day, it was to let them know that Drybar, a blow-dry bar that centers on the concept, “No cuts. No color. Just blowouts,” had opened its doors.
And it’s every girl’s dream.
It boasts 20 styling chairs, 10 on either side of the center that has multiple televisions playing “chick flicks” such as “Runaway Bride” and “The Notebook,” which have subtitles because there’s a DJ at the front of the salon spinning the latest tracks and cocktail waitresses walking around to take drink orders.
Oh, didn’t I mention there’s a bar?
Despite that “bar” is in the name, Drybar’s Las Vegas location is the first to have a full cocktail bar.
Founder Alli Webb said the Las Vegas location, which is the brand’s largest store to date at nearly 2,800-square-feet, is the company’s latest experiment.
“It’s Vegas, so everything is bigger and better and more heightened,” Webb said. “We’re just following suit.”
Webb, a professional hairstylist, said the concept for Drybar began in 2010 in Brentwood, California, after she launched a business called Straight-at-Home, where she traveled throughout Los Angeles to clients’ homes to do their hair.
“I really wanted to have a brick-and-mortar store and once our first store opened none of us had any idea that it would resonate with women the way that it did,” she said. “We were booked solid and we knew we were onto something.”
The Miracle Mile Shops location marks Drybar’s 63rd location.
“A lot of our mothers and grandmothers used to go get their hair done once a week,” Webb said. “Somewhere along the way that went away, and we’re modernizing the behavior that our grandmothers did and making it more affordable.”
Drybar’s prices start at $49 for adults and $35 for children 10 and younger. Add-ons such as braids, clip-in and sewn-in extensions and hair treatments are available as are monthly membership packages.
After clients are greeted and taken to the stylist’s chair, they’re given a consultation so the stylist can look at their hair and talk about what kind of style they would like to walk out of Drybar with.
Clients are given a menu of blowout styles, which also have the bar theme integrated into them as they’re referred to as different signature cocktails such as a Mai Tai, Manhattan and Dry Martini.
New York City resident Naly Lee received the Cosmopolitan style or loose curls Friday.
“This place is awesome and so much fun,” she said. “I love the energy and the music.”
Lee said she had visited a Drybar before in New York City.
“I had a great experience there, too,” she said. “But the energy is livelier here. It definitely has the Vegas vibe.”
Webb said she doesn’t think the Miracle Mile Shops location will be it for Drybar in Las Vegas.
“I think it’ll really catch on here and there will be a demand for more,” she said. “But we’ll see what happens.”
In the meantime, Webb is focusing on expanding Drybar across the country.
“We’re at 63 locations now and will be near 75 by the end of the year,” she said. “We’re going to have more opening in Los Angeles and our first store in Brooklyn.”
Although Drybar debuted its Las Vegas location six years after the company was founded, it was a long time in the making, Webb said.
“Las Vegas was one of the most requested cities, so this has been in the works forever,” she said. “We’re in so many major cities and though it took a long time to find the perfect location, so far, so good.”
Contact reporter Ann Friedman at afriedman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @AnnFriedmanRJ on Twitter.
