The word “retail” can feel very loaded to many salon professionals. Stylists are artists and educators, confidants and service providers; ideally, their conversations with their clients do not resemble a sales pitch.
At Studio Gavin Hair Colour in Franklin, Tennessee, the team has built a holistic model, where education, retail, wellness, and the guest experience work hand-in-hand.
On our third episode of Rooted In with Nutrafol, Johnnell Theresa Nidoh sits down to chat with Studio Gavin leaders Dana Funk and Casey Gilley to unpack the systems supporting the salon’s retail success, and Nutrafol’s role within that strategy.
The salon’s large-scale set-up includes 37 hair chairs, over 50 providers, an ongoing associate training program, and operations every day of the week.
And their biggest retail lesson is quite simple: the strongest results do not come from teaching stylists how to sell, but instead from building a system that makes education and replenishment feel like natural parts of the guest experience.
“I don’t try to sell it,” said Casey Gilley. “I educate and I support the client in my chair. That’s all.”
Build Retail Into the Experience
At Studio Gavin, retail is built into the business from the very start.
“We are a retail store in the front, that does hair in the back,” said Dana Funk.
This entails a retail assortment that serves a wide variety of clients needs, budgets, and lifestyles, while simultaneously being selective about what earns a place on the shelf.
“We only bring in stuff that we really trust and also will use ourselves,” Dana noted.
Nutrafol entered that environment of trust very organically; with clients asking for specific products and the ability to purchase it through Studio Gavin, it prompted Dana and Casey to explore it further.
“We wanted to purchase it in the salon and make sure that we support small businesses,” many clients told the team.
This demand for Nutrafol gave the salon a strong starting point, but the strategy itself was grounded in building a system around the demand.
Education Comes Before the Sale
Studio Gavin believes that a product can only be fully implemented into the guest experience when the team knows how to confidently talk about it.
“Brands and retail is our number one thing,” Dana said. “We truly believe in it. And again, it comes from the heart. Not like a salesman type of way. It’s, ‘Hey, we love this product and we want to share it with everybody.’”
Studio Gavin fuses a unique combination of traditional educational materials with Nutrafol’s digital content platform. Stylists are able to review videos, digital flashcards, and one-pagers, with the opportunity to reference material whenever needed, rather than absorbing everything in a singular training session.
Dana and Casey also role-play real client conversations to help train newer stylists, especially regarding subjects that can initially feel uncomfortable to approach. Bringing up concerns like thinning or shedding can feel intimidating to a new stylist, and Dana explains how she’d rather have them work through their discomfort in a practice session rather than in the moment with a client.
Casey furthers her point, noting the prominence of teaching.
“Just educate them,” she said. “Just have a normal, real conversation.”
The goal isn’t to curate a flawless sales script, but instead to offer stylists a space to develop their knowledge and experience, so the conversation no longer feels like a sales script at all.
Let the Salon Environment Start the Conversation
Studio Gavin also recognized a key component: the stylist doesn’t always have to be the one initiating a conversation. After the pandemic, Dana noticed how many guests were not terribly interested in interacting in a retail conversation. So instead of pushing something unnatural, the salon instead redirected towards ways that guests could explore on their own terms.
In came interactive “Lift and Learn” displays, which are exactly what they sound like. When guests pick up a product, it triggers content on the screen above, which consists of product information and how-to-use tutorials featuring Studio Gavin’s own stylists.
This way, as Casey notes, the guests often have a question or talking point when the service begins.
“Casey, I saw you up front. What product are you holding? What’s that about?,” she explains.
This is particularly powerful for younger stylists still finding their retail voice, as the environment organically creates an opening for conversations about Nutrafol.
Dana explained that just one month after launching the updated interactive display area in 2024, Studio Gavin experienced its biggest retail month in salon history.
From Consultation to Conversion
For Studio Gavin, the retail system ultimately comes back to one thing, which is the client relationship. Technology may be very useful for prompting conversations, but the development of trust is what keeps those conversations moving forward.
Hair changes can be personal, and Casey notes how giving clients room to talk makes the conversation feel supportive rather than transactional. She acknowledges that once clients feel understood, “they start to open up and get a lot more comfortable.”
This mindset is evident throughout the rest of the appointment as well, with retail built into a four-step checkout process, including rebooking, referrals, replenishment, and gift cards.
For Nutrafol purchases, the team is educated to ask clients whether it’s time for a refill, which reinforces the idea that the product is part of a continuous routine. On a further note, Studio Gavin aims to make the checkout process as seamless as possible. Casey mentions how she often pulls products off the shelves while clients’ hair is setting, which allows them to easily approach the register and know what they need.
The entire working environment promotes a culture in which stylists are educated and empowered; they can earn incentives tied to retail performance, participate in competitions, and receive products for their own usage.
Dana reflects upon how firsthand experience is especially positive.
“Make sure you put it in their hands, your stylist,” she explains. “Because if they’re using it and they’re feeling the result and seeing it, they’re going to tell everyone about it.”
This implemented system is producing measurable results, with around $7,000 per month in Nutrafol sales, and projections of roughly $8,000 to $9,000 per month as the team continues to expand and train.
Even with this major success, Casey believes the numbers are the result, not the starting point.
“They have to care about their client,” she said. “You have to really be tuned in and really sit down and have that eye-level conversation with that person. And they have to feel that you care. And that’s what locks in the sales.”
To any salon owner hoping to replicate Studio Gavin’s success, the takeaway is clear – start with the people, not the product.
“I would educate the stylist first. You don’t want to bring in this product, and then it’s sitting on the shelves up front, and no one knows how to talk about it or what to say about it,” Casey advises.
When asked what the most notorious mistake salons make is, she simply said, “They try to sell it and they don’t educate and support.”
Therefore, educating the stylist, supporting the client, and removing friction from the experience is the most successful way to lead, and let the retail follow.
Learn more about Studio Gavin and how to expand your business by tuning in wherever you pod. Check out our Instagrams here at @readthetease and @volumeupbythetease.
