Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandis Friedman.
Brandis, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m a television news reporter here in Chicago. Between being on air 4-5 days a week, plus appearances, I can rarely get away with a bad hair day. Doing it myself can be exhausting and time consuming. Typically, getting it done by a stylist is just easier, but not always better. Occasionally, I’d go to some of the bigger, more popular blow-out bars to get it done. While my hair was straight, it wasn’t smooth. If a stylist isn’t familiar with what it takes to get curly, African-American hair really smooth, I’d often leave just a tiny bit frizzy, only to return to my home or office and run both a flat-iron and curling iron through my hair myself. Defeats the purpose doesn’t it?
My husband heard me complaining (again) and the light bulb went off. We decided to create BlazeDry to meet the needs of other busy women — who aren’t necessarily on television, but are professionals who need to look great and are too tired and busy to do it themselves all. the. time. So far, the response has been great — from women of all colors!
Has it been a smooth road?
We’re still on the road! We’ve experienced some bumps for sure, and I know there will be more. But, they’re all learning opportunities. One of the biggest challenges we’ve had is finding time to spend on the business. My husband and I both work full-time, somewhat demanding jobs. And we’re raising our 5-yr old son. We manage to make it work, but haven’t been able to give BlazeDry all the time we’d like to give. Another challenge is educating our customer on what we provide, while also learning what they want/need from BlazeDry. And spreading the word! Since we’re still young and scrappy, we have to work hard to build our brand awareness. We’ll get there!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
BlazeDry is a mobile blowout service for women of color and women with textured/curly hair. Our talented stylists meet the client at her home, office or hotel room to style pre-washed hair. We come to you! We bring all of the equipment needed, blow-dryer, flat iron, curling iron, products, everything! My problem with other blow out salons was that I’d always have to request a bit more flat ironing, and even then, it wasn’t enough. With a BlazeDry blowout, flat ironing is standard, unless a client requests otherwise. All of our stylists are skilled at styling African-American hair. We started with just blowouts, but in the coming weeks, we’re planning to add trims and a couple of other goodies!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think this is a great city for starting out in! Specifically for BlazeDry, we’re designed for busy women of color… and this place is teeming with them!
Pricing:
- Blowouts $50
- Coming soon: Trims $15
- Coming soon: Add-on kids’ BlazeDry $35
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blazedry.com
- Phone: 312-661-5379
- Email: info@blazedry.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blazedryhair/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlazeDry/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlazeDryHair
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/blazedry-evanston
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
