March 20, 2017

Meet Jana Tillman & Chelsey Wilkes of Bloom Hair Design in Canton

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jana Tillman & Chelsey Wilkes.

Jana Tillman & Chelsey Wilkes, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I guess you could say this story starts back in Menlo, GA during our childhood. Being sisters, we grew up playing “hairdresser” with our Barbie’s and, of course, on each other. However, our back story of how and when we transitioned from high school to our career lives started in Rome, GA.

Jana is the oldest, so after graduating high school in 2004, she went to Coosa Valley Technical College, through which she obtained her Master Cosmetology license in October 2006. From there, she worked at two local salons in Rome. The first was Hairstory Salon, where Jana was a part of an artistic team of stylists. There she worked under the owner and lead educator for the salon, quickly achieving a top level stylist position. The second was Sheila B’s Salon, where she started up her own business as a successful independent stylist.

In 2006, after Chelsey graduated high school, she started her Master Cosmetology program at Vogue Beauty School in Cartersville. She obtained her license in October 2007. Chelsey started her career at TONI&GUY Hairdressing, Inc. at the Town Center Mall location in Kennesaw. There, she went through an intense, two-year educational program in hair design that excelled her hair cutting and styling skills. In 2008, Chelsey became the manager of the Town Center location. Two years later after the birth of her daughter, she decided to leave TONI&GUY to be able to have more time at home.

Here’s where our stories collide. Chelsey decided to be a self-employed hair stylist with a home based salon. With the help of their father and Chelsey’s husband, the garage of her Woodstock home became a home hair studio. It was the perfect set up. The clients adored the space, loved not having to go inside of the mall and enjoyed more time to connect. There was only one problem. Chelsey didn’t do hair coloring.

One day, Jana and Chelsey were talking and had a wonderful idea. Why not have Jana come to the home studio to do hair color for the clients in need? Best. Idea. Ever. It was destined to be. Truly a magical moment in our lives. Jana’s one day a week in the home studio turned into two, then three. All of a sudden, we were too busy. We couldn’t work all of the clients in and we were getting loads of referrals. The home studio started to feel smaller and less functional. Around that time, as we were doing one of our client’s hair together, we were discussing this really great problem we were having with him. He looked at us and very simply stated, “So just open your own salon together then.” He proceeded to tell us of a space he had recently looked at for himself in the Historic Loop of Downtown Canton.

Needless to say, our interest was peaked. We got the number to call about the space. The next day, there we were in Downtown Canton looking at this space. Even with as much work as the space needed, we knew it was perfect. Done deal. Long story short, we signed the papers and got started immediately on establishing our new business. On March 17, 2011, we became an official corporation. Bloom Hair Design, Inc. Renovations were well underway. All the work was done by our father, husbands, a few friends and ourselves. After 2.5 months of really hard work, we were ready to open. May 14, 2011 was opening day. It was really a dream come true. Four independent hairstylists, fully-booked in our beautiful new loft salon.

There the dream continued. We added one more chair to accommodate another stylist during our time there. Around the new year in 2015, we started having thoughts of moving. We knew that location wouldn’t be ideal forever and we had plans to grow. It wasn’t until September of 2015 that Chelsey stumbled upon a for lease sign on a historic building in downtown Holly Springs. Not expecting much, we went to look at the space. It was that same feeling all over again. It was perfect and meant to be just for us. However, it was much larger, much higher rent cost and needed a lot of work. After 3 weeks of hesitation and procrastination, we were given and ultimatum on this high-demand space. It was either sign now or it’s gone. Our question was “how will we find so many more good stylists to cover the higher expense?”

With some deep breaths, we signed the lease. Scared, but excited. Anxious, but peaceful. We went about our day working and casually talking to our first clients about the coming changes. Within an hour of signing the lease, we received a phone call from a very good friend who, at the time, was a stylist at another salon. She asked how many people we could squeeze in our salon because they had just been told their salon was closing permanently. We were floored. Practically yelling and crying across the salon, it was that day we learned to never doubt and never let fear win. Our act of faith was immediately rewarded…in a huge way. So, an hour after we signed the lease to our new space, we were fully staffed. The only kicker to this, we had thirty days to open. Oh, and Jana was 8 months pregnant. But these stylists were losing their jobs in thirty days.
“Could we be open?” they asked. Our response….”yes!”

More excited than ever, we immediately began demoing and renovating. Again, with the exception of the plumbing and some of the electrical, we did all of the work ourselves with major help from our father, our husbands, all of the stylists and a few friends. It was seriously one of the hardest, yet most rewarding times of our lives. We were able to open on November 4, 2015. Every stylist fully-booked and ecstatic to be there. The energy in the room was unreal and it remains today. We are a 10 chair salon with 11 independent hairstylists. Our move to the Holly Springs location has been incredible. We are fully-booked daily and we are situated right in the middle of a huge downtown development project that launched in January. We feel incredibly blessed and we do not take one bit of it for granted.

Forever grateful to our family, friends and clients to have helped make this dream a reality for us.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As just told in the story, we definitely had our challenges. Both renovations, obtaining permits/licensing and passing multiple inspections for each location was an obvious challenge. At our old location, we fought the city on parking issues. It was a struggle to be “seen” in Downtown Canton by the long-time city council members. It’s been so nice to feel welcome in Downtown Holly Springs…and we have our own parking!

Another very real struggle as salon owners has been learning to manage a salon full of people, stylists and clients combined. Dealing with so many different personality types intertwined throughout each day has proven to be a challenge at times, however, it’s also one thing that we absolutely love about our salon.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a hair salon. We offer hair color, haircuts, hair styling, keratin treatments, facial waxing and a top-rated, holistic hair care line.

We are known for our high-quality services, our relaxing/peaceful environment, our cleanliness and the integrity of our stylists.

We are proud to offer a unique and special experience in the salon for our clients, and also a thriving atmosphere for our stylists that supports the means for them to flourish.

Our salon is set apart from others because we created a hybrid salon from a business standpoint, with the intentions to be the best there is to offer in the industry for both our stylists and our clients. We get daily comments from our clients about how they love the way they feel inside the salon. Our individual enjoyment of our jobs and the connection between our salon team radiates with love. That is the difference we strive for and is ultimately what sets us apart.

What were you like growing up?
Jana and Chelsey both were mostly introverted individuals. Both were very focused on schoolwork, allowing them to maintain very good grades and high averages in school.
Chelsey spent some time playing basketball, softball and running cross-country up until her sophomore year. Both held part-time jobs throughout high school. Both have always loved all things hair, make up and fashion.

We were both fairly quiet and sensitive. Both have a goofy side, especially Chelsey. Jana has always loved more loud and bright colors. She has a lot of tattoos and some piercings, where Chelsey has always loved more natural and earth-toned colors. Although she likes tattoos, Chelsey does not have any. Jana was more the rebel, Chelsey was more the pleaser. Jana can have more of a wild personality, where Chelsey is more of an old soul. It balances out well in business