Lavish Salon re-opens in Beach Haven on LBI after Sandy

Photo by Kelley Anne Essinger
Lavish Salon owner Brittany Romano and her
staff have returned to Beach Haven, and the
shop is in full swing, offering all previously
offered services. 

After suffering from 2 feet of floodwater damage following Superstorm Sandy, Lavish Salon is back in action at its Beach Haven location on Bay Avenue. Salon owner Brittany Romano and her accompanying hairdressers, assistants and manicurists worked out of Deb’s Mane Tease in Beach Haven West for nearly two months, while the shop’s landlord, Kevin Wark, worked tirelessly to repair the damages at the LBI site. The women welcomed their clients back to the Island last Saturday on Jan. 12, complete with portable space heaters.

“It felt really good” to be back, Romano said with a sigh of relief. “Through the holidays, I almost wasn’t ready because I knew once I got in, there was going to be so much work. But I’d say right after the New Year, the urge really kicked in, like it was time to be back. It was great. Just to be in there felt so good. We were pretty much booked all day, and we were getting random clients not even with appointments stopping in to say, ‘Hello.’ So it felt really good to be back,” she emphasized.

The salon has resumed its normal winter business hours, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. The salon will also open on Tuesdays in May and June and will include Sundays during July and August.

“In the beginning, after the storm first happened, I was a little worried, and I really didn’t think (business) would be good. But it’s been good already,” Romano said. “We might actually even be busier than we were last year, between workers on the Island and more people finding out about us, because a more limited amount of businesses is open right now. We’ve had a bunch of new clients already, and it’s only been a couple of days.”

After only five days working at the salon’s home base in Beach Haven, Romano said eight new clients had come in for service. New customers had even come in for assistance while Lavish Salon’s employees had been working at Deb’s Mane Tease during November and December. Romano attributed the steady clientele to posts about the business’ relocation, made through Facebook.

The congenial spirit inside the salon may have helped, too.

“Our scheduling was a little tough, with clients trying to get in touch with us to schedule their appointments, and then having to think about what products we had to bring in for those particular clients that day, because we used all our own products,” Romano explained. “But the environment itself, everyone that works there at Deb’s, was such a pleasure. They were so welcoming, it was as if we worked with them for years. So we didn’t feel awkward at all. It was a great atmosphere to temporarily be in,” she added.

Photo by Kelley Anne Essinger
The salon's employees spend the afternoon
putting together new furniture in the gallery.

Back at the salon’s permanent location, some new furniture still needs to be ordered and put together, and a great deal of organizing still needs to take place. The building’s baseboard heating system was reintroduced the Wednesday following the opening weekend.

Romano plans to offer a day of $5 manicures and blowouts for men and women in February, which she said would be a nice treat for the area’s residents. For more information, visit http://www.lavishlbi.com/.

This article was published in The SandPaper.