“All Ships Rise”

Teamwork makes the dream work at Fairhope’s Hues Salon & Wellness.

by Lindsay Mott Fletcher

Hues Salon & Wellness opened in 2018 with a specialty in cutting curly hair. Since that time, Owner Chelsey Hughes-Sarıdemir has seen her services and staff expand and grow to fit the needs of customers and match the ever-evolving world of online trends. She opened the salon to create her own company culture and hasn’t looked back.

The salon’s “Beauty Squad” is comprised of three stylists and two estheticians and is located on the corner of Magnolia and Church streets in Fairhope. She said the location offers “a warm environment with chill music, plants and flowers and natural light.” After 15-plus years in the business, the squad has allowed Hughes-Sarıdemir to be able to take a slight step back from the chair with plans to do so even further in the future so she can support her team with education and more. She said her business model is team oriented — “All ships rise.” She added: “We have sacrificed at times to keep only teammates that strengthen our cause so that we can show up for ourselves and our clients at the highest level even when life gets hard. We have a team code of honor, and we meet a lot as a team and use coaching to ensure we are acting like the professionals we want to become.”

The salon currently offers hair cutting (including dry cutting), moderate barbering, full body waxing, hair coloring with an emphasis on gray blending or working clients out of hair color all together, take-home color kits, Keratin smoothing treatments, lash lifting and tinting, facials, HyrdaFacials, dermaplaning, and vibroacoustic therapy, which is a digital sound bath massage mat. Hues also carries Turkish jewelry, a reef-safe sunscreen line, beauty care supplements and a soothing acne skincare along with a full line of Aveda products. The salon has an online retail store and offers a wellness blog. In the face of current and always changing trends, Hughes-Sarıdemir said her team stays relevant by keeping a focus on the biggest challenges her clients face. “We take classes, get new certifications and buy new tools so that the most challenging skin, body and hair issues can be addressed with knowledge and love,” she said.

Beyond the products and services, Hues wants everyone who comes into the salon to feel “loved, heard and important.” Clients are greeted and then offered tea. She added:

“Making people feel truly welcome and settling them in like they are home is a principle I picked up from Türkiye, where my husband is from. And I find that it supports and complements Southern hospitality perfectly. Our clients love to tell us how good they feel when they leave. And I think that dedication to showing kindness to one another and our clients is what sets us apart from other salons.” Looking to the future, Hughes-Sarıdemir is focused on the issue of hair loss for both men and women. Her goal is to find a doctor to partner with in battling this issue and its potential causes. “Once we can run panels and test hormones and really get a look at which pieces of nutrition the body is retaining, we can help make sure our clients are getting everything they need to have the healthiest hair, skin and nails they have ever had,” she said. “And let’s not forget that beauty rest, we call it that for a reason.”

Hughes-Sarıdemir said she never expected to be in this industry this long, and the salon has faced its fair share of challenges over the last few years with the COVID-19 pandemic, three moves and construction work in Fairhope. But, the job is rewarding because of the results she gets to see from her clients, whether it’s treating acne, saving someone from eyelid surgery with a lift and tint, educating someone on going gray or debulking someone’s hair. She added:

“The look on a client’s face when they realize that they can control their outcome at home and feel beautiful is just the best ever. I also love hearing our clients be kind to one another and recommend solutions based on their experiences. We have our own little community.”