INDIANAPOLIS — While some businesses are off to an understandably slow start after the pandemic shutdown, one west side salon business owner said he’s grateful that business is “booming.”
After three months of quarantine hair, clients like Paul Greene and his son Prince said they were eager to get back to Lomax Professional Barber and Beauty Shop.
“This was one of my first calls,” said Paul.
His son said that getting his haircut makes him feel “good.”
Paul said he wore a lot of hats over the last three months because he knew better than to attempt to shape his own hair — although he did admit he learned from experience.
Lomax Professional Barber and Beauty Shop owner Bryan Lomax said some of his other clients attempted to cut their own hair, so it wasn’t just shape-ups when his clients returned to his chair.
Lomax said it was also fixing up a lot of mistakes.
When the lockdown ended Lomax said “people were knocking down my door to get in” and that it “made my heart smile to know that my clients stood by me with me being out of the shop for three months.”
But the shutdown wasn’t only hard on his clients.
“To be told that I can’t go into my own place of business took a while to process,” said Lomax.
But he said that after about a month, he picked himself up and realized that he could turn this adversity into an opportunity.
“Just because I was unable to work in the shop doesn’t mean I stop working on craft,” said Lomax.
Lomax said he focused on upgrading the label of his hair care products and trying to place them in stores around the country. And it paid off.
He said his Master Barber Shave Gel and Master Barber Antiseptic are being sold in Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Oakland, California; and two stores here in Indianapolis at House of Miss Beauty Cutie in Washington Square Mall.
Lomax said he created these products for sensitive skin and that they’re especially helpful to use on the elderly and the young because it “doesn’t burn” or sting like some other products.
Lomax said he was able to sell his products to these locations during the quarantine, which helped offset some of the economic burden of having to temporarily close his business due to the pandemic.
“Since they weren’t able to come into the shop to get their hair cut, they were spending money on the products,” said Lomax.
Lomax said that as a business owner, it’s important to be prepared for anything that may come your way, as well as learning to adapt and turning every moment of hardship into an opportunity.