As a Black woman, Piersten Gaines has had her fair share of hair salon horror story experiences. For the sake of time, she didn’t get into the details during our interview, but suffice it to say she’ll never forget those times. That’s why Gaines was beyond skeptical the first time she came across the concept of a blowout bar.
“I had never really heard about blowout bars,” Gaines told Fashionista. She had just moved to Boston to attend Harvard Business School and was on the hunt for a hairstylist in the area. A few female upperclassmen recommended that she check out a local blowout bar. “When I first started Googling and learning about what a blowout bar was, I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is for me.’ I was looking at the website and nobody looked like me or had my hair texture.”
Piersten Gaines.Photo: Courtesy of Pressed Roots
Her peers advised her to request one specific stylist: “A lot of the girls in the year above me were like, ‘No, you have to make sure you ask for this specific girl. If you go to someone else, it might not be a good situation. So you’ve got to call and ask for her.'”
It took just one visit — with that recommended stylist — for Gaines to be sold on the blowout bar concept. She not only clicked with the hair pro she visited; she also loved the overall experience. “I was in and out,” she reflected. “It was really professional. It was just something I had never really experienced before, and I’d been going to salons for, at that point, 26 years.” Gaines returned to the blowout bar almost every week and requested the same stylist. That is, until said stylist moved states.
“So I tried someone else, and it wasn’t great at all,” Gaines said. No other stylist in the salon had experience working with textured hair. It was that realization that inspired Gaines to think, “‘If everybody here could do textured hair, this would be such an incredible business model because this is such a need.'”
So she turned that lightbulb moment into reality: In 2018, the founder launched Pressed Roots, a “silk blowout bar” designed specifically for textured hair. “I really wanted to create a solution for…people with textured hair to have a national brand they could trust regardless of whose chair you sat in. I wanted to create a space where you could trust that your hair was in good hands and get a great silk press.”
Inside of Pressed Roots’ Houston location.Photo: Courtesy of Pressed Roots
Pressed Roots’ main service is the “signature silk blowout,” the company’s version of a silk press, reimagined for the blowout bar model. “We focus on getting the hair as straight as possible during that blow-dry process so that we can minimize risk for heat damage,” Gaines explained. “We only go over it one time with the flat iron. One of our core customer promises is that we prioritize hair health.” The signature silk blowout starts at $80, and the salon also offers add-on services including trims, deep conditioning and steam treatments.
For regular customers seeking additional benefits, Pressed Roots offers tiered membership starting at $139 per month. “We have a really high customer retention rate, with our core customers coming back twice a month,” Gaines shared.
Related: The Doux Is Bringing Textured Hair-Care Education to Roblox
But regardless of whether a client is a first-timer or a weekly returning guest, Pressed Roots prides itself on consistent, quality service. That, of course, wouldn’t be possible without well-trained stylists. The company hires only licensed cosmetologists, and each new hire must complete a hands-on training program that comprises in-depth lessons on caring for textured hair.
The curriculum is a mix of theoretical and practical training: For the former, trainees learn about hair anatomy, porosity, identifying hair needs, knowing what products to use for different curl types and more. As for the latter, new hires practice what they learn on mannequin heads. Trainees also must master the “Pressed Roots Method,” a 12-step process that covers the full client journey, including greeting, consultation, shampooing, conditioning, detangling, sectioning, texture prep, blow drying, flat ironing, trimming, styling and farewell.
Clients getting their hair washed at Pressed Roots.Photo: Courtesy of Pressed Roots
“If you can do textured hair, you can really do all types of hair,” Gaines said. “The reason why it’s so tough to find hair stylists who work with textured hair is because they don’t really teach about textured hair in cosmetology school…We expect our team members to do the Pressed Roots Method for every single guest so our customers have the exact same consistent experience.”
According to Gaines, Pressed Roots’ core clientele comprises a broad range of people: Women of all ages and household incomes book appointments. “Our customers are literally the full range of people with textured hair,” she said.
In Pressed Roots’ first two years, the brand operated as a traveling pop-up shop in cities such as Boston, Atlanta and Dallas. The pop-up run was so successful that Gaines eventually opened Pressed Roots’ first standalone location in Dallas in 2020. Two days after opening, the company had to close temporarily because of the pandemic.
Two months later, Pressed Roots reopened — and already had a waiting list. Since nearly every salon was shut down at the time, people were desperate to get their hair done, Gaines explained. “We reopened literally the day that Texas said salons could open up again. We got lucky because many salons hadn’t reopened yet, and we were a new salon with a beautiful space, and people needed their hair done. So we had this wait list basically for the next two years.”
The buzz never died down from that initial excitement: Fans consistently hyped up Pressed Roots on social media, posting before-and-after photos and praising the company for its quality service. Eventually, the favorable reception and positive momentum led Gaines to open two more locations in Dallas and one in Houston.
On Wednesday, the brand announced it will be opening its fifth location — and its first on the East Coast — in Washington, D.C. this December. Over the past few years, Gaines analyzed sales data, guest feedback, customer retention rates and staff performance to determine whether the business was ready to expand beyond Texas. So far, all other locations are profitable and have steady customer retention. “The goal has always been to be a national brand,” she said. “D.C. made the most sense for us because we knew there was a large concentration of people with textured hair there.”
The inside of Pressed Roots’ Houston location.Photo: Courtesy of Pressed Roots
The new space will have an identical layout to the other locations and will offer the same services, memberships and pricing. “We’re really copying and pasting it,” she added. “[Our setup] is not broken, so we’re not trying to fix anything right now.”
Entering a brand-new market and building clientele from scratch is daunting for any brand founder. While Gaines admitted that the company is still figuring out its marketing strategy to get the word out, one of its main approaches is using social media. She also hopes Pressed Roots’ innovative concept stands out against other hair-care services in the area.
Related: Why the Way We Talk About Textured Hair Needs to Change
“I honestly don’t really feel like we have a direct competitor right now,” she shared. “When you look at the landscape of national salon brands or franchises, you don’t really see many that are focused on textured hair…There are a lot of really amazing independent stylists who can work with textured hair. But what Pressed Roots offers is the convenience of a salon and the promise that you will have an amazing experience.”
Looking ahead, Gaines is excited to open more Pressed Roots locations across the country. She also hopes that the company’s success will inspire others to see the value in investing in the textured hair-care space.
“As more people in this industry see that this is a way that the textured hair demographic wants to be serviced, I think there will be more options,” Gaines said. “There’ll be options that are just as good as or better than Pressed Roots — that’s just the way people innovate. I think this is great for textured hair because it’s been an underserved demographic for a long time. This will push the industry forward.”
Do you have an emerging brand you want to share with Fashionista readers? Jumpstart your business with our affordable digital offerings.