Male ordered

A trip to Weldon Barber feels like a visit to a comfortable men’s club.

Deep, black leather chairs in the waiting room surround a large coffee table covered with hunting, sports and business magazines. Songs from Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson play loud enough to entertain, but not irritate. A big screen TV is tuned to CNN, and a pot of fresh-brewed coffee sits ready for pouring.

Weldon Barber, a new Spokane company, will open five stores here later this month, hoping its formula for a modern barber shop that caters to men will eventually be a hit nationwide. With financial backing from Bill Nordstrom, the great-grandson of the founder of the Nordstrom department store chain, the company is hoping to expand into a new major market every six months, following the launch in Spokane.

“The detail is in the experience,” said Weldon President Julie Kembel. “Our core competency is a great hair-cutting experience.”

The timing couldn’t be better. The company has entered the scene at a time when men’s interest in grooming products and services is rising nationally and in Spokane. Direct Listline, a market statistics and trends Web site, said men spent more than $16 billion worldwide last year for personal-care products, up 7 percent from the year before. Spokane-area salons report that male customers make up 20-30 percent of their clientele, up from zero to 10 percent two to three years ago.

At the same time, Weldon’s owners say, the men they know always complain about their hair-cutting experience. They don’t like going into women’s salons where they can’t find anything to read and the air is heavy with perfume and chemicals.

Through several focus groups conducted with Spokane men, Weldon formulated a recipe for a new style of barber shops for men that would cater to every whim. Measurements were even taken to determine the perfect sized chairs for the waiting room and the correct distance between the chairs and coffee table, in case customers want to put their feet up.

“We really want them to feel like they can relax,” Kembel said.

Each hair-cutting station has a brown leather chair that tilts back to a sink. All capes, towels and styling implements are washed and wrapped in tissue or plastic after each use. Weldon wants to avoid the messy look of counters scattered with brushes and combs. Cleanliness was one of the top issues raised during the focus groups, Kembel said. Each cutting station also has a curtain for privacy.

“You’ll never see a cape hanging over the back of our chairs,” Kembel said.

For $22, customers get a haircut, hot facial towel treatment, scalp and shoulder massage and hot cream neck shave. The company brought in a licensed massage therapist to train its hairdressers in massage. Weldon also offers facial hair waxing and is considering adding manicures and pedicures, based on customer demand.

Weldon is scheduled to open five stores in Spokane on Oct. 22 and plans to branch out to Seattle and Portland next. The owners hope Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas and other major markets will follow. The company’s first shop opened in Coeur d’Alene on Sept. 17, with Nordstrom as the first customer.

“He’s our biggest champion,” said Alison Eldred, a part-owner and vice president of human resources.

The new chain envisions employing 50 people by the time its five Spokane stores open.

The company was created by Nordstrom and Kembel, a college friend of Nordstrom’s wife, Suzette. Kembel, 40, lived in Spokane as a child, moved away, then moved back about two years ago. The Nordstroms moved to Spokane around the same time, Kembel said. Other company owners are Eldred and Chief Financial Officer Denette Hill. Hill said she was approached to join the company by Kembel and Nordstrom, who was an acquaintance.

Nordstrom resigned in August 2000 from the business his family founded, citing a desire to spend more time with his family and in his garden. At the time of his departure, he was executive vice president of Nordstrom’s East Coast operations. Nordstrom’s 2003 annual report says the Seattle-based company owns or operates 179 stores, which employ 46,000 people and generated sales of $6.5 billion.

Nordstrom declined to be interviewed.

Weldon’s owners would not disclose the value of the venture. However, Hill said Nordstrom is the primary investor, through a Spokane investment banking firm called Envision Capital and Management. The Secretary of State’s office shows that company incorporated in March with William E. Nordstrom listed as manager. Weldon incorporated in April and Spokane attorney Jared Black is listed as the registered agent for both companies.

“It’s very exciting that there are organizations out there that share our enthusiasm, to create a corporate headquarters for a company that has great potential to grow,” Hill said. “That’s the way we look at it. We can create that here in Spokane.”

Weldon’s owners say they’re not following some trend which will be here today, gone tomorrow. Instead, they believe today’s average man has an interest in good grooming and will pay for a professional experience that caters to him.

“We’re filling what we feel is an unfilled need in the market right now,” Eldred said.

“Even our husbands and kids hated getting their hair cut,” Kembel said. “They deserve to enjoy it like we do.”

Market activity supports their claims that men are interested in good grooming. Men are buying facials, manicures, pedicures and other spa and salon treatments in increasing numbers. They’re having their hair colored, their eyebrows waxed and getting laser treatments to remove hair from their backs.

Spa Paradiso, in The Davenport Hotel, said it is considering adding a line of skin supplies for men based solely on the increased demand. Sarah Schoonover, the spa’s communication director, said men are about 30 percent of its clientele, up from about 10 percent a year ago. She said facials are particularly popular among men.

“If I had the means I would open a men’s-only salon or spa because the trend is going there,” said Chere Perrigo, owner of Strata Salon and Spa on North Monroe. “I’m sure men would feel more comfortable in a men-only environment.”

Consumer trend forecaster Faith Popcorn predicted 2003 would be the year male vanity, or “manity” as she called it, would become big. She noted an 80 percent growth in the number of plastic surgery procedures done on men since 1992. She and other market observers attribute the growth to aging baby boomers who want to retain their looks, the popularity of the reality show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” which taught men it’s OK to want to look good, and men’s magazines such as GQ and Men’s Health.

“Guys love to be pampered, so it’s kinda funny it’s taken so long to catch on,” said Jack Borley, a Rathdrum, Idaho, excavator, who paused to chat in the parking lot of Coeur d’Alene’s Home Depot. Borley, 38, said he occasionally has his hair tinted and even had a pedicure recently at a beauty school owned by friends. “I think it’s a change in the way guys present themselves. You look good, and you feel good.”

But, he said with a smile, “Would my father have done that? No!”

The desire to offer men a male-specific haircutting experience also has spawned such new businesses as The Man Shop, which opened in May on West Third in Spokane. With tongues firmly in cheeks, the owners of the Man Shop offer $10 haircuts done by stylists in tool belts, retrieving cutting implements from red Craftsman tool chests. Numerous television sets, hunting, fishing and car magazines, a pool table and putting green keep guys busy while they wait.

A similar business opened in Coeur d’Alene in December, called Clean Cut Modern Barber Shop, offering sports shows on TV, a pool table and a popcorn machine.

“We’re not salon people. We were so tired of going to those places. It was just never oriented to men,” said Michael Howe, one of The Man Shop’s three owners. “The other option was going to the old time barber and that wasn’t appealing either. It’s a sit down, take a number mentality.”

Despite the rising number of businesses angling for a portion of the market, Weldon believes its formula will bring success. The company owners want to create a consistent, professional experience no matter which Weldon a customer visits.

And if a woman walks in, she’ll be welcomed too, Kembel said.

Then she added with a laugh, “She just may not find a magazine she likes.”