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Bennie Pollard works with a chemist to develop the world-class formulas that make up his trio of hair care lines: BennieFactor, Gage for Men, and Boom Boom.
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Bennie Pollard looks like the kind of man with whom you'd entrust your appearance. With more than 30 years of experience in the beauty industry, the clean-shaven, sharply dressed Louisville native has worn many hats: salon owner, stylist, hair product manufacturer, and co-founder of Cool Beauty Consulting. And now he brings that knowledge and expertise to BABE Beauty Bar, where he's teamed up with cofounders Kathleen Smith Forbush and Nicole Payne to further the salon's offerings in both Hillsboro Village and Cool Springs.
Though BABE has been open for almost two years, Pollard came on board as a consultant toward the end of 2014. 'Our goal is the fashionable woman in all aspects: take care of the brows, light skin-care services, definitely all forms of hair services,” he says. 'The original concept [behind BABE] was a blow-dry bar, so we're constantly doing styling and blow-dries and have graduated to the next level.”
The next level, Pollard explains, is teaching the BABE stylists how to create a multidimensional image profile of every customer who walks in the door.
'Most of the time, a woman comes into a salon and is asked, ‘What would you like to have done today?'but we go much deeper,” Pollard says. 'One thing I've learned in my career is to design for the whole person. I don't just design for a head sticking out of a cape.”
Pollard trains each stylist to look at body shape, posture, and body language and to understand the individual beyond her hair type and face shape. Taking all this criteria into consideration, the stylist comes up with a formula of three or four products that will work best on the client. Pollard adds that the key is to prescribe for style first and hair type second. Finally, after hair and makeup are complete, the stylist writes up the client's 'prescription,” detailing all the products used, and sends her off with a step-by-step guide on at-home application.
'The overall goal is to be the best, elevate the profession, and elevate the business,” Pollard says.
1704 21st Ave. S., 615-499-4554; babebeautybar.com