Alli Webb is the blowout guru. Webb founded Drybar—the first salon to offer blowouts and styling without cut, color or other typical salon-style services—in 2010.
Alli Webb
Since then, the concept of having a blowout on the regular has gone from aspirational fad to attainable must-have. Women all around the world are making appointments for a quick dry and style before events, meetings, or their Saturday morning errands. It’s a business model emulated by many, but with a solid first stake in the game reputation and successful product line under her blowdrying belt, Webb has established herself as a makeover maverick and a hero to women everywhere.
On the heels of the first-ever Nashville Drybar opening, we chatted with Webb about how she took her need for a good blowout to the masses and created a new whole new (and accessible) way for women to feel good about themselves.
Photo courtesy of Drybar
Nashville Lifestyles: Drybar has more than 100 locations around the country. What made Nashville the right fit for a new outpost?
Alli Webb: It’s such an obvious market. Besides the fact that it’s like the bachelorette capitol of our land, it’s such an entertainment town, and I think women here really are about their appearance and their hair. It’s funny, I get asked this question every time we open in a new city, but it’s kind of the same answer. There’s a joke between my brother—my business partner—and I. We always say, “Wherever there is women with hair…”
NL: You founded Drybar in 2010. How did the idea first come about?
AW: The idea really came out of personal necessity. I have naturally curly hair. I actually grew up in South Florida which has similar weather to Nashville. I just always was trying to figure out how to get my frizzy hair straight, and I think it was just like the seed was planted in me. I worked at a hair salon when I was in high school, and they would blow out my hair for free, and it was such a great perk. I finally went to beauty school, and I joke around that I went to beauty school just to learn to blow out hair. I ended up actually I really learned it more on the job, and it was just always the thing I loved even when I was cutting hair, which I was predominantly doing when I was working in full-service salons. I loved the blowout, because that's when the style really came alive.
So fast forward…I got married and moved to L.A. and had two babies and was a stay-at-home mom and kind of got the itch to get back out there, my best friend and I were like sitting around with our babies one day, and I was like, "Maybe I should blow out all our friends' hair.” I posted on a local mommy Yahoo group (this was before Instagram) and was like, “I’m a longtime hair stylist. How would you feel if I came to your house and blew out your hair while your baby was sleeping?” and I was inundated with emails.
It was called Straight At Home, and during that time is really when I realized there was a massive hole in the market, and there wasn't a place for women to go for great blowouts with affordable prices and a beautiful space where you weren't worrying about the pressure of, "You should cut your hair, color your hair, the smell," all the stuff that I didn't love about hair salons.
Photo courtesy of Drybar
NL: Nearly 10 years later, there are other companies offering similar services, but you were really the pioneer of the blowout business.
AW: I think the fact that there have been a lot of competitors and copycats really has indeed raised awareness and made—I think we changed behavior, and I think we made it an affordable luxury for women.
I always say we're not selling blowouts, we're selling happiness and confidence, and it's really true. I'm so proud of that. I have women who tell me they don't go into a board meeting without a blowout. It is this kind of suit of armor that women get to have, and when their hair looks good they feel like they can kind of conquer the world. [In the beginning] I thought this was a bit of a vain business, and we're not really changing the world, but man was I wrong, and that truly is not just a fluff statement. The happiness and confidence—it's palpable, you can see it in the shop when a woman comes in and gets her hair done and feels like a million bucks. There's just this confidence there.
NL: What are some of your most popular styles?
AW: The most conservative kind of blowout is the Straight Up, which is just your kind of basic, bouncy blowout, which I think is the safe one, and the one a lot of women who are new to us gravitate to. Then I think as they start to get more comfortable with us they get a little bit more adventurous and the Mai Tai and Cosmo are definitely the most popular.
Photo courtesy of Drybar
NL: How would you describe the décor in Drybar stores?
AW: People describe it as a very sunny California-based brand, and it is, and I like to believe because this is my baby that I have a sunny disposition. So much of what Drybar is is what I dreamt up, and the pops of yellow are like fun and happy. I think in a space, décor-wise, the pops of yellow have always felt really sunny and happy, and predominantly white and very clear and boudoir with beautiful marble countertops. There's just a really bright and chic but happy vibe in the shop that I think you feel as soon as you walk in, and to me it feels…boudoir is my favorite term because it does feel like that—that you're kind of in a really fancy bathroom, but you can have a mimosa and watch your favorite old chick flick. It is so much about the experience, and that's really what we set out to create was this experience. Not just getting a blowout…that you're sitting in this fun atmosphere, you're having a drink, you're talking or you're working at your laptop, or whatever it is that you need to be doing. It's like your hour escape and your hour to have to yourself and then walk out feeling amazing.
1100 Charlotte Ave., 615-349-2234; thedrybar.com