Be Part of the Style Conversation
In 2017, Shane Archer’s grow won Best Salon in Cityview’s Best of the Best. In just over ten years, he matured from high school graduate to owner of one of Knoxville’s top salons. “At grow we believe that each and every guest deserves to look as beautiful on the outside as they feel on the inside. We also think it should be an affordable, luxurious experience that you receive while you are in our salon. The majority of our clientele use salon time not only as regular beauty maintenance, but also as an escape from the world, if even for a moment.” From the start, he wanted to provide a relaxing, warm, and inviting atmosphere for the guests that makes them feel right at home, unlike the mega-salons where they feel like a cog in the machine.
Grow is a Lanza Healing Center, one of less than 40 elite locations in the United States. The salon centers around award winning service and inspired design, naturally. All of our products are sulphate free, paraben free, and cruelty free. Lanza takes extraordinary care to hand select the finest wildcrafted botanicals from sustainable forests. We are a green salon, recycling everything down to the hair clippings.
“Education is the key to our success, not only for our artists but also our guests,” says Archer. Grow is also actively involved in community outreach projects. “We focus on one large initiative per quarter, and make it a priority to give back to our local charities.”
When he was ready to open his own place, he went for it. Being a national educator for the industry, Shane had the unique opportunity to visit salons across the globe. “I decided to do my own thing,” he says, “because I witnessed things in other salons that I liked and didn’t like.” He chose to make it a place where stylists love to work—“at the end of the day we’re artists,” Shane says, “and if you don’t like what you do it’s going to come out in your work. If your work suffers, your clientele will suffer, and without them you have nothing.” He envisioned a workplace that felt inclusive to everyone.
He designed grow to make every person, both worker and guest, part of the conversation. He wanted a place that felt like home, a place that is warm and inviting. Exemplary of this are the coffee bar in the waiting area and a color bar where, “instead of sitting in front of a mirror gazing at yourself with foils hanging everywhere, you can sit and work on your laptop, eat lunch, or talk to someone across the table.” He relies on the word “community” to describe grow. Most of what you see in the salon supports the Knoxville community as well: the candles, music, art, and coffee are all local.
Naming the salon was also an important process. While he wanted to keep his name out of it and craft something simple, positive, and uplifting; multiple professionals told him that he should have his name in it as well. They compromised.
And so, his creation became grow: A Shane Archer Concept. While he wanted it to be a happy name that evoked an emotion, he also wanted people to think about what the name meant to them. He wanted to grow his staff, their clientele, and the community. As Archer says, “we just want grow to keep growing. I want to do everything different than any other salon is doing, while focusing totally on the guest experience.” Apparently, the name is serving him well.