By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – As a 30-year businesswoman, Laura Kaufmann understands there are many hair salon choices for consumers to select from.
Joli Coupe’ Salon in Slidell has remained a successful business for that time, she believes, largely due to a family atmosphere her clients feel when they walk in the door—something that extends to the customer service, pricing and everything that encompasses the experience.
Joli Coupe’ Salon will be holding a grand reopening celebration on Tuesday, March 21 and is inviting the public to their new chic location at 1321 Gause Blvd., next to Cross Gates Family Fitness. The event is from 3:30 to 7 p.m. with refreshments, plus a drawing for a Paul Mitchell styling wand that includes a one-on-one “How To” demonstration between the winner and one of Joli Coupe’s experienced stylists.
Kaufmann has been styling and cutting hair since she finished beauty school in 1986, graduating from Slidell’s Academy of Creative Hair Design. After working from a home office and for a few other hair salons for nearly 16 years, she opened Joli Coupe’ Salon in 2002.
The business has steadily grown since that time and the new location to debut for the public next Tuesday is twice the square footage of her former location further east on Gause Boulevard.
“We have grown very well over the years and I was finally ready to expand, so we now offer 10 chairs and look forward to more clients seeing what we can do for them. I am confident they will be pleased,” she said.
“I believe the reason we have grown over the years is the family experience our customers feel here. Plus we are not overpriced and we give quality service. That was always a big thing for me—make our customers comfortable, satisfied and give them an experience they thoroughly enjoy,” she added.
Laura’s business success can be traced back to a family of successful business people, all who showed great support for each other. Her husband, Dave, built one of the most successful construction companies in the region, but always found time to make sure his wife got the support she needed in her business.
“The truth is he always wanted me to be successful in my business too,” she said. “I really have had great support from him and the family to get Joli Coupe’ to the place it is today.”
After the couple married in 1980 and moved to the North Shore in ’81, Laura worked at a bank in the early years of raising two children while attending beauty school. After graduating she worked at a local salon for a year and then her husband used his construction skills to renovate their garage into a home salon where Laura worked for over 15 years, building a great clientele by working sometimes till 10 at night.
“It was crazy, but fun because we were able to do it as a family,” she said.
Wanting to “work with her peers to further her career,” Laura went back to leasing a booth with other salons, still maintaining over 150 of her regular clients before announcing to Dave in 2002, “I’m ready to have my own business and expand.”
Finding a location on Pontchartrain Drive, she opened that summer, and after renovating it in 2005, Hurricane Katrina totally destroyed the building.
Once again the family support came through. Laura said she cut hair in Dave’s construction office for two months until she was able to find a new location on Gause Boulevard by October.
She chose the name Joli Coupe’ because it’s French for ‘Beautiful Cut’ and through the years the salon has steadily grown as they move to their new bustling location down the road on Gause Boulevard. Not surprisingly, KB Kaufmann helped bring Laura’s vision to life at the beautiful new salon that as she says, “is very modern, yet still very comfortable.”
She is focusing on hiring more hair stylists and expanding the services offered, but is continuing to concentrate on her expertise in quality service to all clients.
In looking at the success through her years in the business, she points to a staff of experienced hair stylists as another key point in the growth of Joli Coupe’ Salon.
“That’s what makes the atmosphere so nice here,” she said. “All of us get along as stylists and we all try to make the customer feel they are special. We treat them the way we want to be treated.”
The salon is open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Laura invites everyone to the grand reopening next Tuesday. For an appointment with one of the Joli Coupe’ Salon stylists or to submit an application to join their team, call 985-781-8969.