Salon Biyoshi to celebrate 10-year K-Pike anniversary
Open House celebration planned for September
As Salon Biyoshi begins to celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Brandon Harris, co-owner with wife, Mary Harri, remember its beginnings and the growth of their company and the community through the years.
They are planning a 10-year open house celebration in September. They shared their good news about their anniversary at a Farragut West Knox Chamber of Commerce networking in the salon Feb. 23.
“They’ve been with us since their beginning,” Julie Blaylock, Chamber president/CEO, said during the networking.
Salon Biyoshi opened in mid-August 2007 at 10412 Kingston Pike, its same location for the past 10 years, located adjacent to Bill Jones Music and next to Lovell Heights Center in Knoxville. They expanded their building four years ago, and a year ago started its boutique, Brandon Harris said.
“We’ve had double-digit growth every year,” he said.
Brandon and Mary Harris are “beauty school sweethearts,” he said. “We met in beauty school and have been together 21 years.”
The Harrises worked in a salon in the Bearden area before opening their own shop in the Lovell Heights area.
“We wanted to create an environment we wanted to work in,” he said. “When we came here, we thought this was an untapped area for a high-end salon.”
Brandon Harris remembered when the business started with a staff of four. It has grown to a staff of 40.
“Everybody who comes into my life is 19 or 20 years old, so we serve as mentors for them to come into the industry,” Brandon said. “We view it as an adoption of
a hairdresser. We’ve gotten to
see a bunch of wonderful people grow up.”
While watching Salon Biyoshi grow, he also has seen the community grow.
“I remember when there wasn’t anything but Pizza Hut,” Brandon said. “My parents lived in this neighborhood over here [in the Land Oak neighborhood].”
Since Salon Biyoshi opened, Brandon and Mary Harris were in Redkin and Vogue magazine as 2002 Turn Up the Heat Salon Competition winners; the salon won national Night of Color Award, a hair color award, from Redkin in 2009; Mary was awarded Redkin’s Avant Garde Hair Colorist in 2013, and Salon
Today magazine has honored the salon three times, including this year, for being one of the top 200 salons in the country.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” Brandon Harris said. “We are continuing-education junkies.”
The Harrises host five global artists a year. For example, Sunday, March 5, Monday, March 6, and Tuesday, March 7, they hosted Ruth Roach, Pureology global artistic director and five-time North American Hairdress-ing Award winner, to prepare salon staff for spring formals and photo shoot session skills.
Mary Harris and Roach did a photo shoot together for NAHA March 7.
“We do a lot of things that make us sound really fancy, but the truth is we’re just good people who want to treat people good,” Brandon Harris said. “What we really do is help people for a living.
“And, we are incredibly blessed,” he added. “The community, the industry and God have all been very good to us.
“Personally, I just want to do two things with my life. One is I want to leave people better and, two, I want to leave the industry better,” Brandon Harris said.
He said continuing education has given Salon Biyoshi the edge to compete with other salons in the area.
“We run an associate program,” Brandon Harris said. “It takes nine months to complete. We have 12 in-salon classes a year for the younger staff and outside global advisors who come in” to teach.
The salon is open from 8 a.m.
to 9 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays. It is closed Sundays.
For more information or to book an appointment, call 865-690-4111 or visit online at salonbiyoshi.com
