After 23 years of working for the Saints organization, the furthest thing from Charlotte Troxler’s mind was one day co-owning a beauty salon and spa.
But when owner Tom Benson decided that his personal financial officer should make a move from New Orleans to San Antonio, Troxler decided to jump ship. It didn’t take her long to find a new career path. In fact, all it took was a trip to her hairdresser, Stacy Melancon.
“Stacy was my hairdresser for years and she had mentioned to me several times that she wanted to buy a place and open a spa,” Troxler said. “When Mr. Benson wanted everyone to move to San Antonio, I went to get my hair done and said ‘let’s just do it.’”
With Troxler’s financial chops and Melancon’s immense experience, the two soon found an ideal location in Paradis. They bought a house that rests upon Hwy. 90 and took 10 months to transform it into a top of the line salon and spa that rivals anything in the area. For Melancon, those 10 months allowed her to see her lifelong dream slowly become a reality.
“I have been in this industry for 20 years and have actually been around it my whole life because my mom is a cosmetologist,” she said. “This was always my dream.”
For Troxler, it was something entirely different.
“I’m a business person and I’m an accountant,” she said. “I never had an interest in beauty salons, it was just a whim kind of thing. Now, I feel really good about it.”
Vous offers a variety of services including haircuts and styling for women, men and children, along with waxing, massages, nails, facials, spa treatments and tanning. “Tanning has been our biggest disappointment because we do offer our clients the opportunity to come try our beds for the first three times for free,” Troxler said. “Business wise, we have had our ups and downs, but it’s really starting to pick up.”
Even though business is starting to pick up, the two are still surprised that more residents in the area don’t know about Vous.
“Just this morning I had a girl from Hahnville in here and she said she didn’t even know we were here,” Troxler said. “We get that all the time. A lot of people think we just have a salon and they don’t know we have a spa in the back and everything else here.”
When you first enter Vous, it’s hard not to notice the bountiful hair cutting and styling stations set up near the entrance. Further examination finds a relaxation room off to the side and a door that leads to the state of the art spa area. This quiet area is filled with massage chairs for both men and women, along with rooms for facial treatments and wraps. There is also a couples massage area for the duo that wants to discuss the day’s gossip while getting the stress of everyday life slowly removed.
That’s not all.
A separate building houses Vous’ five tanning beds and a spray tanning facility. For only $25 a month, a customer can visit the tanning area as often as they like, with the first three trips on the house.
And providing all these services are 13 Vous employees, who are continually trained to keep up with the latest trends and styles.
“I think a lot of people in the parish don’t realize that most hair dressers complete their education once they get out of school,” Melancon said. “We continually educate our stylists here. We always have classes and people coming here to train our employees. We are very up on fashion and what’s going on.”
In fact, Vous’ 13 employees are getting ready for a week-long trip to New York where they will visit the Redken Institute. During the course, the employees will get in a lot of hands-on work with mannequins and learn all about the new styles coming out of Europe.
“A lot of beauty parlors don’t have the means to do that,” Troxler said. “But with us being with a consulting company that is part of Redken, they come here and give our employees classes.
“We will be so up to date on the latest trends and this year alone we have had more than five classes. We are very dedicated to it.”
In order to keep their employees up to date with the latest trends, Vous is also going to provide one free makeover per week to a person nominated by the community. Anyone is welcome to nominate a potential makeover participant and can either fill out the form on Vous’ latest ad or visit their website at voussalonandspa.com.
“My favorite show is What Not to Wear and I thought, ‘what a really cool concept,’” Troxler said. “Part of our consulting is that our hair stylists are supposed to go out and find models in the community that they can give makeovers to, but they are so busy in the salon keeping up with the other things that we require them to do that it doesn’t always happen.
“This is a fun way to make sure that it does.”
In addition, Vous also has plans to take a more medical approach to the spa industry. The company is in negotiations with a medical corporation to provide botox and restilin treatments, collagen, and laser hair and vein removal. That service should begin this spring.
However, even with all the bells and whistles that Vous provides, the success of the business still relies on the people of St. Charles Parish.
“Stacy and I have built something here that is really odd for this parish,” Troxler said. “It’s something that you can go to Orleans or Jefferson to get, but you can’t go anywhere else in the parish and get. It amazes me that people will still try to leave the parish for something that is already here.”
Be the first to comment