Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Souther Hicks.
Hi Heather, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started laying in tanning beds when I was 12. Very typical for 1996 when everyone was doing it. My mom would take me and we shared a package. By 17, I had skin cancer. After graduating from Grabber School of Hair Design in 2004, I started spray tanning in the salon where I worked, in Washington, MO. It was still relatively new, and there wasn’t a lot of options in spray tan solution. We all love to be tan but I couldn’t risk tanning beds anymore. I grew my clientele slowly after moving back to my hometown of Topeka, KS and heard that a spray tan artist could use some part time help. After meeting with the owner and really vibing, we decided we would share a small room in a salon in downtown Topeka, KS. The hours were 530-830pm Wednesday through Friday and a few hours on the weekends. By then I was married with four children. I had the opportunity to grow my clientele again when the owner started traveling for work with her day job. We expanded our hours to include daytime availability since the demand proved to be so high. In the fall of 2018, the owner’s day job took her to Florida full time, and it gave me the opportunity to buy the business from her. I moved locations and expanded to two rooms and added a teeth whitening service. After four years at that salon, I needed to expand again and my husband and I decided to take a leap and open up a 3000 sqft salon of our own that offers three rooms for spray tanning, teeth whitening, hair services, nails, body waxing, facials, and wellness/detoxing services that include monthly whole body scans that provide a detailed report for you to review. To accompany that, we also have an ionic foot bath and lymphatic drainage shaker plate that aids in detoxing the body. We are mindful and work as hard as we can to provide the cleanest product options that we can to our clients – especially with spray tanning and teeth whitening products. Our mission for Sakred Salon and Safely Sunning is this: to create a peaceful, welcoming environment where every client feels safe, seen, and celebrated. We are committed to delivering exceptinal customer service and personalized beauty experiences in a space where authenticity, kindness, teamwork, and comfort are at the heart of everything we do. Through intentional care and a team-wide dedication to professionalism, we aim to make every visit a moment of calm, connection and confidence. I decided Sakred Salon would be the name of the salon side because with a K, it’s different and so am I. I’ve never done anything the stereotypical way. I used to be made fun of for being different but now I celebrate it. And just the name sacred feels so important, impactful, and sincere, like looking someone in the eyes and seeing their souls. The time we spend with each client in exchange for dollars is significant and deeply rooted in who we are. And when I say “we” I mean all 14 of us who work for Safely Sunning and Sakred Salon. Some day if it feels right, I’d like to expand to Manhattan and Lawrence to further our mission to touch as many lives as possible. Impacting women who come in feeling insecure about their bodies but trusting the word of mouth referral, but leave glowing, smiling, and with almost a bounce in their step, is what makes me keep showing up 21 years later.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I could write a book about the road. Some days I leave work on cloud nine, and some days I feel like I’m driving the struggle bus and I’ve popped a tire and the rest are shreds. I’m white knuckling it. Covid sucked. The timing was terrible. I had spent thousands stocking the shelves with retail products and buying dozens of gallons of spray tan solution because it was almost busy season. I missed out on spring break, prom, graduation, and part of summer tanning. The majority of our business is because our clients have special occasions or big life events. When a teenage girl can’t go to prom, or social distance has forced a bride to cancel her wedding, that’s really bad for business. We went from a 2% cancellation rate to 100% in one week. The city shut us down for ten weeks. I was determined to feed my family – literally – so I came up with the QuaranTAN Kit. With all the retail products I had already purchased, I bundled them together in three cost tiers to appeal to anyone still wanting that confident glow. With each time I posted on social media about it, I would sell out in an hour, I’d spend time packing each one up, accepting their Venmo payment, and the following day I would deliver them all. There’s an app that, when you enter in every address, will calculate the most efficient delivery route. It was an amazing tool. I did this for a couple of months while we couldn’t see clients in person and my clients supported me in a huge way. I’m so thankful for all of them that supported me when they didn’t have to. Beyond covid, there have been several stylists in the salon I formally worked in who would do and say things to sabotage my success, and word would get back to me. I’ve been stolen from by those same women and even a former employee. I had very expensive product stolen during slow season, which forced me to figure out how to buy whole ingredients and recreate it myself at a lower cost, so blessing in disguise I suppose. I’ve paid my therapist thousands of dollars over the years to work through the challenges I’ve faced, as well as the “imposter syndrome” that comes with great success when you don’t feel like you deserve it. At times I’ve aligned myself with the wrong person or said something dumb on a podcast, and I’m in my head about it for months. Small business ownership is a trip, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a master spray tan artist and trainer. I’ve trained women from all over the country to come to Kansas and learn my technique. If I had a specialty, it would be making men and women feel comfortable in my presence and empowered to do something great in their personal life. We go deep in our spray tan rooms, meaning when people remove their clothing they open their mouths. In the past, I’ve felt like an unofficial therapist for some. In my own healing journey and learning from my therapist about trauma and healing, I’ve shared things that have been beneficial for me and the clients like that. I’ve gotten dozens of texts and FB/IG messages expressing gratitude for sharing personal experiences, because it empowers the clients to do similar in their own lives. I don’t take that lightly. In fact, I’ve considered going back to college to become a therapist. I’m proud of all the awards I’ve won personally and all the awards both businesses have won, but I’m most proud of the impact I have on someone’s soul. The work I do was never about a spray tan. It’s just the vehicle I use to help people.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Spray tan solutions will continue to improve, spray tanning will only continue to grow as an industry because people are a lot more aware of the effects of the sun. Millennials and younger are especially interested in great skin and spend a lot of money annually on skin care, quality makeup, and spray tans. I see spray tans continuing to seep into the health and wellness arena and not just beauty. Spray tan solution companies are coming out with additional products all the time to improve the look and feel of the skin. And extraction units are improving all the time. Extraction units aren’t mandatory but they’re inching quickly towards industry standard now. People care about what they’re breathing in, and it’s a messy job. Current trendy colors are white, off white, grey etc and it’s impossible to keep an area clean if you’re just spraying brown liquid into the air with nothing to catch the overspray. Another thing that has been evolving and will only get more popular is mobile tanning. Ever since covid, people have learned that they like being at home and with things like Instacart or DoorDash, people like things brought to them. Spray tanning is no different. It’s so popular that the industry’s number one extraction unit (based in Kansas City) has developed a mobile unit that’s incredible. I recently shot a promo video for them in my white house with white walls and white furniture. It caught every bit of overspray and finishing powder. It’s a game changer for the mobile spray tan artists.
Pricing:
- Custom Airbrush Spray $44
- Express Tan $54
- Teeth Whitening $95
- Lymphatic Drainage Plate + Ionic Foot Bath $50
- Membership Program available
Contact Info:
- Website: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/safelysunning
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/safelysunning
