Pentagon City on a Tuesday night

Pete and I decided to tackle the food court in Pentagon City between the after-dinner and before-closing period.

Lauren (aka Pete's awesome wife!)

Lauren is from Huntington Beach.  She was born in Phoenix, Arizona but grew up in Huntington Beach.  She went to George Washington for undergrad and grad school.  She’s been in DC for 14 year.  Currently she is in the musical Damn Yankees.  She is a budget analyst.  She likes to hang out with her husband and likes to shop.  She really likes to shop and really likes shoes.  She doesn’t know how many pairs of shoes she has. 

Lauren gets her hair cut every six to eight weeks.  She gets her nails done every two weeks and uses gel and acrylic for nails.  She usually uses gel on her finger nails and regular nail polish on her toe nails.  Her previous experiences were really bad.  With the gel, they use LED lights for easy drying.  Now she always goes to the same person.  In California they use a footbath for pedicures which is easier to lean than a pedicure chairs (which also have massages).  The pedicure chair is more painful.  The chair’s traps/filters don’t get cleaned enough and can grow bacteria. 

Lauren colors her hair, no blowouts.  For weddings her stylists does her hair.  At her own wedding a couple hairstylists came to them at the Gaylord hotel.  Normally she has her hair in a ponytail.  Her hair is usually frizzy.  She does not use product on her hair.  She may use hairspray for going out and wants it fancier.  How often does she change her hair – when she gets bored.  She now also wants to make sure her husband likes it.  She uses a brush and a curling iron.  She normally goes by herself for hair and nails.  What’s a reasonable price? $25 from the manicurist she likes.  $35 just for a fill, which is $45 to $60 at other places.  A regular manicure is $20 – take the cuticles out, it takes time, and should not hurt. 

She likes the 33/33/33 idea.  She does see herself using this.  For prom it costs $80 to $90 for hair only.  Manicure expectations – quick and using gel nail polish would be the way to go.  Gel smells less than other nail polish.  For the remover there are foil pads, with cotton squares that you put the remover on, you wrap the foil pads around the fingers, it generates heat and keeps it more contained.  Lauren likes the concept as it makes it more affordable to go out.  She’s always had a dream of getting things done at once (hair/makeup/nails).  It reminded her of a scene from the move Troop Beverly Hills – getting multiple things done at once.  When asked where should it be located she likes the town center concept, perhaps Tysons or Georgetown.  She really likes “Bar 33.”  What if prices go up?  You could still have something at $33.  

Stephanie and Katrina

Stephanie is from Massachusetts and Katrina is from Maryland.  They are both going to George Washington University and in the fall will be in there senior year.  They are both in exercise science.  Stephanie just came back from Florence Italy.  A normal day involves coffee, sorority activities and babysitting.  On a normal day for Katrina she coaches gymnastics, goes to school and is working on getting an internship.  Katrina’s family has a beach house in Ocean City.  They’ve been going down to the beach house this summer. 

Stephanie gets her hair cut four to five months.  She has not heard of drybar.  She gets a pedicure a couple times a year.  She doesn’t get her nails done much because they trip.  Katrina gets her hair cut twice a year.  She does know about drybar.  She gets her nails done sporadically.  She gets them done for sorority recruitment.  She also does it when her mom pays.  Katrina heard about nail gel and wants to use it.  Stephanie has done gel nails before.

Lexi explains “Bar 33”  Both ladies with energy and positive tone says, “That sounds nice!”  Would be great for events.  Bar 33 – that’s the place that’s on $33.  We’d go there if it exists.  Katrina would go more frequently for events.  Stephanie would go much more if she wasn’t a broke college student.  What haven’t we thought of?  You could have a waxing service.  Makeup is great.  Stephanie says if you advertise is take 1 ½ to 2 hours, get in and get out then that’d be great.  Two hours sounds reasonable.  Where do you guys envision this?  Downtown – Georgetown and Dupont.  If you put it near a college you will succeed.  Being near Greek Letters will help.  Getting a lot of college students will help.

Stephanie loves the idea of convenient and efficient.

Lisa and her mother

They are from Germany.  Lisa is in the country for one year as a nanny.  Her mom, Antia, lives in Germany and is visiting.  Antia spoke a fair amount but spoke very little English, so Lisa did some back and forth translating.  As a nanny Lisa gets up around 7 am to take care of breakfast for kids, does laundry and lunches.  She has kids until 9 pm and so works 14 hours.  She gets one weekend off a month and 1 ½ days a week off.  She is in college too and is studying English and German.  She wants to be a teacher in Germany. 

She gets her haircut every six months and nails done every few weeks.  She always goes to the same person.  She gets her nails done in Germany, but not here.  She uses a professional lady who visits her privately to do her nails. 

Now we take some time to explain our idea a fair amount about a class.  At this point Antia speaks up and Lisa listens for a while before translating into English for us.  The translation – You can only be a good boss when you can lead people.  Lexi explains the drybar concept, the 33/33/33, two hours to get done and the Beauty Bar of Bar 33 name choices.  Antia doesn’t like the idea.  She’s working for herself and says you have to focus on one thing and be really good at it and not focus on five things and be ok at it.  Germany is about efficiency.  Lisa was interested at first, but then back off when the mom said she didn’t like it.  

Incredible informative makeup artist named Elysa at Sephora

Elyssa is from DC and grew up here.  She’s been working at Sephora since last September.  She gets her haircut every six months.  She changes her hair styles over time and gets inspiration from what’s going on.  Right now is long, vintage wave and she’s got that going with her hair right now.  She does her own nails.  She also does nails freelancing.  She has clients that come in to get makeup on every week. 

Lexie explains our concept.  Elyssa loves the idea.  She is familiar with drybar.  She told us women love being pampered.  Women come in for relaxation.  She likes the 33/33/33 concept and likes that makeup is a part of it.  We asked does she like “Beauty Bar” or “Bar 33” and she really likes Bar 33.  She believes it will resonate really well with people – a place for them to go after work. 

She also told us to check out a fashion blog site called Refinery 29 and it has a DC section to find out what’s going on.