Kids Hair Salon at Grossmont Center celebrated its 36th anniversary in May, and has specialized in first haircuts, children with special needs. It serves babies to toddlers, teens, tweens, and mom and dads. After navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic, owner Kristina Norris decided to rebrand after 36 years of being just a “kids” salon, to becoming a salon for the entire family to come and get haircuts.
With a soft opening scheduled for Aug. 3 to Family Hair Salon and Barber Shop, the unimaginable happened. Her shop was burglarized and vandalized.
Norris said she was starting the new remodel in order to take the business to this next level, making it a one-stop-shop for the entire family.
“I went on my last vacation before starting the remodel,” she said. “We left on July 18, and when I landed is when my phone
just started blowing up. What they told me over the phone was that somebody had broken into my salon. I was having a bunch of people come, contractors to start building, putting stuff together, painting, I had payroll in there, so I normally do not leave a lot of money in there.”
Norris said the break-in happened around 6:45 a.m. that morning, and there was nothing on camera except from the Macy’s corner camera that caught a tan/silver/gold four door sedan parking in front of her salon.
“They came in, drilled out the front door,” she said. “They came over to my cash register, broke it open, and took all the money out. Took my laptop that we use to book appointments. Went through all my girl’s drawers and took expensive tools that they had been using for years. Went into the back and broke open my locker to get to my safe and took everything that was in there and left outside the back. They ransacked the place. Took a brand new 55-inch TV that I bought for the barbershop. They took a lot from me besides just the money.”
Norris said there was around $18,000 in the safe, and the only reason she had that much in the safe was because she had payroll and contractors to pay. She said the total loss was around $25,000 and her insurance only covered about half of the loss. Norris had to take out a personal loan to make up for the difference.
“For me, it was a very personal attack,” she said. “I felt like it was an inside job from an ex-employee. I have shared that with the detectives and the police officers. I am working with them trying to get some kind of closure to this. They took my employees money as well as mine. I was devastated because I had literally saved for a very long time to do this.”
Norris said when she came back on July 22, they closed the following week and started the remodel and now it is nearly done with the exception of the back of the salon. She said they opened last Wednesday, a soft opening. She said they asked her to set up a GoFundMe campaign, but she said she “feels weird about it.”
“I have about a thousand dollars, but I updated my GoFundMe to tell customers, ‘Thank you for donating, but just come see us. That will be good enough for me.’ The money is great, but I am just going to spend that money on my grand opening which will probably be sometime in September.”
Norris said she had 11 stations, but now has five in the kid’s section, four in the barbershop, and as soon as she makes enough money she will finish the back, a lounge for girls and moms where they can get color done, glitter nails, eyebrow waxing.
Norris said after 36 years of focusing on kids, she wanted to open something unique for the community.
“I wanted to make sure that the busy families that we have right now that are super busy and do not have time to come get their haircuts sometimes,” she said. “I see it all of the time. I wanted to make sure that this was a one-stop-shop for the whole family that can get their haircuts in one hour.”
For more than 30 years, Kids Hair Salon’s Wigs for Kids provides hair replacement systems and support for children who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy, radiation therapy, Alopecia, Trichotillomania, burns, and other medical issues at no cost to children and their families.
For more information visit www.kidshairsalon.net.
