When Becca Romberger had the idea to open up her own salon, she wanted it to be nice and upscale without the salon environment. To make it nice and upscale as she described, Romberger will accommodate whatever her client wants.
“Somewhere where people feel comfortable and they can relax, whether they want to watch TV, catch up on their show and read a book,” Romberger said.
“You get the service, my one-on-one and undivided attention, you’ll get quality over quantity.”
Romberger’s salon, Hair Apothecary, is located inside the Simple Salon Suites on 900 12th Street and opened in August of 2022. Inside the salon, you’ll see a TV, fridge for refreshments and so many other features that make the environment feel homely rather than the salon environment, which she wanted to avoid.
Hair Apothecary provides services such as hair color, design, extensions, blonding services, waxing, brow shaping, brow tinting, education and makeup.
Prior to starting Hair Apothecary, Romberger came from a very big salon. While she loved working there, she was unhappy with the factory-like service that the previous salon brought as she wanted to provide more quality service.
“My clients are trying to have conversations with me, and there’s a hairdresser code, you can tell me anything in this room and it’s going to the grave kind of thing,” Romberger said.
“Other clients or my coworkers would be coming up like ‘oh my God, I heard her say this’ and I was kind of over that, I wanted quality. I wanted more for me and more for my clients. It wasn’t feeding my soul.”
The environment in Hair Apothecary may be a bit smaller than bigger salons. Romberger knew she wanted to open her own salon with the same concepts and vibe that she wanted in a bigger space. Later after opening her salon inside Simply Salon Suites that clients prefer the smaller environment.
“With clients’ hair when it’s not done, they’re a little bit self-conscious about it, especially in my specialty in hair extensions, I have a lot of women who have fine, thin hair and they feel uncomfortable with the world seeing them that way so it’s nice to have the privacy to this,” Romberger said.
The real question is how did the name Hair Apothecary originate? The TV show, “Schitt’s Creek,” and her father, who owns a construction business.
While there are many definitions of apothecary, to which Romberger noted that the main definition to most people is “witchy” and “herbal,” she looked at apothecary as healing. While the store in “Schitt’s Creek,” Rose Apothecary, was not the first thing that came to mind when forming the name, her father’s advice definitely helped what not to do.
“The one thing that he told me was if I ever opened my own thing or when I told him I was going to do this, he asked ‘do you have a name yet?’ and I told him ‘I have a list of names but I have no clue,’ he said ‘just make sure your name’s not in it so if you ever do get big and you want to sell it to somebody, it’s not like Becca’s Salon. I thought of it as when you’re coming to get your hair done, this is your “you-time,” to feel good about yourself, it’s like healing in a sense so that’s why I went with Hair Apothecary,” Romberger said.
Romberger also started off in the hair industry as a makeup artist, which is one of her many specialties. In addition to being a makeup artist, she was an esthetician and also teaches hair styling. From there, she previously had a job with Academy Pro Hair and Air, which is based in Deep River, CT, and has educators all over the country. Her friend, who worked with Pro Academy Hair and Air as a hair extension educator, asked Romberger to teach in their newly-launched airbrush makeup line if interested, to which Romberger agreed.
“From there, I just kind of grew with the company. I was like a kid, came straight out of high school when I went to school for esthiology,” Romberger said.
She then later started teaching hair extensions, later working on hair styling and then went back to school for cosmetic tattooing.
“I always noticed one thing that women were always super self-conscious about was their eyebrows, that was like my ‘baby’ from the beginning, doing makeup and waxing and all that fun stuff,” Romberger said.
Hair Apothecary is located inside Simply Salon Suites on 900 12th Street. The hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Any questions, customers can reach out to Romberger at (856) 520-1670 or can visit her website at Hair Apothecary