Elspeth Palmby laughs and looks a little bit uncomfortable when I ask if she’s the owner of Beauty Collective, a small salon tucked back from the sidewalk on Fairhaven’s Harris Avenue.
“Technically, yes, I own Beauty Collective—the name,” she says, “but everyone booth-rents and it’s more like a co-op.”
Photograph by Anne Godenham
Miranda Ridgely, Palmby’s longtime friend and fellow hairstylist, agrees with a smile. The two women worked together at their previous salon, The Hair Art Studio, along with Samantha Hall and Jessica Angelica, who also rent booths at the Collective. They all moved to the Fairhaven space when the Studio’s owner opened up an offshoot location.
To everyone’s surprise, the new location closed soon after the move, and the owner began to wrap things up at their downtown Bellingham spot as well. She went to Palmby with an offer to take over the Fairhaven lease. Palmby wanted to provide a space for herself and other stylists to work together on equal footing—“and not break us up,” Ridgely adds, noting that the tight-knit team was likely to scatter otherwise.
Photograph by Anne Godenham
Palmby, Ridgely, Hall, and Angelica are a close group, but they’re also a welcoming one: the Collective’s newest stylist, Sydni Heiss, joined the team last October and was quickly embraced into the fold.
“The sense of community between the women is so strong, and it really is a collective,” Heiss says. “We are so supportive of one another, and I just love that. I need that.”
That sentiment was echoed by all of the stylists, multiple times, and they’re not the only ones who feel and benefit from their camaraderie.
“So many times clients have come in and been like, ‘wow, it just feels good in here,’” Hall says. “It’s because of the energy that we exude.”
Photograph by Anne Godenham
That energy starts before you even enter: instead of Palmby’s personal hair and makeup business becoming the umbrella name for the salon, she opted to put all the stylists’ businesses on the door, to create a more inclusive brand. That, plus the charming interior and the friendly chatter among the chairs, makes for a warm and inviting atmosphere.
“[We’re] artsy with hair and aesthetic décor,” Ridgely says, gesturing at Palmby and then at the salon’s creative, colorful décor, which includes custom resin mirrors and striped wall paint. “She’s the master crafter.”
Photograph by Anne Godenham
While many of their clients (myself included) are drawn to Beauty Collective for funky cuts and bright dye jobs, the salon offers a wide range of styles, from side shaves to bobs, balayage to root touch-ups.
“I think we’re pretty open and welcoming,” Palmby says. “We’re pretty relaxed, but still pretty professional.”
There’s much that sets the Collective apart from other salons, but the cornerstone is the relationship among the women who work there.
Hall gets misty-eyed as she talks about it: “I don’t think they even really realize how many times like I’ve been shattered or at a place where I was just done, but I could walk in the door here and be heard and held and loved.”
Even the business structure reflects that mutual support.
“A lot of people will use [booth rental] to make money, and they’ll just be the owner…a lot of them don’t even do hair, you know, they just own the salon,” Palmby says, adding that she’s always wanted to do things differently. “I still do hair, still love my clientele, and I still make more [money] working, myself.”
Photograph by Anne Godenham
Everyone I spoke to was enthusiastic about the joy their job brings them, and how lucky they feel to work with each other, and that enthusiasm is infectious.
“Part of it is just us having fun,” Ridgely says, as Palmby nods enthusiastically. “And the reward is the clients, how happy they are, and they come back to us more often because we’re not charging them an arm and a leg, and they tell their friends and their families—that’s the reward.”
905 Harris Ave., Ste. 201, Bellingham, 360.746.7112, beautycollective.glossgenius.com
