Q & A With the Blown Away Co-Owners

The Blown Away Blow Blow Dry Bar at the Colonial MarketPlace in Ladue is celebrating its sixth month in business. The shop has stayed open during all of the construction at the Colonial MarketPlace on Ladue Road and eagerly awaits the completion of the project.

The store is rapidly building up a client base from the ground up. Patch caught up with the co-owners Betty Goran and her daughter JJ Crane. This is what they had to say about their thriving new establishment.

Patch: How did the concept come about in the first place?

Betty Goran: "We kind of brain-stormed this a couple of years ago. We had seen in other cities on both coasts and oh My God, this is fabulous, and what woman wouldn’t want to be pampered with affordable luxury. No touch up, no color, just blow outs."

Patch: How did the start go?

BG: “We started before the holidays, and that was wonderful. Now they are finishing all the construction on the Colonial MarketPlace and we’re really excited about that.”

Patch: How happy are you to have your daughter join you in this business?

BG: “What more can I say. I am really happy about that. It took some arm twisting to get it done.”

Patch: What do you think of moving from investments to the service industry?

JJ Crane, “It is a lot of work. It makes you appreciate when you are in a restaurant and what the people there have to do to give good service. We have a fantastic team of stylists here, and each is building their own clientele.”

Patch: Talk about your unique design concepts.

BG: “We worked with Helen Lee of Tao & Lee Architects. They are fabulous architects and Jeff Schmidt of John Jeffries Design Group who did all of our design work. This space is long and narrow with skylights and really hip and happening. We love the concept of the stations running down the center with mirrors hanging from the ceiling. The place has an industrial loft feel to it."

Patch: How big is your staff?

JJ: Twenty three, counting our receptionist. We have make-up artists and stylists and some do each. Neither of us knew anything about this field and we went to cosmology schools to learn. We had some help along the way.

Patch: How did you get through the holidays?

BG: We have a wonderful PR person, Annie Lazarus and she helped us to put together a public relations and advertising campaign. We did a little TV when we opened and print advertising helped us. It was crazy and hectic getting through the holidays.

JJ: The Veiled Prophet was a particularly busy day. We had to do a lot to get through that day.