Meet the two mamas rocking the blow dry world in Dublin right now: Orna Holland and Sonia Flynn, co-founders of the coolest new concept hairdressing experience, Roller. Oh, and they’re also high-flying tech execs too.
Morphing their talents at the top of their game from working with brands like Stripe, SoundCloud, Google, and Facebook, they’ve introduced a whole new Blow Dry Bar experience to the Dublin scene, and you will never go anywhere else for a blow dry after you’ve tried this, it’s an experience, not just a visit to the hairdressers: think designer décor, a fast-track, walk-in service with a style menu of specific blow-dries to choose from, so you don’t have to explain what you want to the stylist or leave without exactly getting what you had in mind (we love The Vixen and The Weekender). There’s also extra cool add-ons with plaits or specific up-dos to choose from.
We caught up with these crazy-busy working ladies who work in Berlin (Sonia, VP International at Soundcloud) and Dublin (Orna, staffing lead at Stripe) to find out how they do it all (seriously, HOW!).
That lightbulb moment came when… we had been talking about the idea for months and at some stage, we decided to stop talking and just go for it. Having worked in the tech area of Dublin in Grand Canal for several years, we spotted a gap in the market. We often heard friends and colleagues say they couldn’t figure out why no one had jumped on the opportunity in the area. So we decided to take it on ourselves!
With three kids between us… it’s full on, but planning ahead and dividing what needs to get done on that basis is the only way. Going into business with a close friend who has a similar schedule also helps as there’s a lot of give and take.
We work out who does what…. by getting together once a week to talk through things on the phone (we both travel often) or over video conference with the team. We share responsibilities based on each other’s strengths and interests, so that whoever has a stronger background, takes it on. We are comfortable engaging outside expertise where we need it. Neither of us came from the hair industry, so partnering with hairdresser Michael Leong and getting his creative input has been beyond helpful. One responsibility we are both heavily involved in is hiring, we both believe it’s critical to have the right team in place. Naturally, we have pulled in old and new resources having worked for Google and Facebook, and our payment system is powered by Stripe, our music is on SoundCloud. We’ve also done exciting on-site pop-ups at Facebook and Matheson law firm with lots more to come…
Choose from the style menu, this is the ‘Braid back and cool’
The biggest stumbling blocks… have been being overly optimistic on the timing front in terms of how long things would take. We hit a snag early on regarding planning, and that took a few months to resolve.
None of this would be possible without… the support of our partners and family. We are lucky to have a great team of stylists and a fantastic manager, Celia O’Dea, as well as a great team at Chalk creative agency.
While it’s tempting to get cracking on setting up the business itself… it is truly worth spending the time to figure out what kind of business you want to build early on and in our case, how we want clients to feel when they visit us at Roller. Big shout out to the team at Chalk here who helped us figure that out! We wanted to offer clients speedy, blow-dry brilliance with little-added bonuses like one easy on-the-go style menu and personal iPads.
As two self-confessed blow dry addicts and working mums… we know how precious time is and we are all for anything that makes life a little easier. That’s why we open early (7am, five days a week) and have hired a team of stylists who are passionate about what they do. Roller is a combination of a little bit of luxury with brilliant hair know-how delivered with a down-to-earth attitude. We opened up in May and have been delighted with the response so far.
Roller Blow Bar, 23 Forbes Street, Hanover Quay, Dublin 2.
