Salon Stories: How Hairdresser Rochelle Raye-Anthony Built Her Beauty Business From Scratch
Rochelle Raye Anthony is a hairdresser, influencer, owner of The Dolls House salon based in Milton Keynes, and the runner-up on the BBC’s hit TV show, The Apprentice, that aired in 2023. Growing up in Milton Keynes, Rochelle struggled to find a salon in her local area that catered to the unique needs of textured hair and was often turned away by hairdressers who didn’t have the right experience. With a passion for hair and flair for style, Rochelle went on to study hairdressing with the dream of one day opening an inclusive salon that serves all hair textures. After qualifying as a hairdresser, Rochelle leveraged social media to promote her services and launch her hairdressing business from her living room. At the age of just 23, Rochelle had already amassed a loyal customer base and was ready to take on the challenge of opening her own salon. Fuelled by her vision and determination, Rochelle founded The Doll House in Milton Keynes, a stylish sanctuary for women from all backgrounds who specialise in textured hair and luxury extensions.
"The Dolls House is a really inclusive salon. It’s a complete girls’ world. It's a three-story salon full of every single service you need. All our customers come in and leave feeling brand-new. We're all about inclusivity, diversity, and we cater to all hair types. We also welcome Muslim women who wear hijab by providing a safe space for them to unveil in our salon that is completely away from prying eyes. The Dolls House empowers women from all backgrounds to have the best time while experiencing salon services or taking selfies in a women-friendly environment.”
As the founder of The Dolls House, Rochelle was driven by the idea of bringing something innovative, trendy and cool to the hairdressing industry, while creating a space where all women are welcome. While The Dolls House has been designed with pretty pink décor and a luxury feel, Rochelle recognises that a good salon goes beyond the aesthetics and is truly rooted in how you make your customers feel. Time & time again, she witnessed customers with diverse hair types struggle to find stylists who understood the intricacies of their curls, coils, and hairstyling preferences. That’s why she made it a priority to provide comprehensive training for her entire team, ensuring they are equipped with the skills to serve every customer. Beyond this, Rochelle has also launched a hair academy to train the next generation of stylists and bring change to the wider hairdressing industry.
“When I did my hairdressing training around 16 years ago, there was no formal training on how to treat or style textured hair. Since this was super important to me, I went out of my way to find people with different hair types to practise on because I wanted to be able to work with all textures. From the start of my business journey, I really focused on equality, diversity, and inclusion so that hair textures from 1A to 4C are all catered to in my salon. I have trained all my stylists to make sure they can handle all hair textures, curl patterns and different densities from thick to thin hair. As a salon owner, it’s important that these values are represented across my business, branding and marketing.”
When it comes to Vagaro, Rochelle has been using the award-winning salon software for over ten years. With almost 100k followers on Instagram, Rochelle has always been interested in using technology and software to help grow her salon business. After growing tired of using pen & paper to take note of appointments and manage her team’s diaries, Rochelle started her search for salon software that could streamline her operations while elevating the customer experience. Through her research, Rochelle discovered Vagaro, which instantly improved her business and sales by creating an urgency to get customers booked in right away. Now, like all of Rochelle’s favourite social media apps, she has Vagaro salon software at the palm of her hands.
“I believe that Vagaro has strengthened my business and has made my life so much easier in terms of everything that it encompasses. It makes it easier to check out clients, take online payments, and allows for easy online booking so clients can do it themselves. Vagaro ensures our customers have the right information at every step of the booking process, so they are well-informed about where to find us and know exactly what to expect. It’s also great that Vagaro checks in on my customers after appointments to see if they’d like to rebook, if it’s their birthday, if they liked a service or if they would like to leave us a review, as well as sending them a reminder to book aftercare appointments for maintaining their cut, colour or whatever it may be.”
As the runner-up on BBC’s The Apprentice in 2023, Rochelle was the first-ever hairdresser to feature on the reality TV show. Rochelle was determined to showcase her business knowledge, transferrable skills and ultimately prove why hairdressing should be taken seriously as a very profitable industry worth over 1 billion pounds.
“I wanted to prove that you can do business and be glam. We're not the corporate people that you expect on The Apprentice—and that's exactly why I wanted to do it. I wanted to show them that I have a business mindset, but I'm also very creative and I think outside the box. I think people often undermine hairdressers, but we are scientists, we're best friends, we're therapists. We do so much in our role, and it's nice to be given the credibility that we deserve.”
With Vagaro at her fingertips, Rochelle relies on the all-in-one solution to help keep her business profitable. Beyond diary management, Vagaro salon software gives Rochelle access to detailed insights into sales performance, allowing her to monitor revenue trends, identify popular services, and manage inventory levels effectively. Thanks to Vagaro’s reporting tools, Rochelle can easily make informed decisions to optimise bookings, strategically promote high-demand services and drive sustainable growth in her salon business.
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And if you’re a fellow beauty business owner ready to streamline the day-to-day running of your salon, take advantage of Vagaro’s free 30-day trial today!
