SNK Hair and Beauty is one of Newton Abbot’s leading beauty salons. Over the past four years, they have built up quite a reputation on the high street, going on to enter the finals in both 2023 and 2024’s Devon Women in Business awards for Start-Up of the Year.
The salon is owned by niece and aunt duo Kira Pitt and Sarah Bancroft, both experienced hairdressers and long-standing Devonians. Together, they share their story of why they opened SNK Hair and Beauty, how they developed their customer base, and what they like the most about working in hair and beauty.
How did you two get started with opening a hair salon?
Kira: I was Sarah’s Saturday girl when I was 13. Because I used to live Dartmouth-way, I’d stay at hers for half a day, then I did my work experience hairdressing and decided this was what I wanted to do. After I left school, I did hairdressing for about ten years. I did my training in Exeter for a few years, then left and went self-employed, and was in a little salon in Chudleigh Knighton for about four years before I opened the salon in Newton Abbot. Being in a little village, it took a long time to build things up, whereas Newton Abbot is a lot busier and I built up my client base within a year.
Sarah: I’ve always said hairdressing’s a good trade to get into because hair always grows. I’ve been doing it since I was 16 and never wanted to do anything else. I worked in Dartmouth for 20 odd years, then the travelling just got too much. I came out of it for a year then decided to get our own place with Kira in the middle of town. I’m slightly old school so I wanted to do it with either family or someone I know, and we work together quite well. This was already a hairdresser’s twice before we took it over. It was stressful to begin with, especially with everything going up, but I think we can sleep at night now we’ve got clients.
What is business like for SNK Hair and Beauty in Newton Abbot?
Kira: Every day is different and every client is different. It’s not like you’re sat at the same desk all the time; you never know what’s going to walk through that door.
Sarah: It’s good having a niece that does hairdressing. While I’m good with perming and the older clients, Kira’s good with social media and the younger clients. We get a lot of people who bring pictures and say they want their hair to look a certain way, but realistically we have to say what it’s going to look like. We’re not necessarily here to get money off them. Doing someone’s hair is important to them. If their hair’s nice, it makes you feel better.
We’re not necessarily here to get money off them. Doing someone’s hair is important to them. If their hair’s nice, it makes you feel better.
How have you grown your customer base in the past couple of years?
How have you grown your customer base in the past couple of years?Kira: A lot of people knew this was a hair salon before, so that did help. For the rest, we tried for the first year to market ourselves. One of us would do clients and walk-ins, the other would be out leaflet dropping.
We offered a new client discount of 15% and would go around all the houses in different areas to drop leaflets through the letterbox. Sarah did Ashburton Road while I did Bovey Tracey where we lived. We just did one area at a time without bombarding. Then I’d get phone calls from people who saw the leaflet and wanted to book in, so all that hard work paid off.
It got to the point where people were recommending us on social media, including friends, clients and word of mouth. The mayor also popped in when we first popped up and ran a little segment on us in the Mid Devon Advertiser, which was handy because not everyone is on social media.
We’ve also had a lot of help from our friends. Charles Penny from Falcon Digital is a very good friend of mine and helped us by creating our website. He promoted us quite a lot through his socials and he’s always recommending people to us.
Sarah: We’re actually at the point where we’re giving clients to our other hairdressers. I had a barber come in on a whim, he asked me a lot on how we started up this business and gave him advice, and now he’s opened Wolf Barbers in Torquay. He’s always recommending his gents to come to ours if they want perms or colours, and vice versa if they want skin fades. We all support each other.
What do you enjoy about working in a hair salon?
Kira: It’s very social and you do just click with some clients. A lot of the time, you are like a therapist. I’ve had a few clients who have not been in a good place. They wanted to do something different and came in here on the off chance, then came out absolutely beaming. It’s really nice to feel that you’ve made that difference, seeing what even a blow-dryer or a haircut can do to someone’s life.
Sarah: We actually get to know people really well as they speak to you about everything. We get our weekly clients and you become their friends. If you’re feeling quite low as well, when you talk to them, you start feeling better too.
It’s really nice to feel that you’ve made that difference, seeing what even a blow-dryer or a haircut can do to someone’s life.
What have been the difficulties of managing SNK Hair and Beauty?
What have been the difficulties of managing SNK Hair and Beauty?Kira: In your first year, you’re just trying to make everything work and bring enough in to pay your bills and overheads. We initially had a salon two doors down from us, so that was our biggest competition, and we also opened just when everything inflated. That pushed us to work extra harder in the three months before we opened.
Sarah: There’s always the question of what happens if the lease doesn’t work. Me and Kira have never had a sick day. This is why I wanted Kira with me and vice versa, because we both work hard.
How did it feel to get invited to the Devon Women in Business awards?
Kira: One of my clients, Louise Jenner, is in charge of Devon Women in Business. She’d mentioned the awards to me when we first opened up, but I didn’t want to do it yet since we were still quite new. I waited a year then submitted to the 2023 awards, then did it again in 2024, and both times we were in the finals. That’s still an achievement to be in the top three out of so many other applicants.
Sarah: One of my clients gets awards from Devon Women in Business all the time, so we know what the expectations are. Hopefully we are leading up to winning an award one day.
Have you got any advice for people wanting to open their own beauty salon?
Kira: Take the risk. Most of the time, it does work out, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work. Do a lot of research about the location and do all your marketing and social media. Everything is online these days, so you’ve really got to get a good website.
Sarah: If you get an online booking system like Fresha and get good reviews, that helps. When people look for hairdressers and see all those five star awards online, it does bring them through the door. Try and work with someone where you can both support each other as a team. I don’t think either one of us could’ve done it without the other.
Take the risk. Most of the time, it does work out, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work.