![]() “Every day, week, month we were waking up and figuring out how to keep afloat, navigate the next challenge and stay optimistic. “When we closed in March, we had no idea we’d be closed for a full six months,” she says. Stability has also been in short supply for Stancliffe over the past eight months. By comparison, the average nail salon salary is $10-$16 nationally, according to and ZipRecruiter, supplemented by tips and service commissions - a model that, especially during COVID-19, doesn’t exactly scream income stability. Schedules are predictable and regular: eight-hour shifts, with the siesta in the middle. Most importantly, Stancliffe pays her “techies,” as she calls the nail technicians in a cheeky homage to Silicon Valley, $20 per hour plus tips, making for an average hourly rate between $23-$29. ![]() Yoga blocks and adjustable ergonomic seating are another detail, as is a biweekly movie, chosen by employees and shown on the salon television, as a fun backdrop for the shifts.īut you can’t buy groceries with good posture. The midday break is one of the small yet meaningful changes High Five has implemented to make employees feel more comfortable. Doing nails is very intimate - you can tell if the person sitting across from you doesn’t want to be there.” “I was having a hard time finding salons I’d be comfortable spending time at, especially after reading that (New York Times) article. “I come to the industry as a total outsider, first and foremost as a customer,” Stancliffe says. High Five nail salon opened in S.F.’s NoPa neighborhood in January 2020. ![]() Instead, every day the salon closes for an hour - Stancliffe calls it a siesta - and employees can use the space for lounging, eating and resting. But there’s no mysterious back room at High Five. In most salons, employees disappear into the back and reappear like extras in a play, the smells of microwaved lunch often accompanying the quick breaks. The interior is a tight 650 square feet, with bench-style pedicure stations along a Millennial-pink wall and manicures set up around a corner bar, plus a new parklet for outdoor treatments that seats two customers at a time. Located on a quiet residential corner of NoPa, the salon has a bright, Wes Anderson-inspired exterior with window frames painted in cheery hues. In January of this year, she opened High Five, a San Francisco salon that puts the ethical treatment of its employees first.īefore customers learn about Stancliffe’s mission, they probably notice High Five’s aesthetic. It would be nothing like the ones depicted in the Times. She moved to the Bay Area in 2016 and started an MBA at Stanford, but while her classmates were working on apps and cloud storage, she decided to open a more tangible business: a nail salon. Stancliffe was living in New York at the time, working in the art industry and planning to attend business school.
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