It was constant ‘aha’ moments at first. Here’s how this JoCo salon became a success

It’s been 35 years since Connie Suss and a few business partners started with just four chairs for standard haircuts and hair treatments at their Westport salon. Bijin Salon and Spa, now based in Prairie Village, has grown to include not just hair care but massages, facials, nails and more.

Although Suss is currently the sole owner, her partners over the years have included Cathy Bentley, Mary Jane Van de Castle and Mary Kuklenski.

Suss, Bentley and Van de Castle had all worked together in a salon at Crown Center and decided to build their own business as a group. It wasn’t easy.

“We didn’t know what we were doing. We couldn’t really get a bank loan, because none of us had any collateral,” Suss said.

After getting turned down for loans by 12 different banks, each of them raised $5,000 from friends and family to start Bijin, and then they relied on credit cards and some flexible deadlines from vendors. It was a gamble that paid off in the end.

Expanding a little at a time, Suss and her partners learned how to manage a business on the job.

“We didn’t have any experience in having employees. It was constant learning. Constant ahas. ‘Oh, I didn’t know you had to have workman’s comp.’ Stuff like that,” Suss said.

Before long, they were doing well enough to offer health insurance, paid vacations and 401k company matches.

“In that day, in the early ’90s, it was kind of unheard of for salons to have that much of a benefit program,” Suss said.

The salon’s name is an homage to a fellow hairdresser and friend, Brian Knisley, who was planning to be a partner with Suss in the salon but had to back out shortly before it opened in 1988 after becoming too sick with AIDS to work. Suss said “bijin” is Japanese for “great beauty.”

“He (Knisley) had wanted it to have a Japanese feel. He wanted to use a very particular architect in town,” Suss said. “We wanted to honor him by using the name and concept that he wanted to do. He passed away a few months after we opened.”

After 10 years in Westport, they moved to a large Prairie Village space with their 35 employees. Initially, the storefront at 6960 Mission Lane felt too big, but over the past 25 years, they’ve expanded four times, taking over space formerly occupied by Macy’s Home Store and Gymboree, to occupy 14,000 square feet.

One innovation at the salon was setting up their own training program for new cosmetology school graduates.

“The program has helped us to grow our own and control our quality as much as possible. The nice thing with having a studio salon — it’s kind like having a bistro, where you’ve got the same environment with less experienced stylists, and we can offer services at a reduced price,” Suss said.

Suss said people have asked her over the years if she’d want to open multiple locations of Bijin, but it’s not something that interests her.

“I think it would be so hard to control quality being spread out,” she said.

Bijin has a loyal client base, with 90 employees currently serving between 250 and 300 clients each day.

“We actually have a handful of people that come every week, or they come once a month. It’s really nice that they’ve made that into lifestyle,” Suss said.

Cindy Barnhill has been coming to them since 1990.

“(Suss) surrounds herself with top notch people, and that’s what keep you coming back,” Barnhill said. “There’s no reason to look anywhere else.”