A new all-service salon has opened shop on the first floor of Roosevelt Point’s north building, bringing beauty services and local art to the apartment complex.
The white walls of Public Image, located on Roosevelt and Third streets, double as an art gallery and display a different artist each month. The centerpiece of the shop is a row of bright red, custom barber chairs that face floor to ceiling windows out on to Roosevelt row.
Owners Kim Sanchez and Darryl Brandt said they wanted a place that has everything: a variety of services and a talented team of estheticians, barbers and hairstylists that Brandt refers to as the “Style Tribe.”
“You can have something as simple as a barber cut or as complicated as a balayage or crazy color … we like to be as diverse as we can,” said Ty Silva, Public Image’s manager.
The shop also carries some unique products. Brandt said he wanted products that weren’t overly expensive but still high-end and high quality.
“We noticed that there wasn’t a real common ground,” Silva said. “We either have something like Great Clips that is affordable … or you have something super high-end. You either have your Bentley or your ‘beater’ car. We want to at least be a BMW.”
Although new to the downtown Phoenix area, Public Image is striving to be community-conscious. When they display art, it’s from local artists and they sell local products like wallets from Bison Made, an international leather goods store based in Phoenix.
The salon also places a strong emphasis on the education of the products that they use. Brandt said they plan to have classes open to the public that teach how to get the best use of the products that they carry.
Brandt, a veteran barber who was trained in New York, was dating Sanchez, a hairstylist from Long Beach, when they came up with the idea for Public Image.
Brandt said they had always talked about starting their own barber shop and salon but never took the project seriously until about a year ago when they started looking for a place in downtown Phoenix to house their new shop.
After looking at a few places in the area, they finally decided to open their business in the space in the Roosevelt Point apartment building.
Some residents of Roosevelt Point said they are excited to have the new business so close to home.
“I love it because you can go get your nails done. It was part of the reason I moved there,” resident Samantha Pouls said.
The all-purpose salon had it’s grand opening Friday, Nov. 6. Although located in the Roosevelt Point apartment building, it is open to the public, not just limited to residents. Public Image accepts walk-ins and takes appointments.
Contact the reporter at lindsay.roberts@asu.edu.
