It’s time to break out those creative skills. Stylemasters is having a contest to rename the salon.
Starting on Valentine’s Day, residents can submit a name suggestion to the Lake Forest Park salon. The winner will be picked in May.
The salon used to be called Hair Benders, until it was sold and renamed to Stylemasters about five years ago. Three years ago it was sold again. Now the current owner, Janiece Hoggatt, doesn’t feel that the name Stylemasters suits the store.
“It doesn’t fit our community,” Hoggatt said. “We have a number of people here who remember when it was Hair Benders.”
Hoggatt also noted how the name Stylemasters is often mistaken for the chain salon HairMasters, which she is not affiliated with. She said that one of the things that sparked the idea to change the salon’s name was the debate over the city’s sign ordinance, which was amended last month.
“The sign ordinance probably triggered in us a discussion about our name – that we weren’t happy with it,” Hoggatt said.
A number of changes were made in the Lake Forest Park city sign code in 2000 that made the code more strict, said Steve Bennett, Lake Forest Park planning and building director. However, problems developed for the businesses located inside the mall at the Lake Forest Park Towne Centre, with Stylemasters being one of them.
“One of the problems with the sign ordinance (was that) there was really very limited ways that a business could show (on the outside) where it was in the interior of the mall,” Bennett said.
Now the ordinance has been amended and Stylemasters is taking the opportunity to adopt a new look. Submission forms for the contest will be available at the salon. Hoggatt plans to work with other merchants in Towne Centre to create a prize for the winner.
“(I thought a contest) would involve our clients in the community, I’d get more creative ideas than I would on my own, and it seemed like it’d be a lot of fun,” said Hoggatt.
Julia Faye Whitehead is a student in the UW Department of Communications News Lab.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
