{"id":24040,"date":"2025-01-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hairstylist-opens-holistic-salon-on-north-main-avenue-in-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:47:14","slug":"hairstylist-opens-holistic-salon-on-north-main-avenue-in-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hairstylist-opens-holistic-salon-on-north-main-avenue-in-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Hairstylist opens holistic salon on north Main Avenue in Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sanct
Sanct Salon owner Kendra Lise is seen inside her newly opened business at 2855 Main Ave., Suite A109, on Wednesday. She offers a safe space for clients away from toxic products, toxic environments and toxic people. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Salons, barbershops and hair studios are attractive places of comfort for many people. Sanct Salon owner Kendra Lise\u2019s ambition is to take comfortable haircuts to the next level.<\/p>\n

Lise opened her new approximately 500-square-foot salon at 2855 Main Ave. Suite A109 on Jan. 4. It\u2019s a cozy salon with soft lighting, two studio spaces and, occasionally, a sensitive, mild-mannered beagle named Pawl to greet guests at the door.<\/p>\n

She uses one of the small studio rooms, and her colleague, renter and fellow hairstylist, Maddie Cook, operates in the other.<\/p>\n

She said Sanct Salon is a safe space for clients away from toxic products, toxic environments and toxic people. She studied at the Aveda Institute\u2019s beauty school in Denver and has worked in hair studios across the country. She lives life intuitively; she teaches yoga, is a trained life coach and is in school for psychology. She also has an autoimmune disorder that makes her extra sensitive to certain hair and beauty products.<\/p>\n

\"Sanct
Sanct Salon owner Kendra Lise works inside her newly opened business at 2855 Main Ave., Suite A109, on Wednesday. She offers a safe space for clients away from toxic products, toxic environments and toxic people. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hairstylists are exposed to various chemicals such as ammonia and endocrine disrupters all day, every day, which for someone with autoimmunity problems can result in rashes, itchiness and respiratory problems. She said her condition became so bad that she can\u2019t be in the same environment as irritating hair sprays anymore. Over her career, she\u2019s realized there are many other people in similar predicaments.<\/p>\n

Certain hair treatments recommend users wear goggles and a mask \u2013 Lise said if she has to wear personal protective equipment to apply something to her hair, she shouldn\u2019t be using that product. Pregnant clients are more frequently being told not to use coloring in their hair unless their hairdresser can apply it cleanly.<\/p>\n

Lise\u2019s approach to hairdressing is a holistic one, she said. Customers will find Sanct Salon\u2019s products are vegan, ethically produced and ammonia-free. She noted most companies use ammonia in their hair color products.<\/p>\n

She said she implements her holistic interests and skills to cater to her clients\u2019 needs as whole people, meeting them where they are and providing a safe space and a break from the chaos of the world.<\/p>\n

\"Sanct
Sanct Salon owner Kendra Lise sits with her dog, Pawl, inside her newly opened business at 2855 Main Ave., Suite A109, on Wednesday. She offers a safe space for clients away from toxic products, toxic environments and toxic people. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

That\u2019s how she came up with the name of her business \u2013 Sanct Salon, as in \u201csanctuary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also how she organized her business space. She said she was always conducting her business in the corner of other hair studios where she had no real control over her environment. In setting up shop, she found herself worrisome and wanting to control every little detail. But then she remembered to let it come organically and to think about how she wants her clients to feel when they leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it\u2019s all easy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Starting a brick-and-mortar business<\/div>\n

Opening a brick-and-mortar salon was a roller coaster all its own. She said she\u2019s only now realizing how vulnerable one is putting his or her name on a business and presenting him or herself to the public. Priscila Newbold, a business navigator, helps entrepreneurs navigate the pitfalls of starting a small business.<\/p>\n

Newbold also works with the city of Durango and La Plata County Food Equity Coalition\u2019s Food Business Workgroup<\/a>. She\u2019s proved to be a useful contact capable of connecting entrepreneurs to state and area resources essential to starting a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can plan as much as you want, but then there\u2019s a deposit here and a fee here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t know where to begin on taxes. Newbold connected her to a contact with the Colorado Department of Revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m at a perfect point in my life to deal with the wavering stress and excitement of it all, and kind of finding that center,\u201d Lise said.<\/p>\n

All things considered, Lise started her business at lightning speed, she said. Which is good for her, because she is used to acting intuitively \u2013 if something is rough to navigate and she\u2019s faced with barrier after barrier, she usually decides to change paths. But in establishing Sanct Salon, she came upon green light after green light.<\/p>\n

Curated customer experience<\/div>\n

She said she practices intuition in her approach to the art of hair styling, too. Early in her career, she began trying to figure out her clients\u2019 dispositions and gauge their moods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this a person that wants to talk and they\u2019re just shy, or is this a person that does not want to talk? And it\u2019s a fine line,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She has implemented that into her formal hair consultations. Some people are chatty with their barbers or hairstylists. Others don\u2019t want to talk at all. At Sanct Salon, Lise\u2019s clients get to choose the experience they receive, she said.<\/p>\n

\"Sanct
Sanct Salon is located at 2855 Main Ave., Suite A109. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lise has had clients who requested a five minute bang trim who ended up spending two hours telling their life stories, she said. And she\u2019s had teenage clients who spent two hours on their cellphones.<\/p>\n

She shared a story about an old client of hers, an engineer and rocket scientist who worked for Lockheed Martin. He was shy and didn\u2019t say much. But he kept coming back to Lise, and at every new appointment he became a little more talkative.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a safe space away from toxicity and chaos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,950,28,61,714,746],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-human-interest","tag-mental-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78370,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24040\/revisions\/78370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24040"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}