IGK Hair goes back west.

The hair care company will debut its third salon in Las Vegas on Dec. 13, occupying 1,800 square feet in the brand new Fontainebleau mega-resort.

With 10 chairs and between 10 to fifteen stylists — a number of of whom have been recruited from the brand’s existing Latest York and Miami salons to begin — the salon opening comes nearly 4 years after IGK shuttered its Beverly Hills location in March 2020 resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“[Vegas] was the most effective probability for us to get back on the West Coast,” said Leo Izquierdo, who launched IGK’s first salon in 2016 in Miami’s Design District alongside fellow celebrity hairstylists Chase Kusero, Aaron Grenia and Leo’s brother, Franck Izquierdo. The corporate introduced its product line nearly two years later, most recently foraying into at-home hair color in 2022 and, last month, launching its first one-step bleach-and-color kit for $39.

“There’s an enormous opportunity for a significant salon group — especially one with a product line — to make a change in Vegas,” said Grenia, noting IGK will probably be the only salon inside fellow Miami-based Fontainebleau’s Vegas location.

Added Franck: “Las Vegas’ image is changing; it was once for a night out, a piece trip, partying, and never a lot people living there. But that’s changing.”

In line with the U.S. Census Bureau, Las Vegas’ population added 5,500 residents in 2022. Individually, 2021 and 2022 data from the University of Las Vegas Nevada shows a majority of recent Nevada newcomers are Californians — a fact IGK anticipates will allow it to once more service clients of its former Beverly Hills outpost.

IGK’s salon services include haircuts, coloring, hair extension application, hair treatments and makeup services. Women’s and men’s haircuts start at $125 and $100, respectively; costs vary depending on a stylist’s seniority level.

The Las Vegas salon will even function a precursor to several expansions to come back.

“In 2024, we plan to open one other salon in Latest York and one other in Palm Beach, Florida. The goal for 2024 is to have five [salons] on the map,” Franck said.

IGK’s 2020 decision to shut its Los Angeles salon was resulting from increasingly difficult-to-follow COVID-19 restrictions within the region, which inhibited operative capability, ultimately making service unfeasible for workers and clients alike.

“We did our greatest to carry [the salon], but our business was totally on the East Coast between Latest York and Miami,” said Franck, noting that before its closure, employees from the Los Angeles salon were requesting to relocate to East Coast branches.

While hairstylists going independent or taking house calls along with working in-salon has been a growing phenomenon in every single place, it especially picked up in Los Angeles, and in accordance with Kusero has had post-pandemic endurance within the region greater than in others.

“The hair salon business in Los Angeles has grow to be very tough — a variety of hairstylists who took their clientele into house calls are still barely within the salon today,” he said.

The pandemic did inadvertently pave the best way for IGK’s fledgling at-home hair coloring business, though, which incorporates everlasting hair color kits sold direct-to-consumer and at Ulta Beauty.

“During those first couple of weeks, we were creating our own color kits for clients and sending them everywhere in the country — we quickly decided it was the right time to enter development,” said Kusero, adding that now, the kits function a customer acquisition tool for a younger, experimental consumer who isn’t necessarily salon-native. “It’s catering to 2 completely different clients; we desired to go after the needs of the younger consumer who desires to have that lavender purple toward the underside of their hair and just rejoice with it, without having to come back right into a salon.”

This type of agility is partly what drew Fontainebleau to IGK.

“IGK is an innovator in the wonder space; just as we’re getting down to redefine luxury experience in Las Vegas, IGK’s cutting-edge approach will elevate and complement our diverse mix of offerings,” said the hotel’s development vice chairman of corporate retail Brooke Soffer.