Taking Hair to New Heights

“Our motto has always been, ‘Embrace your beauty – from the inside out’ and we really focus on making everyone who comes in here feel welcome and good about themselves,” says Bill Zemaitis, founder and master stylist at Elevation 138 Salon in Fort Wayne.

Zemaitis has been in the hair business all of his adult life. He opened Elevation 138 Salon on Lima Road 15 years ago.

He points to many factors that make his business a standout in the industry, not the least of which is the salon’s name.

“Elevation comes from the fact that when you learn how to cut hair, you hold the hair at a certain elevation,” he says. “The 138 refers to Psalm 138, which begins with, ‘I will praise thee with my whole heart.’ I have the entire verse on a plaque at the salon. I want people to know that I am a Christian and I believe we are called to love everybody. That’s why we put a big emphasis on welcoming everybody at our business and treating them with kindness and respect. This is a safe space. In fact, we are all safe space certified.”

Bill’s entire family is involved in the family-run business. His son, Billy, is a Level 2 Stylist and Redken artist. Bill is proud of the fact that his business is a Black Level Redken Salon.

“We’re the only salon in Fort Wayne with that distinction,” he says. “We work on a level system, so everyone’s price is different, depending on their level and experience. We’re also a training salon, which makes us unique. We hire people right out of beauty school, but we don’t put them on the floor until they spend time working alongside some of our senior hairdressers. We make sure they feel comfortable taking care of a guest before allowing them to do so on their own and this has worked out very well over the years.”

Bill and salon manager Ferida Randolph do a lot of the training.

“I think that’s what makes us really different,” says Randolph, who is a Level 3 Stylist. “We do so much education here – constantly. And we are always, always updating. A lot of people think we just go to beauty school and that’s it, but that’s not true at all. And I love the fact that we’re a Redken salon. Redken offers great products and we sell them to anyone. You don’t have to be a client to come in and buy Redken items.”

In addition to speaking English, Randolph also speaks Bosnian, having grown up there before coming to the United States. Billy speaks fluent Spanish.

“That just goes back to our culture of wanting to make sure everyone feels welcome here,” says Bill. “Language shouldn’t prevent you from having a wonderful experience here and getting exactly what you want. We’re a full-service salon and our doors are open to everyone.”

Not all of the training given at the salon is about hair – sometimes it has nothing to do with that.

“I think our culture is super important to us,” says Bill. “We really love to expand everyone’s personal and professional development on our team. We have done classes on subjects such as having difficult conversations with others. As a hairdresser, you spend half of your time talking to people. We all just love the hair business, and we want both our clients and our staff to thrive here.”

The salon does a lot of traditional and social media advertising, but Bill and Randolph say word-of-mouth referrals are priceless.

“I have a lot of families with different generations that keep coming to us because they know we’re educated and they’re going to get a style, not just a cut,” says Randolph. “It’s just part of that circle of family coming back to us because they know they can trust us and we’ll do a great job.”

“I’m a very transparent person,” says Bill. “I don’t live a perfect life – none of us do. But we all need to work together to lift each other up. That’s why it’s so important for us as a team to lift each other up as well as our clients. We work every day to give our clients the wow-factor they deserve.” 

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