By Chad Frey
Newton Kansan

There’s a new salon downtown that opened about a week ago with a unique business model.

About a month ago Julia Weber, Kylie Sommers and Taylon Potts chose to go out on their own and open their own salon.

“We all sat down together and talked about it,” Weber said. “We decided we were really good friends and had always been working together. We wanted to stay together and do this together.”,,

That led to looking for a space to rent, and once that was found at 106 W. Broadway, Urban Wildflower opened within a month.

They were able to rent a space that once housed a salon, after the landlord convinced a counseling firm to move one door to the west.

“It was very quick, and we are all exhausted, but we are very happy,” Weber said. “… We love our location. We love being downtown. It is really fun. It is exciting to be here and it is fun to be part of the community down here.”

They were busy almost immediately, as clients moved from their previous salon to the new space downtown. Weber had built a client list over the course of more than 20 years in the business at multiple locations, while Sommers had eight years of experience along side her. Potts, considered the baby of the family, has about three years of experience before joining the business venture.

“We are a package deal,” Potts said. “I was ready for this.”

The salon has a commitment to become green – reducing the carbon footprint of the salon.

“Our main focus is on making our clients feeling wonderful and beautiful, but we are also very aware of our carbon footprint,” Weber said. “This industry is very wasteful. Every single foil you see on this head, normally goes in the trash. We partnered with Green Circle Salons. They do recycling of salon waste. … We have two salon trash cans and one small trash can in the bathroom. Everything else gets recycled. We are trying to be better and do better.”