Allure Day Spa and Hair Design closes doors after 30 years of business

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - After 30 years in business, the owners of Allure Day Spa and Hair Design say they are closing their doors.

The decision, they say, was a difficult one, but they are closed forever now.

“I think a lot of people are feeling the effects from COVID, and it’s just been a difficult ride, so we decided, ‘Hey you know, it’s been 30 years.’ It was a very difficult choice to make that decision,” Kari Hall said.

Hall is the owner and operator of the popular downtown business, which she opened with her business partner Susan Hoedel on April 1, 1992.

Hall says she raised her daughter Kendall while running Allure, and both are facing a challenge in saying goodbye.

“It’s very welcoming, I grew up in this building so it’s like a second home for me, I feel really good about the time that I’ve worked here,” Kendall Hall said.

The elder Hall says telling her staff of the closure was one of the hardest parts, but she believes it was the right thing to do.

Anchorage Economic Development Corporation CEO Bill Popp explained it’s hard to see any long-standing business in the Anchorage community go.

“There comes a point in time where any number of businesses do ultimately close due to circumstances that we may not necessarily understand, but that the owners do,” Popp said.

“We have also suffered from the issues of COVID, to the point of not having a really good supply chain line, to not having products shipped on time, to clients not booking as much due to the economic needs of what the community are,” Hall said.

Small businesses administration data shows Allure received over $200,000 in loan forgiveness funds through the Paycheck Protection Program, which is meant to help keep businesses’ workforces intact during the pandemic. Despite that, Hall said that the ripple effects from the pandemic were just too much and she believes people’s budgets for personal care have shrunk.

“A lot of people simply can’t afford it, and because of that factor, there was pretty much the writing on the wall,” Hall said.

Hall also says many of her service providers ended up moving out of state.

Still, she says she’s proud of her work over the years, and is grateful to have seen many former employees grow at allure.

“Through the process, we could have never done it without our support staff and our amazing, amazing clients,” Hall said. “So with all that, I am forever grateful for the run we had of 30 years. We’re just going to miss everyone.”

Hall said there have also been questions about gift card refunds from the business. Hall says all clients are welcome to submit refund requests to the email address marketing@allurehairdesign.com. Customers are asked to please make sure to include the gift card number and a phone number. Hall says all requests will be processed in a timely manner.

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