About Us
The Goldwaves Story
Goldwaves’ founder, Judy Rice, opened her salon in late 1988 just three blocks away from its current location. She did so with the objective of raising the bar for the salon professional, understanding the benefit of creating a salon career instead of just a job.
Her route to opening Goldwaves wasn’t exactly like that of others in the salon profession: Studying cosmetology at Trimble Tech High School in Fort Worth, Judy obtained her state license and began working in a local salon for an award-winning stylist. Competition styling was a big way to get ahead in those early days, and Judy claimed an impressive number of awards at local and state contests.
Eager to travel, Judy moved to New York City to work as a hairstylist on an ocean liner. She made three-week cruises to Europe, styling hair on the SS Constitution. On another stint in New York, Judy taught at Paul Mitchell’s school at Henri Bendel’s on 57th Street. It was a fortuitous time in a young hairstylist’s career, as Paul had just moved from his work at Sassoon. The opportunity to work with someone as energetic and exciting at Mitchell was huge, as Judy’s work involved photo shoots for fashion magazine covers and location shoots for feature stories about Manhattan studios.
Back in Fort Worth, Judy opened a successful wig and hairpiece business and continued to enter and win haircutting and styling competitions. In 1972, she opened her first salon, Just Hair, a pacesetting entity in that it was Fort Worth’s first cut-and-blow dry salon. Life got even busier, as Judy started a family, with daughter Leslie born in 1974 and son Scott born in 1976.
Just Hair eventually became Birchman Place, a beautifully decorated salon with a strong following. Shifting her focus to raising her family, Judy worked for a decade at a smaller salon — all the while planning the salon that would become Goldwaves.
About the time Judy’s kids were growing up — Leslie would earn a marketing degree, while Scott found his path in Radio-TV-Film — Judy opened Goldwaves and also began studying business leadership at the Neil Quality College in the New Orleans suburb of Hammond, Louisiana. But even before Leslie was out of high school, she attended the Neil program with her mother and her mother’s colleague, Angie Pulido (who’s still with Goldwaves today).
The nation’s first school to teach the “quality program” for salon managers and owners, Neil intrigued Judy and Leslie to a significant extent. Leslie, in fact, graduated from college and began her career working for Neil as an Aveda representative.
With a new perspective on the salon business, Judy engineered Goldwaves to forge a new path in the Fort Worth market. Meanwhile, Leslie looked around for one salon where she could help make a difference; her search led her home to Goldwaves, where a new journey began.
Continuing their pursuit for the best possible salon system for Goldwaves, the mother-daughter team found a three-year program at Strategies in Centerbrook, Connecticut in 2001. Upon graduating in 2004, Judy and Leslie became Certified Strategies Coaches. Leslie’s continuing work as a coach traveling the country has brought significant benefit to the training program employed at Goldwaves, earning it recognition as one of the strongest and most successful salons in the nation.
Just four years after Judy opened the original Goldwaves location, growth was such that she needed to expand to the current location. In the 20-plus years Goldwaves has soared in its home at 5137 El Campo, renovations have steadily added more space and facilities to the salon. As it grows and glows with vibrancy and even greater dreams for the future, the vivacious staff and valued clients make Goldwaves a very special place to work and find beauty.
The Staff
Each person at Goldwaves—from those working at the friendly front desk to the spirited stylists working with hair and makeup—is a valuable part of a team.
When each member joined Goldwaves, they became part of a team of dedicated professionals. Rather than follow the traditional path of renting a station from another salon, each of our enthusiastic team members elected to help enrich our motivated, rewarding community.
What makes them so excited to come to work every day? Our atmosphere is one that welcomes change and encourages growth. We fill our space at Goldwaves with people whose upbeat and positive attitudes, combined with top-notch skills, spread a spirit around the salon that makes customers glad they paid us a visit.
The Goldwaves standards also mean that the business is run in an orderly, efficient fashion. We know that customers only want to invest their time and trust in a salon where talented experts work in the highest degree of professionalism. You are guaranteed all of this by the Goldwaves team.
Our Philosophy
We’re not like any other salon you’ve visited. We have a teamwork approach, which means that we encourage you to try different stylists.
In helping clients understand just how different we are, that we’re all here to help each other help you, we think you’ll come to appreciate the family-like community we’ve built.
And continuing to provide our staff with ongoing education, long after their traditional schooling is behind them, we empower them to give you the best and latest services and products available. Most important of all, nobody at Goldwaves is here because it’s a job. Everyone at Goldwaves embraces his and her career with purpose, with a mission to provide the best service and perform at the best possible level.
Our Team Service Contract
You, our client, benefit from our highly unusual and evolved business model. Unlike most other salons, we employ the very highest form of team service. That means the combined skills of our vast and ever-growing staff are at your service. You’re not locked into one specialist here, and we will never keep you on a waiting list.
Meeting your requirements and respecting your busy schedule are our top priorities. Not every specialist can be a master at every skill, though each has areas of expertise, of course. The great news is that the sum total of these specialties is available to you, and that’s a benefit unmatched elsewhere.
Because each of our specialists is undergoing a continuing and highly detailed skill-certification program, you always have confidence and peace of mind in knowing that you’re in the most talented hands possible. Every visit, you are assured of receiving the finest quality experience. That’s our guarantee to you.