Shobha Tummala, who helped bring waxing out of back rooms of nail salons into a freestanding business, is unveiling a new site in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Opening on Saturday, it will be the seventh Shobha salon, the fifth in New York City. The location was pinpointed based on requests from her client base. While Williamsburg is known for facial-hair hipsters, Tummala is betting on demand for hair removal.
The $2 billion hair removal category is big business, igniting the growth of salons specializing in waxing, sugaring, threading and lasering. The latter, in fact, is growing at a rate exceeding 15 percent per year, according to Grand View Research.
Tummala has emerged as a “go to” resource for hair removal, especially lasering, which will be offered at the new site. “Laser is something we are finding people still have a lot of questions about or have heard bad stories.
We bring education to the market and that’s our goal with laser,” she said. Lasering is the fastest-growing segment of her business.
Bringing waxing, threading, sugaring and laser hair removal under one roof will attract clients to Williamsburg, said Tummala, especially those seeking laser hair removal, which isn’t prevalent in the neighborhood. Furthermore, to meet demand for full,