By Kristina Stucki, reporter

San Juan Island native, Chelsea Foussard, knows what it takes to build a business in Friday Harbor. While she’s put in her fair share of sweat equity and paid her dues building up a clientele as a hair stylist and now full-service salon owner, the ultimate difference-maker has been the relationships she’s built.

“It’s about really connecting with your clients,” Foussard, who owns Island Roots Salon, explained. “It’s more than hair; there’s a relationship. I still have clients to this day that I’ve worked with since I came back to the island in 07. I’ve watched kids grow up – I’ve worked with kids who are graduating now or off to college. It’s about in-depth, long-term relationships.”

Foussard knew she wanted to go to cosmetology school when she was a student at Friday Harbor High. After graduation, she went to Seattle to fulfill that dream and then came right back home – taking on multiple jobs in town so she could afford to live while slowly building her clientele as a stylist.

“Some days I would have only one client,” she remembered. “I would just sit there and wait for the phone to ring, or you know, wait for just anyone to come along. Some days were really discouraging, and I had to work at night to bring in income because it was so slow-going initially.”

With each relationship built and client gained, Foussard got closer to her goals of being able to make a living as a stylist, and eventually salon owner. She started Island Roots on her own, but has now grown it into what it is today with multiple hair stylists, tanning services, permanent jewelry, lash and brow services and even an advanced registered nurse practitioner who offers botox and filler injections – with the likely possibility of further expansion in the future.

“I wanted a community. Not just for clients, but for the people who work there, too,” she explained. “I purposely got a big enough salon with the intent to grow it that way.”

Island Roots also has a small boutique inside, with hair supplies and product but also clothes, jewelry, candles, press-on nails, clips and other fun items.

“How fun is it to get your hair cut and then get a new pair of earrings, or a new pair of sunglasses?” Foussard said. “It’s all affordable. There are little bottles of nail polish, a thing of lip gloss. Little things like that. I want it to be a whole self-care experience when people come to the salon.”

It hasn’t always been smooth-sailing for Foussard – the pandemic hit the salon industry pretty hard. But the community that she had built in Friday Harbor was there for her to support how they could. They were still purchasing product from her (she’d load up her kids to deliver hairspray to people’s porches) and even purchasing hair treatments (she’d mix the color and leave it on doorsteps with instructions).

“Everyone was still supporting me during that time,” she remembered. “It was a struggle. But it was also the best to get texts from people asking for shampoo or telling me they needed a certain treatment. You know, the little things that were getting them through Covid—while they helped me do the same.”

Now, on the other side of that hurdle, with multiple stylists, a pretty salon and offering a huge variety of services, Foussard is looking forward to the future. While people know her for offering hair services, she’s excited to make more people aware of everything they do at Island Roots.

“This is my thirteenth year,” she marveled. “It’s crazy. But I love working. I am so driven, and I love love what I do and the people I’m lucky enough to have as clients.”