The award-winning 27 Two 6 beauty salon in Welling

Business owner Kristina Shepherd first started her business, 27 Two 6, in 2008 when she was just 21-years-old.

After 17 years of hard work, dedication, and a passion for beauty, it is now an award-winning luxury salon and aesthetic clinic which has captured the hearts of the people of Bexley and beyond.

“It started very different to as it is now” Kristina told the news Shopper, as she reminisced the times when she lived at home and worked in a small room above a hair salon in Wilmington.

Kristina said: “I had absolutely nothing when I first started – I had no clients and no knowledge of business.

“But being 21, and very naïve, I thought I’d give it a go.

“It took quite a few years to get the business going, but I think about three or four years later, I was back to back with clients.”

After finding herself fully booked and building a huge clientele, Kristina decided it was time to follow her dream and open her own salon.

She landed on a premises which had the layout of a mini supermarket, and despite it being an “absolute mess”, Kristina said it was the “perfect” location.

She explained: “The shape of it was perfect for me to have all my treatment rooms, and it was literally 10 shops from where I was working before, so all my clients could come, and I wouldn't lose anyone.

“I went to view it and it was an absolute mess, but in my mind, I could visualise exactly what I wanted - the colour scheme, the walls, and absolutely everything.

“My dad asked me if I had ‘lost my mind’ as it was going to take a lot of work, but I knew it was what I wanted.”

Now, Kristina says 27 Two 6 has a full team of “incredible, reliable girls”, who offer beauty services like waxing, tinting and facials, as well as aesthetics like microblading, chemical peels, and the all-new skin boosters, which is a non-toxic treatment that contains hyaluronic acid and helps towards healthy, glowing, beautiful skin.

27 Two 6 is the winner of 14 awards, including Salon of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Business Person of the Year, and has even bagged a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kristina said: “We had to look at the dynamics of our clients when COVID hit – so I looked at what drives the clients and our team.

“Now we offer different types of memberships for our clients that start from £5 as a one off fee and then they rise to £59 per month.

“We specialise in skin treatments and semi-permanent makeup as well as the beauty treatments because it’s an area where you have to have a high level of skill.

“I have 20 years of knowledge and felt like this was where I was needed with my clients.

“We do weekly training with the team – a lot of it nowadays is how we value our clients and make them feel, and I think this is how the business is going to keep growing.”