Jonny Levi didn’t think it was a hair-brain idea to open a salon on Bainbridge Island during COVID.

He turned out to be right. His Jonny Levi Studio on the Winslow waterfront is thriving with a clientele in the thousands.

Levi was working at a salon in Seattle when COVID hit. On Friday, March 13, 2020, he told his co-workers he had to quit because of his concerns about COVID.

“Growing up Mormon, I thought this was the end of the world,” so he said he turned to gardening to “grow my own food and stuff.”

Neighbor Tracy Lang drove by one day and said she’d been stalking Levi on Facebook and knew he was a hairdresser. She told him a salon next to her tattoo shop called Ryderville Ink had just become available.

“So I took the risk,” he said, adding he got busy decorating and working on his new shop. “I’m a freak,” he said. “I sew and paint so I worked on the interior one thing at a time.”

When he was able to start styling hair, the government was only allowing 25% capacity. That was perfect for him. But his clientele quickly grew, so he hired more hairdressers. When he had three, that’s all the salon could handle since its capacity is 12, so they worked different hours to stay within the COVID safety numbers.

He said a lot of people weren’t busy during the pandemic — but he was. Levi was able to steadily grow his business for 1 1/2 years.

“The hard part was demand was really high,” he said, adding they worked five 10-hour days to accommodate all the people who wanted their hair done. “We had people who waited a long time during the pandemic to get their hair done. Some were desperate. It had been four months, and they wanted to cover up their gray hair.”

Now he employs seven people, he said, adding they won Best of Bainbridge his first year there.

Levi said they became popular just by word of mouth and using social media like Facebook and Instagram. Plus there are few other options on BI, he said.

Levi, 40, said over the years he has saved contacts with his clients on Facebook. Recently, that paid off as a woman came over from Renton whose hair he did for 17 years, but he hadn’t seen for the past seven.

He said he wants to become more involved in the community. He is hoping this summer to move the salon outside in-between the docks and have a runway show one day.

Levi said he wants everyone who comes to his salon to feel like they are at a little bit of a party.

“It’s an inclusive space,” he said, adding all are welcome no matter their sexual orientation or ethnic background. “Anyone can come and feel safe.”

Levi said he grew up in the 1980s and could never sit still. He said in high school, he never thought he would amount to anything, but then discovered hairdressing. Doing “hair provided me with a sense of self-worth, and I built myself up.”

He started off at Gene Juarez in Bellevue then went to Miami where he got an agent and did some work with fashion and modeling. He moved to Bainbridge with his partner in 2018 and commuted by ferry to The Collage Salon in Seattle to make it easier for his previous clients in Bellevue to find him.

He stopped commuting due to COVID and was without an income until he met up with Lang.

“It’s been a whirlwind experience,” he said, adding they just expanded to have a skincare room. “I did not ever imagine owning a business, but now I’m obsessed.”

Basics

The salon at 330 Madison Ave., Suite 204, is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. 206-451-4431.

The large windows light up the salon and give clients an impressive water view.