Brief

It’s always an exciting time when a brief from LUSH lands in our inbox. And this one did not disappoint. A conversion project to be installed at the Bluedot Festival in Cheshire – involving transforming two shipping containers into a pop-up hair salon. When can we start? 


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What We Did

The pop-up salon consisted of four hair backwash units, four self-styling mirrored stations, a variety of custom-built furniture to house Lush’s huge selection of shampoo bars, and a number of planters that sat at the front on the containers. All built, manufactured and plumbed-in by our highly skilled team at our workshop in Derby.



WATCH IT COME TOGETHER

Time-lapse of the Build

Filmed over a period of three days at our unit in Derby – a time-lapse of the pop-up salon build.


“All built, manufactured and plumbed-in by our highly skilled team at our workshop in Derby”.


Lush-pop-up-salon-empty-shipping-container

THERE'S NO END TO THEIR FUNCTIONALITY

Shipping Containers

The first thing we needed to tackle was to turn an empty shipping container into a LUSH-esque salon space. We did this by tiling the bottom half of both back walls using a scenic tiling process where you create grooves in MDF panels using a CNC machine and grouting the spaces. We installed a new floor and painted the walls in a variety of bold colours. Full electrics were installed along with plumbingin both a hot and cold-water supply allowing the containers to be operational in the middle of a field. 

Lush-pop-up-salon-installing-backwash-units

JUST LIKE A REAL SALON

Backwash Units

No Salon is complete without backwash units. An essential for any hair-salon. We installed four units within the shipping container, plumbed in and fully functional. The perfect place to wash your hair mid festival 

Lush-pop-up-salon-self-styling-stations

MUCH BETTER THAN IN A TENT

Self-styling Mirrored Stations

Festivals are not usually known for having dressing tables to help spruce ourselves up. So, Lush tackled that problem by introducing self-styling stations. Complete with salon-style chairs and an ample sized mirror, you were able transform your look with ease.  

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THE PERFECT FIT

Custom-built Furniture

You can’t have a Lush salon without any products. But lots of products require lots of storage space. Due to the working within the parametres of a shipping container this had to all be custom-built to comfortably fit in the space. 

With Lush’s main product push at the festival being their solid shampoo bars we designed and custom-built a storage solution to house these. Each variety of shampoo bar was stored in dispensary style Perspex tubes that would drop down as someone took one. With each filled tubed vertically wrapped around a curved wall it was aesthetically beautiful, and functional too! 

Lush-pop-up-salon-planters

IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

The Planters

There is just something about having plants at an event that makes everything right. They soften harsh edges and just help bring a bit of natural beauty to a constructed set. We manufactured a number of planters to place within and around the container.  


“With each filled tubed vertically wrapped around a curved wall it was aesthetically beautiful, and functional too”!



FEELING HOT HOT HOT

Challenges

Installing a pop-up salon in the middle of a field on the UK’s hottest day ever recorded was definitely a challenge we don’t come across very often. Ensuring our team were well equipped to face the extreme temperature of the day was a key priority to the install. Keeping everyone well hydrated and protected from the harsh sun was high up on the list. Without a strong team, the install would become impossible. 


Intrigued?

The ability to wash your hair at a festival sounds great doesn’t it? Check out blogger Beffshuff’s experience at the pop-up salon to learn about what services Lush offered on the day.