A family-run salon built around independent stylists.

Sue Chappell Harmas opened Blades Hair Design in 1995. She had been behind the chair for years already and wanted a salon that worked the way she thought salons should: serious about the craft, relaxed about everything else, and close enough to home that you could still have a life.

Her son Jay and his wife Julia took over the day-to-day years later. Sue never left — she still takes clients in her own studio down the hall.

Blades was one of the first studio-concept salons in Indiana — there was never a commission floor. From the start, stylists worked as independent businesses in their own private studios. They set their hours, their pricing and their product lines. Blades gives them the room, the front door and the neighbors.

That change is the reason people stay. Stylists here are measured in decades, not seasons, and their clients follow them through every stage of life. The relationships outlast trends.

We’re still an Indy business on the north side, serving Indianapolis · Carmel · Fishers · Noblesville · Geist · Zionsville, and we still care more about doing good work for people we know than about being the biggest name in town.