Salon Turns Kids' Haircuts Into A Magical Journey In Toms River

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A child's first haircut is one of those milestones parents love to capture for the memory books.

The experience isn't always all sunshine and rainbows. Scared, wiggly children and impatient adults can turn it into a stressful event.

At Kuts for Kids in the Kingdom in Toms River, owner Lisa Valentin aims to create an experience that makes it fun for kids and parents alike. There's armor and swords on the wall, and fairy hair and sparkling nail polish all around, creating a storybook world for kids while they get a hair cut.

Valentin has been a hairdresser since the mid-1990s. She started at a salon in Westfield that served both adults and children. She noticed that the kids' portion of the salon was busy all the time.

"A lot of hairdressers don’t like to work with kids," Valentin said. Children have short attention spans and they don't sit still for very long. Some are scared and will cry. "It's a real challenge," she said.

Seeing how busy the children's portion of the salon was struck a chord, and she decided to open her own salon that would cater to children.

"I enjoyed working with kids," Valentin said. "I saw how much of a need there was and just decided to do it."

Valentin and her husband opened salons in salons Toms River, Forked River and Point Pleasant in 1998, and operated them for nearly 15 years before following a dream and moving to Florida in 2014 so she could work for Disney.

"It was magical," she said. She worked in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom, where hairstylists helped transform children into princes and princesses.

While she loved the job and living in Florida, the pull of home in New Jersey was strong.

"I'm Italian," she said. "My family is in New Jersey. We were feeling some guilt because our kids were growing up without any family close by."

While they were flying home frequently for various family events, it didn't have the same feeling, so Valentin told her husband she wanted to move back to New Jersey. In 2020, the couple and three of their children — now ages 17, 16, 13 — moved back to Toms River.

"Our oldest stayed in Florida because she’s working for Disney as a lifeguard trainer," Valentin said.

Opening another salon catering to children was part of the plan, and Valentin already had a built-in client base, as many of her prior clients would ask her to cut their children's hair when she was in New Jersey for a visit.

As she worked with Amy Staats of Katz & Associates searching for a location, Valentin was honing her plans for the salon. They finally found the right spot, at 1810 Hooper Ave., last summer.

"We worked tirelessly for a year to find the right location" Staats said. "We had offers on spaces where in some cases we waited over six months for a response from the owner. When the opportunity came about at 1810 Hooper, we jumped through hoops. The location was ideal and since it was a former salon that had the infrastructure in place, it made the negotiation extremely easy."

With the site in place, getting the word out was relatively easy, Valentin said. She had previous clients, but she also joined a bunch of moms groups on social media, where the frequent question is "Where can I take my kid to get their first haircut?"

"Thank God for social media," she said. "Back in 1998 I had to rely on the Yellow Pages."

Kuts for Kids in the Kingdom opened at the beginning of August, and Valentin said the salon has been very busy because it's back-to-school season. She and her other hairdresser had about 25 clients each on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

The tricks? Move quickly and keep the kids distracted from what you're doing.

"As a hairdresser you have to go in knowing they’re not going to sit still and they might even cry," she said. "You have to be quick, efficient and patient. You want to give a good haircut but you have to be quick."

To keep them distracted so they don't get scared, "you have to be a storyteller," Valentin said.

The armor that hangs on the wall caught the attention of a boy who was in for a haircut, and he asked to touch it. Valentin told the boy the knight who wore hung it but forgot it when he left, and was expected back "soon" to retrieve it.

"I was always like that," Valentin said, "but working for Disney and being trained in Disney enhanced that."

In addition to haircuts for children, the salon offers novelty spa packages for children's birthday parties, with miniature manicures and foot bubble bath pedicures, fairy hair, sparkle makeup and more, at a range of prices.

"Fairy hair is very popular right now," she said, which involves a tinsel extension clasped in the hair with a bead. It lasts about a month.

"We give them cherry 7-Up for 'pink' toasts," Valentin said, and the salon has a candy bar, and even offers a butler-style candy service.

Valentin said she is still looking to hire more licensed hairdressers. The most important quality? They must like working with kids.

The salon is located at 1810 Hooper Ave., on the southbound side just before McDonald's in Silverton. Information about the party packages and the salon services and hours is available on the website, and on the salon's social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram and Tik-Tok.