A lady lawyer is launching the Parlon Beauty Festival—an online event featuring over 150 deals from popular salons and wellness centers nationwide.
The festival runs from Nov. 20, 2021 to Jan. 8, 2022 to help the industry bounce back from almost two years of strict lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Parlon Beauty Festival is one of the many plans we had to put on hold because of the pandemic. So, we’re very excited to finally make this happen before we close the year,” said Parlon founder and chief executive Kristine Claire Ongcangco.
Parlon is a technology company that provides an online platform for customers to book and buy services by beauty salons and wellness centers. Parlon, a hybrid of parlor and salon, has been in the bucket list of Ongcangco since her college days at Ateneo de Manila University. She is a partner at Ongcangco Ponce and Associates Law.
“I’ve always asked myself, why is the salon industry left out in terms of digitalization. Many have asked and wonder why there has not been any online booking for reservation in a salon. It’s been a problem not only in the Philippines, but throughout Southeast Asia. So in 2019, me and my partner Miko decided to step-up and built our own start-up salon,” she said.
“I love beauty and wellness and this is just a start of hopefully, a beautiful and liberating journey, for all of us who love to pamper ourselves and just, for some, go for the basics like haircut, nails and the like,” Ongcangco said.
“From there, I had specific plans. I wanted to digitalize the salon industry, launch booking, launch deals. In fact in March 2020, we had our first stint of women’s festival. We just tried, just to enter the market. But after two days, we all know what happened. The Philippines went on lockdown,” she recalled.
Parlon managed to continue being connected to salon owners and waited for the perfect timing to revolutionize the beauty industry.
Despite salon services being tagged as non-essentials at the height of pandemic, at least 30 salons and wellness centers signed up to join the Parlon Beauty Festival, including global brands Browhaus, Strip, and Bloas as well as celebrity favorites Emphasis Salon, Creations by Lourd Ramos, The Secret Lounge, The ColorBar, Bellezza Aesthetics and Marqed Salon. Homegrown beauty salons and wellness centers in Pampanga, Pangasinan, Bacolod and Cebu are also joining the event.
Exclusive deals and discounts on brows, lashes, hair, mani-pedi, aesthetics, massage services and more are available at beautyfestival.parlon.ph. Those who are planning to get a year-end makeover or a well-deserved pamper time can get up to 60-percent off and save as much as P15,000.
Perfect for the holidays, e-vouchers can also be purchased as gifts and recipients will conveniently be notified via email and SMS.
“This is just the beginning for Parlon. As cashless transactions accelerated during the pandemic, adding more payment options is important for us. We highly value the security of your transactions and that your experience in booking and buying salon and wellness services is seamless and fun,” said Parlon chief technology officer and co-founder Miko Cornejo.
From appointments to payments, booking salon and wellness services has become contactless and convenient with Parlon. It’s now possible to discover, book and buy beauty services in less than a minute. Customers can also download the Parlon app available on iOS and soon on Android. To manage the booking and transactions, salons and wellness centers are equipped with a Merchant Partner Hub, an easy-to-use software specially designed and developed by Parlon.
“We are offering a wonderful beauty and wellness lifestyle and not just an app or a website. It has always been our mission to revolutionize the beauty and wellness services industry,” Ongcauco said.