Meet Our Team
Mom-Owned, Mom-Led, Mom-Loved
Once upon a time (way back in the late 1990s), two moms, frustrated by the lack of places for families to go to get a quality haircut, decided to do something about it and started KidSnips. Today, even after growing to eight salons across Chicagoland, they still own and operate KidSnips. They’re in the salons every day making sure you and your children get the best possible service and have a great time, too!
And by the way, if you have a scared or wiggly kid, no worries. Our experienced and kid-loving stylists know how to help them have a great experience, too.
Plus, how’s this for a mom-loving touch? All kid’s haircuts include consultation, cut, quick blow dry and special finishing touches like hair gel or glitter.
It’s all these things combined that make us not only a favorite local-owned business, they also get us glowing recommendations from other moms, dads, grandparents and caretakers throughout Chicago and the suburbs.
Our Founders and Owners: Jill Gordon and Kim Stolze
Jill and Kim met and became friends at Northwestern’s MBA program in 1979. They each began pursuing separate career paths. Kim worked for a couple of national retail chains, becoming a VP and doing the buying for the chains. Jill went into advertising and then stayed home for a decade with her kids. In 1996 they came up with the idea of a kids’ hair salon, spent a year researching and planning and then opened the first KidSnips in August 1997.
One of Jill’s favorite things about her job is getting to know so many awesome staff members from various countries and backgrounds. And for Kim, she really loves buying new products for the salons and seeing what sells. And after all these years, Kim and Jill are still great friends, really happy that they are able to run this business together and especially grateful when they hear from parents that KidSnips has changed the whole experience of getting their child’s haircut, making it fun…for everyone.
Johanna Aardema, District Manager and Co-Owner
After working for several years as a district manager overseeing 21 salons for a large chain, Johanna joined KidSnips in 1998, right after Jill and Kim had just opened their 2nd hair salon in Wilmette. It seemed like a big risk at the time, but she believes it was one of the best decisions she’s ever made. Part of Johanna’s mission is to make sure every kid leaves KidSnips feeling good about their hair. That may be partly because when she was growing up, for years her mom made her get the classic “Dorothy Hamill” wedge haircut and she hated it so much she would wear a sweatshirt with the hood up for days afterwards. She’s gotten over it…well, mostly.
Jillian Gibson, Co-Owner/District Manager
Jillian started with us in 1999 as a newbie stylist in our Wilmette salon, when her daughter was just a baby. She was quickly promoted to Assistant Manager, and over the years has managed multiple salons, worked as a District Manager, and Buyer. Her craziest haircut happened in 7th grade, when she went to a local salon by herself and told the stylist to do whatever she thought would look best. Jillian left the salon with one side of her hair shaved and the other with hair down to her chin! Even though her roots will always be a stylist in our Wilmette salon to her loyal clientele, she’s excited to see how the company evolves and grows in this next chapter.
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