Mobile Beauty · Medical Hair Loss · Case Study
A custom ProMaster built to bring expert hairstyling and custom-wig fitting directly to clients experiencing medical hair loss — wherever they're most comfortable.
MercedesThe Brief
Jennifer is the owner of Pure Energy Hair Studio in Montclair, New Jersey — a long-running Aveda salon with deep roots in the community. After her company was acquired, she came to Sequoia + Salt with a new chapter in mind: take her thirty years of expertise on the road, to clients who can't easily come to a salon.
Her focus is cancer patients and people experiencing medical hair loss — custom wig fitting, expert styling, and, above all, dignified care delivered wherever the client feels most comfortable. The brief was a ProMaster 159 converted into a true mobile salon: fully equipped to deliver salon-grade work on grid or off, and to double as a wig-construction workshop in the evenings.
Delivered in 2025. From $200,000. A one-of-one Custom build, designed entirely around Jennifer's vision.
The Mobile Salon
The heart of the build is a working styling station: a wall-mounted beauty mirror over a bamboo countertop, with a professional styling chair on an open floor. The space in front of the mirror was kept deliberately clear — enough room for a client of any size, for a wheelchair to roll directly in, and for Jennifer to move around and work behind the chair the way she would in her own salon.
Swivel cab seats turn into the cabin to add seating, and the bamboo, shiplap, and warm lighting were chosen to feel like a calm room rather than a vehicle. The whole interior is built to put a client at ease before any work begins.
The Galley & Workspace
The driver-side galley carries a large pop-up countertop extension — the build's most-used surface and its cleverest one. Raised during the day, it becomes the styling station beside the mirror. In the evening, the same surface turns into a wig-construction workspace, with room for a sewing machine and the detail work that custom wigs require.
A dedicated power port on the galley side feeds the tools of the trade — blow dryer, curling irons, and the sewing machine — so the surface works as hard at night as it does during an appointment.
Power Systems
Hair tools are heat tools, and heat tools are hungry. A large 3000W inverter was specified precisely so Jennifer can run dryers, curlers, and irons off-grid — the kind of sustained, high-draw load that would overwhelm a typical conversion. The capacity is the difference between a van that looks like a salon and one that works like one, anywhere it parks.
Solar on the roof keeps the battery bank topped up between stops, and the system is shore-power capable for longer days at a single location. Everything runs on a Victron-monitored core — industry-standard and serviceable by any qualified tech.
Water System
Hairstyling is wet work, so the build carries its own water — fresh supply and greywater, plumbed to handle rinses and clean-up without depending on whatever's available at the site. A water heater means warm water on demand, and the whole system is tucked into serviceable access bays alongside the electrical.
The Lounge
The rear of the van is a lounge — and it does the quiet, important part of the work. It's where Jennifer sits with a client to listen and understand what they need before any styling begins. For hair-loss work, that conversation matters as much as the cut, and it deserves a comfortable, unhurried space of its own.
When the day runs long or the client is far from home, the same lounge converts to a sleeping area — so the van can travel the distance and stay overnight when the work calls for it.
Transit-Ready Details
A mobile salon is only as good as its ability to get there. Every salon-specific element was designed to travel: the styling chair clips into L-track along the wall so it's locked in place during transit, and the pop-up countertop stows flat. Running boards make for an easy, dignified step-in at the side door — the kind of detail that matters when a client's mobility is part of the picture.
The Work
Jennifer's work centers on people experiencing medical hair loss, many of them cancer patients. It's custom wigs and expert styling, but it's also the kind of trust that takes time to build with someone whose sense of themselves has been affected by illness. The van lets her bring that work to clients wherever they're most comfortable — at home, in the hospital, or at an event.
Jennifer can be reached through Pure Energy Hair Studio.
