Before the appointment, there is almost always a phone call. You ask if anyone knows how to work with coily hair, and you listen especially to the way the answer comes: a hesitation, or a "yes, of course".
Maison Bis was built exactly there. The salon was founded by Ghislain Poubangui and Charlotte Rochard, who joined as a partner in 2018 after about ten years in the salon business, including several years training teams. Their intention can be summed up in one sentence, taken from their website: to offer "a dedicated, welcoming and inclusive place, where every head of hair would be understood and valued". The house now has two locations, one on quai de Malakoff in Nantes, the other in Saint-Herblain, and it is one of our partner salons. The other partner salons are listed in our directory of afro hairdressers.
What I wanted to offer women with coily hair was a premium experience, worthy of the name. So when I visit a salon before listing it, I look at four things: the venue, the welcome, the team, and the real mastery of our textures. The four together are rarer than we imagine. In Nantes, I found a house that already had the expertise and simply added our know-how to its own.
Ghana Elin, founderA salon where texture is not an exception
The difference starts with booking the appointment. Here, you don't ask if someone knows how to do it: you choose your professional according to your hair type or the desired service, and then you see the same expert from one visit to the next. The order of the questions is not a detail. It also determines the length of the reserved slot, and dense coily hair cannot be worked on in the time it takes for a straight bob.
The salon is happy to list the heads it receives, "curly, straight, fine, coily, thick or frizzy", and this list says the most about how it works. Hairdressers, stylists, barbers, specialists in plant-based coloring and thread hair removal coexist, and the menu ranges from children's cuts to balayage. Straight, wavy, curly or coily hair all enter through the same door, and you can come as a family without having to cross two appointments in two neighborhoods.
This overlaps with what we list in our criteria for finding a good hairdresser for coily hair: they talk to you before touching your hair, and no one asks you to arrive detangled. For the youngest, the steps to repeat at home afterwards are detailed in our coily hair routine for children.
A clear line on chemical straightening
One point deserves to be mentioned exactly as it is written, because it commits the salon and because it explains part of our connection. Maison Bis specifies, on its page dedicated to curly and coily hair, that it offers "no chemical straightening treatment, or one that could permanently alter the nature of the hair". Plant-based coloring, on the other hand, is on the menu, provided by colorists who have made it their specialty.
We hold the same line, with the same nuance. Les Ateliers Crépus do not perform chemical straightening and do not recommend it, but we do not judge those who choose it: we inform, then each person decides, and when the request remains firm, we direct them to a professional who technically masters the service. If you hesitate between the two families of coloring, our article on plant-based or chemical coloring compares what each does to the fiber.
What changes with a trained salon
Nothing starts at the sink. The hairdresser first sits at your level and asks you to tell your hair story: what you do at home, how often, with what, and what you have worn in recent months. Braids left in too long, a forgotten coloring, a period when washes were spaced out, these details change the following session.
Then comes the Detangling with a Chadian comb, with fingers and on dry hair, in at least six sections and more if the hair is very dense. It is the first step of the Rituel Texture®, and it is the one we skip most often, for lack of time. It avoids sending tangled hair to the sink, where it would come out in knots. The comb, meanwhile, does not intervene yet: what breaks is not the dry hair, but the comb on dry hair without product.
The wash is done in two steps, it is the Hydrating Detox: a gentle clarifying cleanse, then The Repair Shampoo. The Lengths & Ends Massage follows, with The Repair Mask heated between the hands and applied section by section, from the ends to the roots, for ten minutes under a cap if possible. It is only then, on hair coated with mask, that the Man Dol' Comb passes. The Protective Drying comes after The Styling Cream, in small sections and in constant motion, and the last step consists of sealing the hydration.
Count two hours fifteen to three hours fifteen, depending on the chosen styling and whether there is a cut. The part we always underestimate comes at the end: what needs to be redone at home, and when. The pace is the same for everyone, a complete routine every seven to ten days.
A place that also welcomes professionals
Maison Bis is not just a salon. The house describes itself as "a real hair co-working space" that "welcomes all independent beauty and wellness professionals": hairdressers, barbers, beauticians, nail technicians, each with their clientele and their page on the site.
This form explains the atmosphere of the place as much as the variety of its menu. A team composed of independents brings together specialties that few salons hold alone, and that is where textures find their place: a professional who masters coily and curly hair is not the exception called in for backup, they are part of the team. The salon also transmits this know-how to other professionals, since Charlotte Rochard trains hairdressers in curly, coily, and coily hair at both locations.
This point weighed in our choice. We spent years showing the steps to hairdressers who loved our products and ended up admitting that they did not know how to wash, cut, or style coily hair. In the field, we mostly met professionals who were helpless, rarely hostile. We explain why in coily hair: why so few salons know how to do it.
Why this partnership
We choose our partner salons based on two criteria that are not negotiable. The first is mastery of the trade: professionals already trained, to whom the know-how of Les Ateliers Crépus comes to add to instead of replacing it. The second is the setting. A woman with coily hair has the right to the same experience as any other client, in a well-kept place and with a team that welcomes her well, and not a service reserved for confidential addresses.
The rest is about consistency. Our hibiscus and cocoa formulas, whose two origins are Côte d'Ivoire and the Dominican Republic, come from a Creole garden and family gestures. They found their place in a house that works in the same direction: accompanying a texture rather than correcting it. This is what makes a long-term partnership and not just another listing.
Practical information
- Nantes: 15 quai de Malakoff, 44000 Nantes.
- Saint-Herblain: 15 boulevard Charles Gautier, 44800 Saint-Herblain.
- Hours indicated by the salon: Monday to Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Appointments: online or on site. The professional is chosen at the time of booking, according to the texture or the service.
The hours, addresses, and services change: check them on the Maison Bis website before you go. The information above was collected there on September 29, 2026.
Go further
Sources
- Maison Bis website, home pages, "Coiffeur cheveux frisés et crépus", "Notre équipe" and "Formation", consulted on September 29, 2026.
- Page "Ghislain Poubangui, fondateur et co-gérant de Maison Bis", maisonbis.fr, and public profile of Charlotte Rochard, co-founder.
