POULSBO — Kahn Dang’s road to opening Apollo Nails & Spa has been marked with a number of big life decisions.

She quit nursing to become a beautician.

She decided to help her mother expand her beauty school with a salon.

Then, she found the perfect location in Poulsbo and committed to driving an hour one-way to get there.

But, she said, it’s all been worth it.

“I love Poulsbo,” Dang said. “The town is really nice. The business community and the people are really nice here.”

Dang opened Apollo Nails & Spa in the former location of NetWorlds, at the corner of Front Street and Jensen Way, in December 2004. NetWorlds had moved to a location upstairs in the same building a few months earlier.

A Tacoma resident, Dang’s family came to the United States as political refugees of Vietnam in 1990. After graduating from high school, she attended Seattle University to become a nurse then worked in the medical profession for a few years. Though her career wasn’t in beauty, Dang frequently helped her mother Nancy with a salon she owned and said the lure of the business eventually became too strong.

“I like fashion. I like makeup. I like beauty,” she commented. “So that’s what made me become a beautician.”

Nancy Dang has had her cosmetology license for about 15 years and Kahn Dang has had hers for nearly 10. After selling the Tacoma salon, the two founded Lincoln Beauty School, which has graduated more than 1,000 cosmetologists since it opened in 1998. But eventually, Nancy Dang wanted to expand her business to include a salon and Kahn Dang offered to help.

Though the pair were from Tacoma, Kahn suggested Poulsbo for the location of their new venture. She said she’d visited the town and felt a full service salon like they were planning would be perfect in Little Norway. She thought the mixture of working people, retirees and tourists would make for a healthy clientele.

“I’d been here once before and just wandered around through the waterfront and I saw this was a really great location,” Dang said. “The environment is very nice — very fresh and clean.”

Dang added that she may someday move to Poulsbo but for now, she and most of her employees are content carpooling together from Tacoma each day. Nancy and Kahn Dang split their time between Apollo and teaching duties at Lincoln Beauty School.

Apollo Nails offers a full spectrum of salon services in a friendly environment. Several nail stations offer acrylic, silk, gel and freehand nail design featuring more than 100 colors to choose from. Spa manicures and pedicures, including massage, paraffin and soaks are offered from a bank of spa chairs along one wall. There is also a salon area where men and women can get a full range of hair care including cuts, perms, color, highlights and updos. And two treatment rooms finish up the offerings with facials, waxing and body wraps featuring Set-N-Me-Free and Dermalogica products.

Eventually, the family-owned business may include tanning beds and other services that might be requested by customers. Dang said many of her regulars have already offered her ideas on how to expand her business and make it better.

“(We want to) become a full service salon so when the customer comes in, they don’t have to go anywhere else,” she explained. “They don’t have to shop around and it’s more convenient.”

And when it comes to service, the Dangs say theirs is among the best. All of their employees are former Lincoln Beauty School students, so the mother and daughter team know exactly the training and techniques of each. Kahn Dang said that high quality of service, combined with reasonable prices, has given Apollo Nails & Spa a big draw in little time.

“We’re getting busier and busier each day and a lot of clients are coming from referrals of friends and family,” she commented. “That’s helped us a lot.”