It's been almost 10 years since Nicole Werneck was a student at TCU, but the purple that lines her new shop downtown shows she has not lost her TCU spirit. 

A 2003 graduate of the Neely School of Business, Werneck opened Blow West 7th back in June.

Blow West 7th, located at 1007 Foch Street, is a hair blow dry bar, a concept that is catching on here in the United States, Werneck said. 

Customers can choose a hairstyle from the shop's "menu" and are served drinks such as champagne and wine while a stylist does their hair, Werneck said.

No cutting, no coloring, no highlights, just styling, she said.

A self proclaimed "TCU die-hard," Werneck was captain of the TCU soccer team in 2003 as well as a four-year member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. 

Werneck graduated with a major in international marketing and a minor in Spanish. 

While she went on to work for General Electrics after graduation, Werneck said she always knew she wanted to go into business for herself.

She said the idea of going into business for herself came from her dad, who owned Texas Appliances, but the idea of the blow dry bar came from her mom's Brazilian roots, where blow dry bars have been around for decades.

"When I started thinking about what I wanted, this just kept coming back into my mind," Werneck said.

Werneck, married and a mother of two, said she finally wrote up a business plan in January 2012 as a "New Year's resolution," and got the ball rolling on her "third baby." 

Ann Kleier, who handles the hair aspect of the business, has been with Werneck since the beginning, and said Werneck is definitely a "business-minded individual."

But no matter how business-minded Werneck might be, she is great with her employees, Kleier said.

"Anything they want, they get," Kleier said.

Werneck decided this fall that she wanted to sponsor the TCU Showgirls, not just to advertise her business, but to give back to the school that gave her so much, Werneck said.

The sentiment is not lost on Lindsay Shoulders, spirit coordinator for the Showgirls, who said what Werneck was doing was "awesome," and that the squad love her services. 

For more information on Blow West 7th, visit its website.