Over the years, Marie’s has employed many stylists, nail techs, and estheticians and provided them with education, mentorship, support, and team culture. However, change happens, and we either fear it and fight it or we embrace it. At Marie’s Beauty Salon & Supply, we choose to embrace the change.

Change could happen for the better or for the worse. During our 32 years of complementing your natural beauty, we’ve encountered many changes. We were one of the first salons in Alaska that offered a variety of brands under one roof, including DIY nail care, waxing, perms, and hair color. We experienced many sideways glances and booing from the beauty community back then. Now, look where the world of beauty is! Businesses like Ulta and Sephora have embraced lots of beauty brands under one roof, and some of them even have salons.

During this time, Marie’s has brought service providers into the fold as employees. They were groomed on best practices, they received paid continuing education, and they were allowed to grow professionally. That being said, the culture in Alaska is to work for yourself, and since Marie’s did not embrace renting chairs/space to service providers, they would eventually go elsewhere to set up their business. About 95% of the service providers in Alaska work for themselves.

Well, folks, it’s time to embrace that change — past time, actually. I say better late than never! Starting a year ago in January 2020, one of our stylists, Jalynne, employed with us for four years, wanted to start out on her own, but she wished to stay here at Marie’s. For me, it was quite the mind shift, but I was tired of losing such good service providers because both Marie and I weren’t willing to make the change to booth rental.

I learned that all the dread of allowing employees to transition was utter nonsense. Jalynne was our first employee who decided to operate her own business within Marie’s salon, and it worked beautifully. She was mentally ready, she was well-prepared with her abilities, and she had learned her stuff. And I loved having her as part of the team. I was proud that “we brought her up right,” so to speak. Had we hired service providers early on, groomed them into providing a wonderful service, and then provided them a place to run their own business when they felt they were ready, we would be in a different place today.

All that leads to our exciting news. Beginning January 2021, our employee of five years, stylist Stacey, will also run her own business within Marie’s salon.

So what does that mean for you as a guest?

• It means that you can stay right here at Marie’s and you don’t have to follow a service provider to another part of town for services.
• It means that you call the service provider directly and make an appointment with them. Their contact information is on our website under the Book Now page.
• It means that after you receive a product recommendation from your service provider, you don’t have to go somewhere else to buy your favorite products because they are all right here.

So we’re movin’ and a shakin’ as we develop into a hybrid salon. As time goes one, we may hire those service providers who would rather be employed, or we may rent space to those who embrace the idea of running their own business. We hope you enjoy the ride ‘cuz times are a-changin’!