BY JESSICA SCHLUTER
There’s a new business in St. Joe. Amy Gibbons opened Salon 192 on the corner of Lincoln and Main Street last Tuesday.
Gibbons, a graduate of St. Joseph-Ogden High School, has been working at a salon in Mahomet for 3 years. Last fall, she saw an opportunity to bring her talents back to her hometown and she took it.
“The business opportunity was perfect with Sandy’s Salon and Beautiful Balance closing. 90-percent of my clientele was already from St. Joe and traveling to Mahomet, so it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
Salon 192 officially opened for business on Tuesday, February 11th. Her first week has been exciting.
“It’s been busy, lots of new clients which is really good. I’ve had 10 new clients in a week.”
“The community has been super welcoming. A couple of the business owners here in town have even come in to welcome me.”
The encouraging start comes as a relief for Gibbons after a couple months of hard work to get the salon open.
“It was kind of gutted when I got in here, which gave me a blank canvas to do whatever I wanted to it but it also made it a lot of work.”
“It was long and stressful, with lots of hiccups that I didn’t foresee happening. I’ve never done a remodel so I just was thinking everything was going to go smoothly and happen the way that I wanted it to.”
The renovations didn’t go quite as well as Gibbons hoped, but she had a lot of help to get the building where it needed to be. Her boyfriend, Robert Divan, is a union carpenter, so he did a majority of the work, along with a few others.
“I hired out my electrician, actually my old boss’s husband. And I hired out my plumbing, guys I went to high school with. Everything else Robert did, with the help of my best friend Dusty Walsh. He’s also a carpenter so they worked together and they did the majority of the work themselves.”
Orion Ciota and Dylan Koss are the two plumbers who helped out with the renovation. It was special to Gibbons that she was able to use local guys to help build her dream and she is very thankful for the work that they did.
There are a few more finishing touches that Gibbons wants to put on the place.
“I have a picture of this building that I found on the St. Joe History Page, it’s from the 1920’s I believe. It used to be a bank, and upstairs was like a call center. The streets weren’t even paved yet, and it’s in black and white obviously and it’s just really cool looking and I love the history behind it so I want to get that blown up and put on that wall.”
Gibbons chose a location with some history behind it on purpose.
“I love the history behind this building, it’s one of the original buildings of St. Joe and I love St. Joe.”
“The name [Salon 192] comes from the St. Joseph exit number.”
Gibbons isn’t just a business owner in St. Joseph, she’s also a lifelong resident and the town is important to her. Her and Divan bought a house in town last August.
“I grew up in St. Joe, I live in St. Joe, I’ll raise my babies in St. Joe. St. Joe is important to me.”
“We bought a house here in August, and we started this in November.”
Luckily, they didn’t choose a fixer-upper.
“It was move-in ready, I didn’t even have to paint the walls. I’m grateful we did that because if we were doing two renovations I would lose my marbles.”
Starting the week of the 17th, Gibbons will have another full-time stylist in the salon with her, Lexie Barnett.
They will offer hair services and facial waxing.
“We do take walk-ins, it’ll be a little easier to accommodate when Lexie gets here next week since she’s still building up her clientele.”
Gibbons’ favorite hair service to perform is anything color-related.
“I love doing color. I like blondes a lot, doing highlights or balayage, it’s just always pretty.”
“With balayage, it’s kind of like an art, cause you’re hand painting it on. I did a lot of art in high school and wanted to go to art school, and here I am, so it is kind of funny that it kind of is my art.”
Gibbons loves what she does, and she loves that she has the opportunity to do it here in her hometown now. On February 23rd at 2 pm, Salon 192 will have a grand opening event.
“Kinze Ehmen will be here with Chic n’ Threads Boutique. There will also be a little girl selling girl scout cookies. I’m putting together 2 gift baskets, so there will be a raffle. Everyone who comes gets an entry, and for every $10 you spend with Kinze you’ll get another entry.”
“There will be some snacks, and some drinks, some wine from the winery across the street [Wyldewood Cellars]. There will be a ribbon-cutting, so we’ll probably do that at 2 and then come inside and mingle and hang out.”
For Gibbons, it is rewarding to see all of her hard work paying off. Starting a new business is tough, but Gibbons says it is worth it.
“Everything is going to work out. You go through times in your life where it seems like you’re not gonna get out of the hole, but things always seem to work out. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s dark right now but there is a light.”
“I was so stressed about getting this place open, but now we’re here and it’s good. Things always have a way of working themselves out.”
You can find Salon 192 on Facebook to see Amy and Lexie’s work and to book an appointment.
