Women run salons in Mt. Pleasant

For Salon Monroe owner Karley Dawson, opening the salon wasn't easy, as changing a city ordinance is not the simplest thing to do.

"I've been an aesthetician for 10 years," Dawson said. "I was in Chicago and Arizona, for training and then I moved back in 2018. I always had the goal of owning my own business. I went to inquire about properties to buy or rent in town. I was close to signing a lease on one, and then I found out through the city of Mt. Pleasant that I couldn't get a zoning permit because tattooing was illegal in the business district. So I had two options, I could go to a different town or fight it. So I had to fight it."

When Dawson moved back to the area, she began renting out a chair at the salon, Sher Advantage. Opening her own place was always in the back of her mind, but the tattooing ordinance issue was hampering the idea.

Dawson was determined to make her dream come true.

After attending numerous City Council meetings and pleading her case, Dawson successfully got the ordinance rewritten, and she was able to open up a business on the square.

The salon was initially purchased from Danny and April Cornell. April wanted to relocate her business to her home, and for Dawson, it was the opportunity she wanted.

"April Essential moved, and this used to be A Head of the Rest," Dawson said. "April has relocated her salon into her home. She still works part-time. She's the one that presented me with the opportunity to snag this one because she knew I was in the market."

Offering both tattooing and hair services is one of the aspects Dawson feels sets her salon apart from others.

"I think that is what sets us apart from other salons around town," Dawson said. "I wanted this to be just a tattoo shop, too. I think that makes us unique."

For Dawson, it's incredible that the salon is finally up and running.

"For me, I think it's been such a long time coming," she said. "I had manifested this plan into my head, and I was so certain it was going to happen. I was telling myself it's going to happen. More than anything, it feels amazing to have that dream become a reality. It's funny because I feel like I've always been here. It's nice to have hard work pay off."

Tammy Mumme's father's dream was always to have his daughter open her own salon, and she did not disappoint.

Mumme owns and operates Mirror Image Salon in Mt. Pleasant.

She's been around the business since she was a young girl. That's because of her mom.

"My mom was a hairdresser," Mumme said. "I grew up being in the salon. I knew throughout my teenage years that is what I wanted to do."

After high school, she decided to follow that dream and go on to beauty school.

Following her time in beauty school, she worked in Nauvoo, Illinois, and with her mother.

"After beauty school, I got a job in Nauvoo with a salon owner's wife," Mumme said. "I worked with her a couple of days of the week, and then I worked with my mom a few days a week. I also helped the salon owner's wife teach continuing education classes. I did Iowa hair-cutting competitions, but then I got married and started having kids, so I backed off of that."

For 31 years now, Mumme has been cutting hair. Her salon was originally located in the country, but when Interstate 218 was getting redone, it became a hassle to have the salon in the country.

Her father's health also began to deteriorate.

"My dad had Alzheimer's and lung cancer," she said. "His health was failing, so my mom did not feel as safe out in the country, so they moved to town. My salon was on their property, that meant that I needed to find somewhere else."

By the time her parents moved, she had been in the hair business for 27 years, and she now needed to find somewhere else to work.

"I needed to make a decision whether I should work for someone else, rent a chair, or buy something and start all over," Mumme said.

Mumme and her husband began to think about their future and decided to buy a property. It allowed them to become property owners and landlords.

She felt that the building was initially too big for a salon, so they decided to put up a wall down the middle to separate the building into two sections.

They did a lot of work to make the location their own.

"We put the wall in, and we made it handicap accessible on both sides and put another entrance in," Mumme said.

Mumme said that she always dreamed of working with more men or women as it would make the job more fun and it's a great learning opportunity.

"I believe in continuing to learn," she added. "As long as I've been in, I still feel that if you go the day with learning one thing, you're bettering your knowledge. I feel that having the other girls here, they know the newer techniques, and I know maybe the older techniques."

Her husband was the one who did all the work inside the salon, and her daughter Jayde did all designs and logo.

Little did she know that she designed the logo with both cancer and Alzheimer's awareness colors. Cancer is something that has been known in her family.

"My father passed away two months before I opened," she said. "It was his dream to see me open my dream. He technically didn't get to see the doors open, but he got to see everything pretty much done. He would come up and help even if it was to hold the ladder. He will always be a part of this salon. He used to touch the drywall, and it would still be wet. I knew that my dad wasn't always going to be with us, so in my laundry room, I have his handprint. I have his, my mom's, mine, Corey's, Dillion's, and Jayde's. We call it the wall that built this place."

For Mumme, the most rewarding thing is making a dream come true, but also the clients.

"I think the most rewarding this is making this dream come true with family," she said. "I also try to go above and with my clients. A lot of the relationships I make with them, it's like family."

Jennifer Campbell

For Jennifer Campbell at Shear Advantage, hair styling was always in the back of her mind but never stuck out until after high school.

"When I was in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do," Campbell said. "Hair styling was always in the back of my head from middle school into high school. After high school, I went to hair school, and I always thought I might do something else, I just never have."

Over time, her love for styling has grown even more extensive. She said it's even more remarkable than when she first got into the field.

She and a friend initially had plans to move to Iowa City in school, but she decided to stay.

"A friend and I made plans to move to Iowa City after school to move away from this little town," she chuckled. "We didn't. She ended up moving away, and I stayed around here. I was like, I really need to find a job doing hair. My mom saw an ad in the newspaper for the Shear Advantage, and I had never been there before in my life, and I was like, ‘Sure, what the heck.’"

After getting an interview and cutting one of the girls' hair that previously worked in the salon, Campbell got the job and has worked there ever since.

Campbell is not the owner of Shear Advantage but is one of the many girls that rent out spaces to work in the salon.

She has worked at Shear Advantage the longest, since 2006.

According to Campbell, having her own space is one of the best parts of the job.

"I love having my own spot," she said. "I wouldn't do it any other way. It's very rewarding being one on one with my clients. The relationships that you build with those people. I've been doing it long enough now that you get to know people on a personal level."

Seeing kids grow up and doing their hair over the years is one of the most rewarding aspects of the position, along with giving older people their last haircut.

"You get to do children's first haircuts," Campbell said. "You do their hair for school, and pretty soon you're doing their hair for prom, then they're getting married. I've done several older ladies whose hair that I have done after they've passed away. It's like one last thing you can do for people."

Comments: hunter.moeller@southeastiowaunion.com