Meet Marissa Harmon | Salon Owner and Hairstylist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marissa Harmon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marissa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I come from a long line of entrepreneurs that all are family owned and operated for many years. From meat markets to garage doors to hairstylists our family covers all the bases. I fell into the hair business at 18years old when my older sister, also a hairstylist, told me to go to beauty school to pay for college. I quickly learned the hair business is so little about doing hair and so much more about connecting with people, communicating, understanding and most important listening. After 14 years of styling hair, along side my sister snd brother-in-law, we decided to look into purchasing our own space and building a salon that gave a look and feel of comfort and luxury. We knew if we opened the doors, our clients would come, and boy did they ever, We now know our leap of faith from working for a salon to owning our space has reaped huge benefits for our family! With 5 stylists at our salon and around 1,000 clients, we enjoy making everyone feel their best from the inside out every day we are open.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My career in owning a salon and working behind the chair has evolved into a brand that we all grew up with. We come from a long line of hospitable, Italian living, keep grinding away at work kind of family. It is in our blood to love on others, care for every person we meet as our own family, make others feel good with positivity and most important have a space that feels like the comfort of your home surround you. Our brand became that. Sharing the love we have for others in a salon setting. We create beautiful hair, through years and years of education we can do it all. Our focus though has been on our relationships with clients. Our name Roots&Mane was derived from Roots means hair roots but more importantly family roots, and of course mane, meaning hair mane. We want everyone who step into our salon to feel empowered, cared for and beautiful when they walk out.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If we had friends visiting you would find us on a river, camping, paddle boarding, and rowing our 16 foot white water raft. Unplugging from the world and yet plugging into nature is always our favorite adventure. Picking up some Santiago’s breakfast burritos and heading out of town to connect and catch up so always our way.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
15 years ago a client name Kim Curtis sat in my chair, we connected right away and immediately I took her in as my mentor, I was newly building my clientele, a young stylist learning the way, and she saw something in me. Every 4 weeks when I did her color she pushed me to have deeper conversations and find goals within myself that I knew I wanted to meet. I remember clearly the day she told me to never settle, and she knew I could do more with my career. She asked me “why not you” when I mentioned my timid goal of opening a salon. Kim, thank you, from the bottom of my heart for pushing my goals further then I could myself. I am forever grateful for your friendship!

Website: https://roots-and-mane.business.site/

Instagram: @rootsandmane