Mane Room Salon and Spa Celebrates Opening in Glencoe

Mane Room Salon and Spa celebrated its grand opening on June 27 with a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house attended by members of the Glencoe Area Chamber of Commerce and the public. The salon is co-owned by local hairstylists Maren Roepke, Mya Lyrek and Brooke Noeldner.

Roepke, a Silver Lake native, said she has worked as a hairdresser for eight years. She moved back to the area more than a year ago and said she was tired of commuting between cities for work.

“I worked in Hutchinson first, then moved to the city. I owned a salon in Wayzata for five years, then closed it because it was really expensive there and I wanted to come back here,” Roepke said. “All three of us are from here and we just wanted to be closer to home with people we knew, and we had a really good opportunity with this space, so we took it.”

Roepke said she dissolved her company before opening the salon in Glencoe. “I didn’t really want to keep it going with just me, so we dissolved everything and opened here in March,” Roepke said. “It went well; there was a lot of interest from the community; it kind of helped that we all knew people from here because we all went to GSL; I feel like that really helped us a lot; we were actually a little surprised at how well it went right away.”

Lyrek said she’s been working as a hairstylist for “about a year now” and recently completed her advanced practice esthetics program. Her practice includes chemical peels, dermaplaning, microneedling and spray tans. “It’s kind of a stepping stone between your basic facials and your more medical-focused treatments,” Lyrek said. Lyrek said one of the benefits of being a co-owner of a salon is that she doesn’t have to specialize in just one area. “I think especially for me doing skincare and spray tanning, a lot of salons just want you to focus on one thing, so for me coming right out of school, it was really hard to find a place that would let me do both, so the flexibility is nice,” Lyrek said.

Roepke said the salon and the career paths of the three co-owners represent a shift in the salon industry. “I feel like the industry has turned a corner. A lot of hairstylists don’t work for other people anymore for a variety of reasons. When I started out on my own, I was 20, about six years ago, and I had worked in a few different salons and either I didn’t like it or it just wasn’t what I wanted,” Roepke said. “In this industry, things have changed a lot: people are working for themselves right out of school. It’s tough and it takes a lot of work to build a clientele.”

Noeldner, 20, said she attended college for a year before “realizing” she didn’t want to go that route. She said she was in touch with Roepke while she was in college and after she graduated, she “immediately started helping her.” Noeldner graduated from cosmetology school last August and works as a hairstylist doing eyelash extensions and extensions. She said the business has benefited from the trio being from a “younger generation.”

Noeldner and Lyrek credit Roepke for helping them get their new business off the ground. “I learned a lot of things not to do the first time around, so the second time around was a breeze,” Roepke said. “For me, it was a breeze; it works, we all get along really well and I feel like we’re all really good at communicating with each other, so we haven’t really had any conflict either, which is nice, and honestly, it’s so much easier than anything I’ve ever done before.”

Roepke said the hardest part of the process was “playing the waiting game” with things like licensing and plumbing since late last year as they prepared to open the salon. She said the idea to open a salon in Glencoe came to them while they were working in Wayzata after Noeldner saw a building space had opened up in the city. She said a week later, they came to inspect the building, which is owned by the Touch of Gray Adult Day Center. “It started as an idea that I don’t know if it was taken very seriously at the time, and then here we are,” Noeldner said.

Roepke said the business’s installation was simple and included adding equipment, a shampoo station and mirrors. Touch of Gray “took good care of it” before moving in.