ESTEVAN — Marsha Short has always had a vision of one day opening her own beauty salon, and her dream finally came true.
FiXR's Salon and Studio opened early this year, and right off the start they were voted the Best New Business in the latest Estevan Mercury's Best of Estevan promotion. Short said it was amazing to start her own place, and it's even more exciting to see it doing well and growing.
"It's going really well," Short said. "It grew really fast, and it was pretty rewarding to see it grow that quick. I didn't expect that at all."
The studio and salon provides various hair and nail services, as well as eyebrow threading, spray tanning and tattooing. Short also hopes to bring in a few more beauty professionals, such as a make-up artist, massage therapist and face tattooist, as she still has more space in the building.
Short's career in the beauty industry and hairdressing started in 2004. A couple of years later, she took her journeyman ticket and then worked at a local business for 16 years, after which she decided to do a chair rental and has moved to a different salon.
Four years later, she felt she was ready to make her long-time dream a reality.
"I have clients from my first day of hairdressing that still come to me now, and they say, 'I remember you telling me that this was your dream.' And this is almost like an eye opener for me, that it had been that long that I was thinking about it," Short shared.
It took time and courage, as well as support from her family and especially from her husband Ryan Short, who helped her a lot with the new salon. They have two kids, and Short said she always wanted to make sure that she was there for them while they were young. Now that they are 13 and 10, she felt it was good timing.
FiXR's occupies the 1112 building on Fifth Street in Estevan, and Short said it took quite a while for them to find that spot.
"For over a year I was actively looking at buildings," Short recalled. "And then we bought this building in November."
Short said she liked the downtown location, which is convenient but is still off Fourth Street, allowing for more parking options.
"We've got the space along the west side of the building, too, so people with long appointments don't have to worry about being on the street for two hours and risking a ticket. There's benefits to being in the heart of downtown, but just off the beaten path," Short said.
Once the building was found, the renovations began. The former home of Acklands needed quite a few things changed before it could become a salon and studio.
"It was a lot, a lot of work. My husband and I did a lot to get it going night and day," Short said, adding that while they did a lot of work themselves, they also had several local contractors helping with plumbing and heating, electrical, partition walls and more.
The name for the new business was inspired by the family's love for Harley-Davidson bikes.
"Ryan and I both ride Harleys, and they are FXRs, they are antique. They're called fixer-uppers, and that's where the big F, X and R come from, from the model," Short shared. "We started with naming our puppy that, we have a little Chiller, it's a chihuahua and cavalier King Charles spaniel."
The colour scheme for the interiors and the logo was in turn inspired by their FXR puppy.
There is still some work to be done and a few décor pieces to be put up, Short said, but they are up and running and are happy about it.
"It's always been our dream and we're pretty fortunate that we're able to do it," Short said.
