When Melinda Butler opened Southern Styles 20 years ago, she set out to turn a salon into a home. After celebrating their 20th anniversary all month, she’s grateful to see how many people think she’s done just that.
Over the last month, the business has celebrated its 20 years through drawings, snacks, and prizes — and with each new client who has come in, she’s heard a new story about the salon.
And, inside the 100-year-old home-turned-salon are 19 stylists, all of whom have become an extended family for the Butlers.
“It’s been really, really heartwarming is the best way I can describe it,” Butler said. “All of the support, everybody just dropping in to say congratulations and sending cards and flowers, it’s been more than I expected.”
Before opening Southern Styles in 2004, Butler said, she and her husband Dan were not big risk-takers. The idea of opening a business was a “very scary decision,” and they would’ve typically never done something like that before.
But she said something told them to try it, and they followed their intuition. Butler said it feels like it’s only been 10 years since they opened, and the feeling they get opening every day has been warm since day one.
Working in the 5,000-square-foot building requires a lot of maintenance, and Butler carries a sense of pride in how it looks.
“We want to keep it as beautiful as it is now and to keep all of our stylists and clients happy,” Butler said.
She said while many people often comment on the beautiful exterior, others appreciate the inside. She recalled that when a younger client wanted to get their haircut, he would always ask to go to “the big yellow house.”
But for Butler, it doesn’t matter if the client sees it as a home away from home or a salon for them to get their hair touched up. What matters most, she said, is the community’s support throughout the years.
“For me and my husband, this is our baby,” she said. “It’s a part of us, and we love it to the core. So it’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s also been so rewarding to watch it grow and to see what it is now.”
