Eckville’s Upper Cuts Salon on 54 Avenue first began in Alexis Lightbown’s home.
Lightbown, owner of Upper Cuts Salon, wanted to be a hairdresser since she was little and has been working in salons since she was 13-years-old.
At first she started with a small salon in her house before moving to a small business in downtown Eckville for a number of years.
Upper Cuts has been at the current location, which is a little bit bigger than the old location, for about four years.
Lightbown says she opened the salon to allow herself to keep doing what she loved while also being able to work around her family’s schedule.
“We have four kids so working for myself just gave me the ability to work around my kids’ schedule and do things with them that I wanted to do and still be able to do hair,” said Lightbown,
The 36-year-old loves doing hair and likes the social aspect of being part of a full salon.
“I pretty much get paid to socialize and we have a pretty cool group of people around here,” explained Lightbown. “I really look forward to visiting with everyone as they come in.”
She added Upper Cuts’ clients are made up of locals, as well as people from Rocky Mountain House, Sylvan Lake and Red Deer.
Lightbown says clients are drawn to her salon because of it’s lower pricing, skill set and small town atmosphere.
“Our stylists strive to kind of stay up in the trends, we do a lot of education to keep ourselves up to date and modern and keep our skill level up,” commented Lightbown. “We’re friendly, it’s a pretty laid back environment, everyone visits and laughs and kind of jokes back and forth.”
Moving to the larger salon on 54 Avenue also allowed her to offer chair rental for other stylists.
She said the girls who work for her essentially work for themselves as they pick their own hours and book their own clients.
“They’re all moms too and they work around their kids’ schedules and so everyone just kind of does their own thing and the dynamic works better because everyone gets to put their family first,” continued Lightbown.
Upper Cuts Salon offers a little bit of everything through hair stylists, an aesthetician, a nail technician and reflexologist.
Lightbown, who has been doing hair in Eckville for 10 years, says the best part is being a part of the community.
The salon has a strong presence in the community, says Lightbown, who uses the time to catch up with everyone.
“If I don’t hear it from them in my chair I hear it from them in my coworkers’ chairs,” she said.