MONTAGUE — New owner Madison Bond, a Whitehall High School alum, has been at the helm of the Vintage Salon in downtown Montague since the summer, but she celebrated her new business with a ribbon-cutting ceremony during Saturday's Pumpkinfest.
Bond moved up from North Muskegon, where she was operating a one-chair salon called Studio 86 that she took over from her grandmother when she retired a few years ago. She said she is thrilled to be back in the White Lake area.
"It's so wonderful," Bond said.
"It's so good to feel like I'm local again. North
Muskegon is not that far away, but just being in the community again is
so nice."
Due to the one-chair nature of her prior salon, Bond had to run it herself with no one else to talk to besides her customers. With the extra space afforded her by the Vintage Salon, which has several chairs, she can spend time with employees in between appointments or walk-ins, the latter of which she said are welcome and common.
"I'm
just very happy to have co-workers and just people to talk to
with similar mindsets," Bond said. "It was just me at the other salon, so I did
feel very lonely at times, but I still loved it. Getting new
clients, having co-workers and employees, it's just a whole
different ballgame, and it's exciting."
Bond said it has always been her dream to run her own salon, and it feels "surreal" that she's able to do it in her home in the White Lake area.
"Every day feels more and more natural and less
chaotic," Bond said. "It's going really well...I'm just excited to see how it can grow from here, and
I'm not really sure what that means yet. I'm very open-minded to
growth, whatever that means."
