Ironton business offers many services

One issue that all downtown businesses face, no matter the city, is parking. It can be hard to get customers in, if they can’t find a spot or don’t want to walk a bit to get to the business.

But then, it depends on the type of business. Customers who are going to get their hair done will make the effort to find parking.

“I liked the location here in downtown,” said Lori Kingrey, one of the two owners of A New You hair salon and spa on Third Street in Ironton. “At first, we were kind of afraid of the parking situation, but our clients, they’re fine with it. They’ll find a parking space.”

Around five years ago, Kingrey and other owner, Rachel Russell, were working at a franchise salon when the found out the owners of A New You were selling the business. She looked the salon over and fell in love with oldness of the building.

“I came down and looked at it and it was really nice,” she said. “And I just loved it, the building and all its antiqueness.”

“I called Rachel and told her we found us a building and that was it,” Kingrey said.

It was big jump; Kingrey had spent 21 years working at Fiesta at the Ironton Hills plaza.

“It was more freedom. We could make our own decisions,” she said. “We could make our own decisions, do what we wanted to do, and run the business how we wanted.”

The building was built probably after the 1918 flood in the 1920s. It has stamped metal ceilings and a wood floor that creaks and squeaks when someone walks.

“The first time I brought my daughter in, she said I had to do something with the floor. I asked why and she said ‘They’re noisy!” Kingrey said. “I said ‘I know, it reminds me of when I used to see Santa Claus at the JCPenney building when I was little.”

The salon is in part of the building that was once part of Newberry’s, a five and dime store, that took up most of the block.

After the five and dime went out, the building was divided into smaller retail spaces.

“A lot of clients come in and tell us how they remember Newberry’s. We have women who come in that worked there. How they had a candy counter with bins of candy,” Kingrey said. “It’s pretty neat.”

Besides haircuts, color, style and perms, the salon also does waxes and sells Simply Noelle purses.

The store is staffed by Kingrey, Russell, and Shawna Nixon.

“We three graduated from high school together. So, we’ve known each other a very long time and we know what our customers want, and how to keep a business going,” Kingrey said.

She said that with the downtown location, they see more traffic and more people walking by than they did at the plaza.

“The traffic has increased since the bridge opened and there are a lot of people that walk by,” Kingrey said. “Customers sit in here and say ‘I didn’t know this many people walked in downtown.’ But they do.”