Stylists return to where it all began, with suites in new downtown salon

For four hairstylists, moving into the newly renovated Johnson Building means coming back to where it all started.

Deanna Dumdei, Megan Hall, Sherie Moke and Eric Unzicker graduated from what was known as Stewart’s School of Hairstyling when it occupied the building at the southwest corner of Second Avenue and 11th Street. It was there they learned to cut, curl and color and to offer permanents and pin curls and pampering.

Now, as independent stylists operating under the umbrella of 2nd Avenue Salon Suites, they’re going back to their beginnings — with the possible exception of pin curls. They first entered the building as eager young students. Now, they’re returning as experienced stylists, eager to bring their skills to downtown Sioux Falls.

For Hall, the connection goes back even further. Her aunt owned Interlude Bridal Shop. Twice a year, Interlude and Stewart’s would combine for a bridal showcase. For at least two years, Hall’s aunt pulled her into service as a flower girl model.

“There was the double staircase I got to walk down,” Hall said. “I knew at a young age I wanted to be a stylist, so it was a lot of fun to do those things.”

When Dumdei was a little girl growing up in Dell Rapids, her hairstylist aunt would take her to Stewart’s for special services. In high school when students took part in Career Day, Dumdei knew where she wanted to go.

“It seemed huge the first time I went in there,” she said. “I went in thinking it was like a castle. I remember the staircase and everything. It just seemed huge, and everybody was busy doing something. It seemed like where I wanted to be.”

Unzicker, a Mitchell native, was 30 when he became a Stewart’s student. He had been interested in becoming a stylist when he was in high school. It was the ’80s, the time of big hair and massive use of hairspray. He set that ambition aside, however, and entered the field of human services instead.

“That was a field that sometimes it’s not a forever field,” Unzicker said. “Burnout is easy in that industry. It was time to do what I always wanted to do, and that was hair.”

So hair it was for all three. They enrolled in a school that had been all about hair for several decades. Gordon Stewart, who died in 2016, had purchased a salon in 1951 at 18th Street and Grange Avenue. His ownership of salons increased over the decade, and in 1959, he opened his first school. Its initial location was the northwest corner of 10th Street and Dakota Avenue.

A second school also operated for a time before Stewart purchased the building at Second and 11th in December 1964. The site of a former auto-parts wholesaler was renovated into a school that took up both floors.

Gordon’s brothers, David and Roger, had joined in the business. When they retired, Gordon’s son, Randy, operated Stewart’s School of Hairstyling until the 1990s. Matthew and Marcia Fiegen have owned the school since July 1997. In February 2004, a new school was constructed on North West Avenue. It expanded in 2010. Today, it is known as Stewart School.

The downtown building remained occupied, most recently by a ministries cooperative. Johnson Properties now owns the building. After a renovation, other tenants have moved in or will, including Preach-es, a clothing store; 605 Running Co.; Discovery Realty Group; law firm Evans Haigh & Arndt; Lenae Design; and The Cattitude Cafe.

2nd Avenue Salon Suites offers eight exterior suites reserved specifically for hair. Individual hairstylists opened their suites during September and early October. The interior suites will offer specialized beauty services such as waxing, facials and makeup, spray tanning, cosmetic tattooing and eyelash extensions.

“For those of use who don’t do those services, we now have a place we can refer to,” Hall said. “We’re a one-stop shop.”

For the hairstylists, working in the building where they learned their skills evokes warm memories. Some of them involve the people who served as their instructors. Others are the lifelong friendships they made with other students. And then there’s memories of the way things were.

“You had to wear black, white or gray; that was the uniform that you had to wear,” said Unzicker, who enrolled in 2000. “Something I remember that was really funny, if women didn’t have lipstick or mascara on, they were pretty much asked to go put it on or go home. Back then, we always referred to our instructors as miss or mister. I know nowadays they are called coaches. Things have changed a lot since I went to school.”

Hall also has memories that center on clothing.

“We had to wear smocks and nylons,” she said. “I had an instructor; she kept a box on nylons in her desk. If you came to school and you were not wearing nylons, she would sell you a pair for a dollar. It was non-negotiable. We wore aprons more than the coats, all black.”

Hall and Dumdei both attended Stewart’s in the early 2000s, graduating in the last classes that attended the downtown school. Dumdei remembers choosing five polo shirts to wear to class, again in white, gray or black. Stewart School was embroidered on one side, the student’s name on the other.

“To this day, I only wear black to work,” she said. “Here’s a trick we use. If we get a bleach stain, we use a Sharpie to color it in.”

New graduates were required to start at one of the Hair by Stewarts salons. For Unzicker, it was Salon 12, then at 12th Street and Minnesota Avenue. He then spent 17 years at I Capelli Salon in the Park Ridge Galleria.

“Then, when SiouxFalls.Business broke the story that a luxury salon suite was opening up in the old Stewart’s School, it really caught my eye,” Unzicker said.

Dumdei had a suite at Sola Salon Studios for 14 years. 2nd Avenue Salon Suites will offer the same concept, said Dumdei, who decided to move after the Sola Salon owners retired earlier this year.

“I was proud of them for retiring, but it broke my heart,” she said. “But I went downtown and looked at this, and I fell in love with it. I thought, I can’t say no to this; it’s so neat.”

Hall’s memories of the school building proved useful even before she decided to open a salon.

“When my friend bought this building, he called me and said, ‘Was there a metal staircase with circles?’ I said, ‘Yes, I have my class picture on that staircase.’ The ministry covered it up with a wall, and when they went in and started taking it down, that staircase is still behind there. It was an inch or two too low for today’s code. The Johnsons went to the city and asked to have it grandfathered in. They restored it, and it’s absolutely beautiful.”

When Unzicker attended the hairstyling school, the colors downstairs in the salon area were gray and white. The upstairs classroom area featured the oranges and browns popular in the 1970s.

The independent stylists have chosen colors and patterns in their spaces that reflect their personal tastes. Unzicker and Moke are the only stylists who share a space. They chose a contemporary neutral look since their suite has two large windows offering plenty of natural light.

“We wanted to bring the outside light in to brighten up our neutral tones,” Unzicker said.

Hall chose black and white enlivened with a lot of plants. She also added navy blue that reflects how the Johnsons enhanced the staircase with the lobby furniture.

“My chandeliers are round, trying to keep with the original parts of the building,” Hall said. “They had the original chandeliers on the staircase and tried to save them, but they were almost like a plastic piece of paper. When they took them off the ceiling, they crumbled.”

Hall enjoyed watching the stylists put their own imprint on the spaces.

“I feel like we have a team of wonderful, very passionate artists, and I see each of their own vibes come out in their room,” she said. “Two girls requested they leave all the brick exposed. We chose not to put any drywall around cement pillars. That was a huge thing for me. I wanted to leave cool parts of building intact.”

It’s all part of the emotion Hall feels for the space that set her on her current path. Her connection with Stewart’s is lengthy: She worked for a Hair by Stewart salon as a teenager and was a receptionist at the salon in what then was the Park Ridge Mall. She also worked for Melody Stewart, owner of Village Hair and Spa.

She gets emotional when she thinks about the opportunity that starting the 2nd Avenue Salon Suites has offered her.

“I was kind of at a crossroads in my life, thinking what did I want to do?” she said. “I had my 40th birthday on a Saturday, and I knew it was a dream of mine to start my own salon. Then, my friend called before Christmas and said, ‘Do you want to open a salon?’ I asked, ‘What building?’”

The energy inside the Johnson Building when she first toured it was amazing, Hall said. The interior was different, but she could picture what had once been in each corner — the pedicure area there, the breakroom over there, the classrooms upstairs.

“I fell in love with the space right away,” Hall said. “I said, yes, I’m going to do this.”

She plans to hold a grand opening the second week of November to give the public a chance to see the changes that have been made and the services that 2nd Avenue Salon Suites offers.

For her part, Dumdei designed a space that she described as “comfortable yet upbeat.” The walls are emerald green with yellow, pink and black accents. With a location in the building’s southeast corner, one of her windows faces the post office, and she has her own exterior door.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s really cool, actually. Who’d have thought almost 20 years later I’m right back where I began. It’s really neat.”