From the black-and-white checkered linoleum floor to the pressed-tin ceiling overhead, Rhonda Tucker’s new salon, Hairvolution, has a few vestiges from the past.

But her take on hair and nails is thoroughly modern.

Tucker opened Hairvolution about two weeks ago. She has a prime location, sandwiched between Love on a Hanger and El Grande Cafe on Main Street. The space became available when Smoke’n Stuff moved across the street.

With a wry smile, Tucker describes the elbow grease needed to freshen the place up after the previous tenant. The store itself was fine shape, but a thick coat of grime coated the floor.

“The white squares were the color of a paper grocery bag. I spent four and a half hours with a buffer rented from Slavens to get it off,” she said.

With the floor scrubbed, Tucker then installed swiveling chairs, mirrors and shelving. Renovations complete, she can now concentrate on what she loves: helping people look their best.

Tucker grew up in Cortez, and after a brief stint living in Kansas attended cosmetology school in Grand Junction, graduating in 2001. To make ends meet and provide for their three children, Tucker and her husband, Adrian, alternated taking classes and being the breadwinner.

“My husband worked two jobs to get me through school. After I finished and starting working, he went to the police academy in Delta,” she said.

They returned home for seven years, then picked up and moved to Las Vegas. Tucker says she gained invaluable experience in Sin City. She spent most days as a traveling stylist, lugging all her equipment in the trunk of her car. She glamorized brides for shotgun weddings, models doing promotional photo-shoots out in the desert, even strippers working at the city’s nightclubs.

Her Cortez clientele tends to be less theatrical.

Tucker does everything from basic haircuts, waxing and tanning to complicated day-long procedures. An eight-step straightening system, for people with stubbornly curly locks, can land them in the chair for six to seven hours. She has drinks and snacks to help those clients get through the day. Sometimes she has pizzas delivered.

“My favorite service is color correction. Women will buy these cheap products that promise color and highlights in one box. They’ll come to me to fix it — blend it in — when it doesn’t work out,” she said. “With cosmetics you get what you pay for.”

Nails are another major part of Tucker’s business. She is comfortable with both manicures and pedicures now, but the former took some getting used to. At one time she couldn’t get past the idea that hands were filthy, even after being washed. Overcoming that mental block took a bit of tough love.

“I’ve conquered it. My boss (in Las Vegas) assigned me to the manicure table one day. From sun-up to sundown that’s all I did. It broke the phobia,” she said.

Tucker says customer service is her highest priority and her selling point. Any employee who works for her must sign a contract, or “team agreement,” promising not to bring private family drama into work. Similarly, Tucker doesn’t want the salon to become a hub for gossip.

“It’s all about trust. I don’t want the clients to feel they’re being talked about, by my staff or other clients, before they get to the car,” she said. “I sign the agreement too. Everyone is bound by the same thing.”

She credits Candy Cruzan, owner of The Ritz, another salon, as an inspiration.

“I follow her lead. She treats her clients not just as clients but as family,” she said.

Tucker’s hours are flexible. She tries to give herself Sundays off, but beyond that, she’s willing to schedule appointments from dawn until dusk.

“This is my baby. I have to put in the time to make it grow,” she said.

Tucker is excited about networking with other fashion-minded new businesses on Main Street.

“We’re coming together, thinking of how to help each other with cross marketing. It’s phenomenal. We’re all on the same page,” she said.

lukeg@cortezjournal.com