FF_061319

18 | June 13, 2019 | the frankfort station life & arts
frankfortstation.com
Lincoln-Way grads open salon in Frankfort
Nuria Mathog, Editor
Frankfort’s newest salon is
looking to make the cut.
Founded by three area graduates,
Evolve Hair Salon, located
at 301 N. White St., Suite EE
in Frankfort, launched in early
January and began opening its
doors to clients in March.
Each of the business’s coowners
has ties to the Lincoln-
Way area and the southwest
suburbs: Chicago resident and
Lincoln-Way Central alumna
Elise Carlson, Frankfort resident
and Lincoln-Way East
alumna Marissa Ambrosino
and Joliet resident and Sandburg
alumna Erica Stillwell.
The concept for the new salon
came about when the women’s
father-in-laws, both business
owners, approached the
group with the idea.
“We came and looked at the
place, and it needed a little
work, and we looked at a couple
of other places as well,”
Carlson said. “We came back
to here because it was a great
location.”
Carlson described the trio
as “basically sisters.” She is
best friends with Stillwell and
is married to Ambrosino’s
brother, and the three women
previously worked together for
nearly a decade at the Mokenabased
Planet Color Hair Salon.
“We knew each others’ work
and how we dealt with clients
and how we dealt with a salon
atmosphere,” she said. “So, it
all worked out well.”
As a full-service salon,
Evolve Hair Salon offers color,
texture and styling services, as
well as make-up, waxing and
eyelash extensions. On Mondays,
the salon takes men’s
walk-ins.
“We have barbers from the
old salon that used to be here
— it was called Antonio’s Hair
Salon,” Carlson said. “So, all
the people from Antonio’s work
from us too, and they were in
Frankfort for a very long time.”
For Carlson, who graduated
from the Saint Xavier University
business school in 2007,
salon work became a way to
combine her field of study with
her passion for the beauty industry.
“I became interested when I
started to play a little bit with
hair color when I was in college,
but I never really thought
that I would be a hair stylist,”
she said. “I ended up being a
combination between a business
person and a hair stylist. It
worked out well.”
Stillwell said she found an
interest in the industry as a
high school student, when one
of her older friends participated
in a beauty school program.
“Just by watching what she
was doing, I decided, ‘That’s
what I want to do,’” Stillwell
said.
Carlson said the group went
through “millions of names”
for their new business before
ultimately settling on “Evolve
Hair Salon.”
“It kind of goes with how
we want our business to run,”
she said. “We want things to be
ever-changing and upbeat and
modern.”
What sets Evolve Hair Salon
apart is the business’s focus on
all types of services, both new
and traditional, Carlson said.
“There’s not just one type of
stylist in here,” Stillwell added.
“There’s people who are getting
a weekly roller-set perm to
somebody getting the fashion
mermaid hair that’s out there
right now.”
The salon plans to host a
grand opening on Sunday, June
23, to introduce the Frankfort
community to the new business.
“We’re going to do a day DJ
brunch kind of a thing, with
Evolve Hair Salon co-owners (left to right) Erica Stillwell, Elise Carlson and Marissa Ambrosino
launched the new business in January. Photos submitted
music and food,” Carlson said.
‘We’ll be raffling off prizes, all
of the new products we’ll be
selling.”
Above all else, Carlson said
she hopes customers have a relaxing
and unique experience
when they walk through the
doors at Evolve Hair Salon.
“If they’re looking for something
specific, if they’re looking
for something that they’ve
always gotten, we just want
them to have exactly what
they’ve come in looking for,”
she said.
Elise Carlson styles a client’s hair.