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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 13 Dec 2010.
Meet Your Neighbor: Angela Allen cutting it as owner of hair salon back in childhood roots
Angela Allen has taken the daunting step of opening her own business, Mountain Bliss Salon, in Pittman Center. (Gail Crutchfield/The Mountain Press)
By GAIL CRUTCHFIELD
PITTMAN CENTER — Angela Allen is getting back to her roots. The cosmetologist has taken the leap and opened her own hair salon in Pittman Center, just minutes away from where she grew up in the Locust Ridge area of Sevier County.
Allen, a single mother of 4-year-old Malachi, earned her cosmetology license this April and began working first at Super Cuts and then at Tinsel before deciding to cut her ties there and branch out on her own. It wasn’t an easy decision, she said, and was quite the scary prospect. But it’s always something she’s wanted to do.
“It was my dream,” she said of owning her own salon.
She had to put that dream on hold for a while.
“I wanted to do it when I was in high school and then I never did,” she said of going to school and becoming a licensed cosmetologist. “And then I had Malachi and I just kept working for different people in the community. So I eventually went back to school to Tennessee School of Beauty and then I graduated. My first cosmetology job was at Super Cuts in Sevierville, then Tinsel in Seymour.”
When her aunt told her about an available store front on Highway 321 that used to be a salon, she decided to make her move.
So far, Allen said she’s has a pretty good response from customers.
“Most of the people that come here are people I grew up with and have known for a long time and family,” she said. “I’m here six days a week. My son’s in school, so when I’m off I want to see him as much as I can.”
Malachi also spends a few hours in the shop on Saturdays. He’s learned to appreciate the soothing effect of a pedicure, talking his mother into giving him the treatment every now and then.
“He told me, ‘I didn’t know you were so great,’” Allen said with a laugh.
When she’s not at the salon or playing with her son, Allen attends church at Evans Chapel Baptist Church. She is the daughter of Ed and Kay Allen.
She can be reached at her business, Mountain Bliss Salon, at 430-5774.
gcrutchfield@themountainpress.com
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