Back Alley Beauty by Fine Things opens downtown

One of Newton’s favorite home decor stores has increased its clientele by opening a new beauty salon downtown. Back Alley Beauty by Fine Things opened its doors at 205 First Ave. W. last month and is located just behind Fine Things Reclaimed.

Building owner and store owner Julia Prendergast opened the salon as an outlet for local hair stylists and shoppers to come and relax.

“I own the building so it made sense when the space became available,” Prendergast said. “I talked with a local hair stylist, Monica Rae, and we discussed how there are a lot of hair stylists out there who want to do hair part-time.”

Prendergast said there are a lot of local stylists who work full-time along with doing hair.

“It just takes a lot to survive these days, so I thought why don’t we make it a part of Fine Things and make the place look really cool,” Prendergast said. “We wanted to make a place that people would want to continue to come to. We have the seats where you can put your feet up.”

The idea to open the salon began in January and now there are three to four part-time stylists who work at Back Alley Beauty.

“We are all about helping people earn a living and having fun in a nice environment,” Prendergast said.

Rae, the manager of the salon, said the name came naturally because of how much people use the back door versus the First Avenue entrance.

“Everyone just parks out back and when we mentioned the name Back Alley, everyone was kind of like ‘I love it’,” Rae said.

When Fine Things Reclaimed is open the salon sees a lot of customers bounce back and forth from getting their hair done to shopping, or vice versa.

“We are a one-stop place,” Rae said.

The full-service salon is open based on the hours of the part-time stylists. Walk-ins are welcome if there is someone in the salon.

Prendergast said she hopes to bring a positive atmosphere to Newton.

“I want people to say ‘if you haven’t been there yet, you have to go there’,” Prendergast said.

Prendergast said business at Fine Things Reclaimed continues to be great as items are always filtering out and a lot of changes have been made to the business.

“Since we’ve opened in February of last year, we have expanded three times,” Prendergast said. “It’s crazy how fast stuff comes in and out of there. We put out new things weekly.”

Prendergast said she also works a full-time job along with manning the store and now the salon, but she said she owes it to her amazing staff and their hard work.

“I feel like this is my time to do the things that I love, and it all has worked out really well,” Prendergast said. “It’s kind of like the American Dream you get to the point where you keep adding new things and the harder you work, the better it is.”

Contact Kayla Langmaid at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or klangmaid@newtondailynews.com