WHILE many business owners were cursing this month’s snap lockdown, Retro Hair owner Lauren Meurant made the best of a bad situation, using the week to revamp her Langtree Mall salon.
“You have to, don’t you?” Ms Meurant said.
“I try to see everything glass-half-full.
“The way I see it, the government shut me down – and I understand that … but I had to use that to my advantage.”
She and her husband, with the help of a band of local tradies, spent the week completely remodelling the salon.
“It was seven days of mayhem,” Ms Meurant said with a laugh.
“It took us three days to gut it back to nothing. We had to do full demolition – we had to level the concrete.
“By day four, I think I was the only business owner in the whole of Victoria that was actually praying for them to extend the lockdown until Monday.
“I was really worried we weren’t going to get operational by the Friday to take the clients on.”
But while there’s still some finishing touches left, the refit was done right on schedule, featuring new mirrors, three new basins, and a “warmer and friendlier” new look.
It’s a project that Ms Meurant has had in the pipeline for a while.
Just a few months ago, she was considering moving Retro Hair elsewhere, but the help of her landlord, and the timely lockdown, helped achieve Ms Meurant’s dream salon.
“The landlord said that I could remodel in here and we renegotiated the rent,” she said.
“I actually was going to close later in the year to do it but that was going to cost me revenue.”
Basking in her new-look shop this week, Ms Meurant told Sunraysia Daily she was delighted to still be in her happy place.
“I started looking at other shops, but I didn’t want to leave the mall,” she said.
“In the summer, it’s beautiful and green in here, and it’s so nice and friendly.
“I’ve got some great relationships with all the other shop owners.
“We’re all in this battle together to try and show the community that the precinct is quite wonderful the way it is.”
