Redd Hair Studio

"Initially, I wanted to become a hockey player, and go to Michigan University on a hockey scholarship,'' says Redd Hair Studio owner, Shannon Wilson. The story of how this aspiring hockey star swapped her skates for scissors is nothing short of serendipitous. ''When I was 17, I wanted blonde hair, so I bleached it myself and it turned out to be an absolute mess. I ran to the local mall to get the hairstylist there to fix my hair, which he did. As I sat there, I noticed how much fun he had at work, and really was impressed by that. I asked him if he would hire me if I went to hair school, and he said he would," Shannon recalls.

Shannon completed her hairstyling course and, as promised, landed her first job at the salon that fixed her hair months earlier. "That's really how it all started," Shannon says. After a while, Shannon began to realize there was more to hairstyling than simply cutting hair. “I wanted to do fashion shows, celebrities, be in magazines,” she says. She researched the best salon and applied for a job there.

In addition to styling hair, Shannon honed her management skills by running the day-to-day business of the salon. One day, feeling the need to keep growing professionally, she decided to open her own salon. ''I went to the bank, got a loan and that's how Redd was born! I was 23 at the time.''