A Lesson in Resilience, Terramé Salon, Day Spa & Blow Dry Bar Opens in Madison

MADISON — Remember early last year when the local economy was booming and business owners were focused on expansion and growth?

Terramé Salon, Day Spa & Blow Dry Bar was one of them.

Mike and Charla Johnson and Mike’s brothers, Jeff and Charles, opened their first Terramé Salon on Cecil Ashburn Drive in Jones Valley 18 years ago. That was before Cecil Ashburn traversed over the mountain to Hampton Cove and they became one of the first businesses to locate on the Jones Valley side.

Over the years, Terramé grew steadily and their Midtown location on South Memorial Parkway became a big hit after featuring the city’s first Blow Dry Bar.

In 2019, the Johnsons purchased land across I-565 from Toyota Field along Madison Boulevard in Madison to build a third Terramé salon.

In February 2020, with the future bright ahead, they broke ground on the Madison site, only to have it come to a crashing halt when the COVID-19 pandemic tightened its grip on the country.

If there was any business more brutalized economically by the pandemic than the hospitality industry, it was the personal services businesses such as hair salons, massage therapy, and day spas.

“It was scary, it really was,” said Charla Johnson. “But we decided our word of the day, every day for the year 2020 and 2021 would be ‘resilience’. And that has kept us focused and moving forward.”

Their persistence paid off and the Johnsons opened their two-story, 16,660 square-foot salon and day spa at 8151 Madison Boulevard on Feb. 1. It is the largest freestanding hair salon and day spa in Alabama, excluding hotel and resort spas.

They are still completing a 5,000 square-foot commercial space next door, which they will lease to a business with whom they feel some synergy.

Madison Mayor Paul Finley praised their arrival.

“We are very happy Terramé chose our city,” said Finley. “Their new location will draw daytime traffic to Madison and, although we have a lot of people who come home to Madison after work, I am focusing on offering quality of life services that bring more people to Madison to shop, dine, and enjoy the day here.”

Jonathan Little, Midtown’s senior hairstylist and now at the Madison location, said he and his wife Tish, also a hairstylist at Terramé but on leave with their new baby, said they were terrified when the statewide shutdown orders came last year.

“Suddenly, hair became a secondary thought to people,” he said. “We didn’t know how things would go – would people start doing their own hair, or would they want a stylist to come to their home? And then there was the fear of being out of work indefinitely, which turned out to be eight weeks, especially with a baby on the way.

“But we have great leadership here. We stayed in contact with Mike and Charla the whole time and they were amazing. They made it clear there was no backing out of opening this location.

“When we came back to work, they took care of all the PPE and made sure everyone was taken care of – both employees and customers were kept safe.”

The ground floor of the new store consists of a 25-station salon for cut and color; shampoo stations with scalp massage; an eight-seat blow dry bar; a six-seat barbering station with full shaves and haircuts available; and an almost department store selection of retail products.

Social distancing is built into the wide-open floor plan. Everyone is masked, and there is Plexiglas at all the counters.

Upstairs is the luxurious day spa with its massage, facials, manicure and pedicure, waxing, professional make-up services, body treatments and Mike Johnson’s pride and joy – a 256-water jet hydrotherapy tub flown first class from Germany into Huntsville International Airport.

“Many customers enjoy getting into the hydrotherapy tub first and then having a massage because it makes your muscles more malleable,” said Charla.

“We did a lot of studying and research before we added the spa services because for a long time, massage therapy was considered self-indulging pampering.

“Now we know it is very medically beneficial to our bodies, helps us control stress, and helps the body release toxins that can make you sick.”