SALISBURY — Perseverance is a word that marks the building up of Kristina King’s business, Graceful Beauty Lounge, and her clients, plus the love of what she does, has helped her successfully reach her one-year anniversary, celebrated on Dec. 10.

King, cosmetologist and owner of the shop located at 105 W. Innes St., said, “Words cannot express how grateful I am to every one of my clients” and that she can’t say thank you enough to them because they are the “real reason” she is able to do it.

Through her first business, Extremely Lashed, which she started at 20 in Clovis, California, King gained experience that she continues to pass along to help her clientele today. The business was forced to close due to COVID, while at the same time, as the family was facing some issues in another state, her husband Josh received humanitarian orders from the United States Navy to move and get stationed and finish his active duty in Charlotte, thus bringing them to the area.

“So I made the choice to walk away from that business. It was already kind of down because of COVID,” King said. “It was kind of that perfect scenario to leave. So we made the move all the way across the country.”

However, King added that she would fly back every three weeks to keep her clients and have a flow of income and also to see her family, but as time went by, Salisbury became home and thus began to work here.

The first year while in Salisbury, however, King said she took that time to be a stay-at-home mom to their blended family of four children: Dominic, Rylee, Scarlett and Alessandra.
When they first moved, King shared it was intimidating as they had no other family in the area and didn’t know anyone at the time. The children spent time helping her in the shop, sharing how they were there at the grand opening night last year, standing outside, so excited, with signs and “shouting out at the top of their lungs, ‘raffle for free lashes,'” she said, with a smile.

Just as she had with her first business, King said she built this one from the ground up, and “once I started building those clients, it was really them who were the backbone of my business and spread through word of mouth.”

She shared that she has a good relationship with her clients, and they spend their time talking during their visits.

“I really fell in love with what I do,” King said, “and I think it’s that communication with clients where I really do get that heart-to-heart, it’s kind of like a nurse,” which is the profession she first considered.

A good student and a D-I water polo athlete while in college, King said she first considered the medical field as her career. But after her first year, she said she had an “epiphany of — I don’t really want to do anything that this entails.”

Noting that where she came from has a very good nursing program, one that is competitive with a waitlist. So, still undecided about the nurse or doctor route for her career, she wanted to do something in the meantime where she could work flexible hours and go to school.

Cosmetology school came to mind, something that King’s mom encouraged her to try, telling her she was good at makeup and should do it. She did, “and I never looked back,” King said.

When she opened her storefront, King said, “I wanted it to be a whole new beginning” and considered what would work in the South. When thinking about the South, she said she thinks of Southern belles and grace and how a lounge is where women would gather, and therefore, the name Graceful Beauty Lounge came to be.

Currently, King said she specializes in lash extension and offers this, along with waxing, tinting, and a newer service of brow laminations.

With the new year coming, she shared she is looking to expand and hopes to get into permanent makeup and add on another person, as she has been doing all this on her own.

She also hopes to have a ribbon cutting with the chamber sometime in February.

While she does partner where she can, King shared that with the new year, giving back to the community is one thing she wants to focus on, along with “trying to get better at realizing my days off. I think as business owners, we all try to work as hard as we can, and it’s like, oh yeah, we spread ourselves so thin.”

Reaching out and helping beyond the community, she and her husband are working on a project to provide care packages to active duty sailors, sharing that there are some who never receive a package while on ship. This is a project near to them because of his service in the Navy, and one they are excited about beginning in the coming year.

“We want to really just make days better for the people that are on there,” King said as they both understand deployment from two perspectives.

During her first year in business locally, King shared that she learned “really putting yourself out there as a business owner,” attending community events when you can, help putting a face and name together, and “it really just puts a face to my business, and I get clients that way.”

King pointed out that being a mom of four, she isn’t available to attend lots of events, but she stressed that “the main thing, I just need to get out of my shop. I tend to sit there,” as she pointed to the area where she works, and do lashes all night. It’s prioritizing that time. I definitely don’t always get to do that having kids, but when I do, it’s just really nice. So, making sure I do that more in 2024.”

Another important lesson King learned was when she built up her first business, being a single mom at the time and working three jobs to provide for her son.

As her clientele grew, she got to the point where she could leave the other two jobs and focus on her business and succeed. She wants to pass this message to other single moms who are struggling, those who “don’t think that they can do something like this, take those steps to go out on their own that they can do something. I just love to show them that they can. They can do it,” she said.

Many of her clients have been with King for years, even prior to getting her own location, but she noted she probably gained at least 50 new clients since opening her shop. And all may not return, but still having that many “new interactions with people….that in itself is just so crazy to think of.”

And the fact that so many do return, King said, “One, I know my work is good; and two, I know I’m making them happy as people, so I’m doing my job.

“It seems something like when you get your lashes done, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but there are so many women that get their lashes done, and they say, ‘I look in the mirror, and I feel better. It is an emotional uplifting thing for them. Mentally, you look in the mirror, and you feel more put together. You look younger, you’re happier.”

King shared how all this “feels kind of like the final step in this becoming home. It’s the real roots of the place. Josh is no longer in the Navy; he works at Freightliner. I have this business, and we’re here.”

They are home.