FAITH — By incorporating her love of multiple things into one shop, Rowan County native and South Rowan High School graduate Alexis Ksobiech is fulfilling a longtime dream.

Ever since she was a little girl, she said she has wanted to own her own beauty salon. Alexis has memories of getting off the bus every day after school and spending that time with her great-grandmother, who owned Wanda’s Beauty Shop in Rockwell. 

“That inspired me to want to be a hairstylist and open my own salon one day,” she said.

Unable to use that particular building because it is too old and out of code and too small for her needs, Alexis said, she is using the same pink and girlie design that her great-grandmother had in her shop.

Her shop, located at 106 N. Main St., Faith, has a second feature that she grew to love is the coffee shop portion. This idea of having this aspect came about, she said, when she had her boys and was a stay at home mom and COVID was happening.

The family was in Wisconsin at the time with her husband Dylan’s family for a while. Needing a little extra income, she found a local coffee shop where she worked mornings while Dylan stayed home with the boys, Maverick and Levi, and then when she came home, he went to work.

 “I loved being a barista,” Alexis said.

And adding this just seemed like a natural fit as she remembers seeing women come in with coffee or snacks in hand while they were getting their hair done.

So, she said, “I need both. I love being a barista. I wanted my own salon. I want the beauty and I want the bean.”

And because “The Beauty and the Beast” was her favorite Disney movie growing up, the name of her dream business fell into place, Beauty & The Bean.

The official grand opening for her shop is scheduled for June 29 with a ribbon cutting ceremony set for 10 a.m. and the doors opening at 10:30 a.m.

When customers first walk into the front door of Beauty & The Bean, they will be in the coffee shop area where they can either take a seat at the coffee bar or at one of the pub tables and be served a variety of drinks, which in addition to coffee, includes different lemonades, Lotus energy drinks and Frappuccinos.

Additional choices on the menu will include soft serve ice cream and goodies from the bakery case as she has three local bakers providing sweet treats such as pies, cookies and cake jars, she said.

For the present time, what she will have to offer will be mostly sweet items, but there will also be fresh fruit and bagels, Alexis said.

The front room also has some other special areas including a community book wall where people can take a book and leave a book. And if you want to start reading it while you are in the shop, there will be little couches in a little nook area to do just that.

Thanks to family and friends who have been collecting books for months, she has a good supply of books to place on the shelves that have been built and placed along the wall, she said.

There will also be a kids area where they can also enjoy a book or spend time coloring.

Her children inspired her to incorporate these two areas into the shop as she pointed out that when she wants to meet up with friends, it’s too loud at the jumpy places. She likes to read, but said her children would be too noisy to take to the library and you can’t take food in the library.

Therefore, she came up with this idea to have it all under one roof and she can read and the kids can play and it won’t matter how loud they are.

“This just seems like a fun hangout spot,” Alexis said.

The beauty salon is on the other side of the double swinging doors, original to the building, as they were once the front doors, Alexis said.

She wanted to keep as much of the building as possible to reuse; however, the doors “weren’t in good enough shape to use as the front any more, but I am using them in the middle,” she said. 

Once you go through the swinging doors, there are six hair stylist stations and an esthetician room where facials will be done. In the second room in the back, she would love to have two nail technicians; however, she doesn’t have nail techs yet, but would love to be able to have two.

Along with the nail techs, she still has space for some additional stylists. Those interested in learning more about these positions can call or text her at 704-907-8872.

Another thing Alexis would like to offer the community is a venue where they can book the space after regular business hours and have tea parties or church groups can meet there or book clubs or women’s paint night.

“I love those kinds of things. And Faith doesn’t have evening activities,” she said.

Lots of remodeling has gone in the building, which at last use, she said, was a hardware store. However, it sat empty for a long time and so they have had to “basically rip the building out and bring it up to current code for everything.”

She said she and Dylan pulled up the floors board by board, filled in dirt and graded it off and poured a concrete slab, as well as built all new walls.

At the start, it was mostly herself and her husband, who is a handyman, but they needed to hire out the help as it was just taking too long, Alexis said.

The couple is not a stranger to remodeling as Alexis said they have been flipping houses for several years.

“We love remodeling older homes, usually historical homes, homes that have been abandoned for years, we usually get those, and we go and gut them out and make them new and pretty for somebody,” she said,

She also noted that she loves everything vintage and wants to incorporate that into the building as well “because it is an older building.”

And while she loves and wants vintage items in the shop, she wants to have a trendy look as well so all ages will come in and enjoy their time there.

Taking her children back and forth to school at Faith Charter, Alexis said she saw this building all the time and wanted it for a long time.

Sad to see the empty buildings in the town, she was really excited when she could come up with the necessary funds to purchase, which they did last December, and began the remodeling process in January.

And while she said that it has been really difficult opening up a business, she is thankful for the help along the way as she said she was thankful for her family “because they’ve been a lot of help.”

Business hours at Beauty & The Bean begin at 6:45 a.m. for the coffee shop and remain open until 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For the beauty shop, hours for walk-ins are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. However, each stylist can set their own hours and book appointments for later in the evening as well as weekends, she said.