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Salon a snip of western Colorado

Carrie Click
Post Independent Photo/Kara K. PearsonConnie Webber cuts a client's hair Thursday evening. Webber is co-owner of the Creekside Salon and Day Spa in New Castle.
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NEW CASTLE – Over the river and across the cattle guard is the way to Creekside Salon & Day Spa – western Colorado’s answer to Truvy’s Beauty Salon, the popular cut-‘n’-curl meeting spot of the film “Steel Magnolias.” Like Truvy’s, the place has the same bustling feeling that a bunch of strong women create when they’re focusing on hair, nails, makeup and, of course, gossip. But it’s not just about the girls: Plenty of men frequent the salon, too.”Oh, they’re not intimidated,” said co-owner Cindy Stillman, watching as a man arrived through the front door for his haircut appointment. “We’ve got quite a few male clients.” And what makes Creekside so, well, western Colorado is its new location in a big old high-ceilinged, log-built structure, complete with wood floors, exposed log walls, a set of elk antlers on the wall, and a taxidermied goose named Blue, draped with a leopard-patterned scarf, no less.

“We’ve got a new ambiance,” said Stillman, looking around at the rustic yet comfortable space, stacks of People magazines and The Star sitting next to couches and chairs. “And we’ve got more energy because we’ve got more people.” Stillman and salon co-owner Connie Webber have added four more hairdressers since moving into their new space: Lynette Cerise, Julie Dodo, Brenda Maddalone and Karen Wood, who, collectively, have a combined total of 135 years experience in hair and skin care. Spending the day at the salon would be easy to do. Besides offering haircuts, the half-dozen professionals also offer facials, waxing, perms, eyebrow tints and waxing, deep conditioning treatments, stress-therapy back treatments and more. Creekside, er, riverside

Creekside has been around for six years, even though the salon is now in its largest and most impressive location yet.When they started, Stillman and Webber informally cut hair in the basement of Webber’s sister’s house in Castle Valley. The name, Creekside, came from a creek that ran close by the house.”Actually, it was a ditch, but it was fixed up to look like creek,” Stillman said with a smile. With clientele growing, the stylists knew they’d have to expand operations, so they moved into a vintage brick building on Main Street in New Castle. At that point, there was a creek in the vicinity – Elk Creek rolled by a few blocks west of the shop – so they decided to keep the name.



Now, Creekside is next to one big honking creek – the Colorado River. The salon sits on the river’s edge, south of the New Castle exit off Interstate 70. The salon’s new digs used to serve as a convenience store and gas station, and is currently for sale. Love those coolersSo how did the girls find themselves in this former convenience store that certainly looks more like a hunting lodge than a 7-11?”It was my idea,” Stillman said. “And once Connie saw the inside and could see the potential, she said to me, ‘We’re doing it.'”

It took months to clean out the abandoned building, spruce it up and ready it for business. Cindy’s husband, finish carpenter Royale Stillman, built all the hairdressing stations, and the women spent weeks mucking out the building and decorating. The transformation is complete. The place has no resemblance to a convenience store anymore – except maybe for the walk-in coolers.”Oh, we use those to cool off,” Cerise said with a laugh. “They’re great for hot flashes.” Contact Carrie Click: 625-5088, ext. 101cclick@postindependent.com


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