Magnolia raises the bar on Wrangell's beauty needs

Darian Burley's Magnolia Beauty Bar serves comfort and grooming care with a lush pedicure massage chair, salon chair and mirror, a nail care table, and hair care items for sale.

Burley offers haircuts for men, women and children, hair coloring and highlights, and pedicures and manicures at her Front Street shop. She said she's usually on the job from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Burley said she likes to keep the salon open late for people who come in after work.

There is no typical day at her salon, Burley said. There are days when all she has are pedicure appointments, or days where all she has are haircut appointments, with hair coloring booked in between.

Burley, 27, was raised in Wrangell. "My mom moved here after I was born."

She graduated Wrangell High School in 2012, went to Anchorage to get her nail license, and worked for a year doing nails at a spa in Juneau. She moved to Portland for a two-year program at a hair school, and moved back to Wrangell in 2018.

After her return, she rented out a spot in Pink & White Nails & Hair Salon. She was there for a year and a half. The pandemic hit, and she couldn't work for two months. She decided to open her own business in July 2020 - a hard choice, she said, because of COVID-19, but she felt it was time.

"I had built up my clientele here," Burley said. "I wanted more room for retail. It was a hard choice because of COVID. This spot came open. It had been a hair salon in the past. I didn't have to do a whole lot of work here."

Running her own business is definitely a lot of work, she said, more than Burley anticipated, but she liked creating a space of her own. "This job is better than I could have imagined."

Burley said her clients tell her they find the inside of the salon very relaxing, which she takes as a compliment. "I want people to feel comfortable in here."

Library director Margaret Villarma goes to Burley to get her nails done, and has been coming to her since she was working at Pink & White Nails.

"Darian has a wonderful personality," Villarma said, and added she feels relaxed at Burley's salon. "She grew up here, and I always like to support the kids that come back."

Villarma said Wrangell needs businesses such as Magnolia.

Burley said she often finds herself on her days off doing inventory and ordering supplies. But global supply chain snags have made it challenging keeping things in stock. For example, she put in an order for hair color and half of it ended up backordered.

On occasion, Burley offers walk-in men's haircuts on Sundays, and those are pretty popular, she said. She usually offers those walk-in cuts once a month. "I have a line out the door before I come to work." In three to four hours, it's not uncommon for her to complete 20 men's cuts.

Of the other services she offers, pedicure appointments see a spike in the spring and summer.

In the future, Burley said she'd like to expand her salon's offerings, as well as space. She wants to have more retail to sell, and offer "more of a boutique" - carrying jewelry and other hand-made items. She'd also like to make space for another hair station to offer to an additional stylist. There are other beauty specialists that come to town a couple of times a year, and Burley said she'd like to offer them space, too.

She has had a lot of support from everyone in town, especially her family.

"I am very blessed to be here," Burley said. Her mom works at First Bank, and her stepdad builds boats at Svendsen Marine Works. Her two teenage brothers are here, as well. "It was a big part of why I came home."