Meet Megan Duba of Southside Salon in SouthPark

Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Duba.

Southside Salon is owned by stylist Megan Duba and was designed by her and her team to reflect an industrial, luxurious and comfortable feel. The Southside team wanted to create an environment that was unique for the client and fitting of the historic and charming South Park neighborhood in which it is located. The salon offers exceptional hair services, a professional and passionate staff, and unique products and gifts. Being a native to the SOUTHSIDE of Chicago, Megan incorporated historic and unique pieces from her hometown into the design and decor of the salon.

Our Southsiders take great pride in their training and stay up to date on current beauty and fashion trends. We provide high-end hair cutting and color services, professional make up services, and certified smoothing and conditioning treatments. Our team loves to host and assist in-salon wedding parties, bachelorette parties, and other fun styling events. Since the reception area of our salon is designed to reflect a cozy, trendy living room, clients, groups, and bridal parties enjoy lounging while sipping champagne and wine.

Southside Salon believes in healthy hair and our stylists always back up their work with the proper products, tools, and accessories. We proudly carry Unite Haircare, Brazilian Blowout, L’Oréal Professional. Our salon also retails unique accessories and gifts, including Pink Pewter headbands, Tess & Tricia jewelry, Rosebud Lip Co.’s lip balms, Ms. Betty’s Badass Candles, Wet Brush hair equipment, signature Southside Salon apparel, and more.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To be honest, my road in opening my first business had been nothing BUT smooth. Since the beginning of my career in the beauty industry, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by the funniest, most dedicated, and most talented group of girls. We have stuck together since the beginning of our careers, watched each other’s families grow, stuck with each other through some of the toughest struggles of life, vacationed together, etc. And I’m not going to lie, we still have pajama parties! My girls (9 in total) are the SOLE reason my business has thrived!

I also chose South Park as my business’ home and that was the best decision I could have made! The South Park neighborhood was instantly welcoming (and we all know how intimidating some neighborhoods can be). From the start of our build (yes, we built our salon from the ground up!) the surrounding businesses were immediately protective, constantly checking in on us, and are always fun to pop in and share hilarious stories!

I never meant to BUILD a salon either! The thought of that, initially, would have scared the pants off me! Lol! But knowing I ONLY wanted to start a business in South Park, I had no other option. The day I saw the empty lot (the day after New Year’s Eve) it was nothing but mud puddles and a construction fence. We joke now that I must’ve had too much champagne on New Year’s Eve to have done something so crazy! But 9 months later (I literally had a salon baby!) we were open and rockin’!

Please tell us about Southside Salon.
I think what sets us apart from others, honestly, is the closeness of our girls. EVERYDAY our clients tell us, “It seems like everyone here gets along so well”. And the truth is, WE DO! No matter how challenging of a schedule we may have, our job just seems so easy because there is always someone that will step in and assist, or at least have us laughing hysterically!

Our salon is open 7 days a week. Aside from typical hairstyling, coloring, cutting, extensions, etc, we do a lot of traveling to other sites for weddings and special events. Somehow I was blessed with an entire team that specializes in wedding hair, and that is so rare. And for the wedding parties that wish to prepare at our location, they, most times, get the entire salon to themselves. Our rustic decor makes for great photos, and we enjoy watching photographers use our exposed brick to stage wedding gown photos!

Our salon also has a small boutique so your hair appointment can also be spent shopping for cute gifts other than hair products!

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood is actually a LOT of memories…it is all the sports I was active in since a super young age. I come from a family of all girls (4 sisters, one of which is my twin) and although photos of us may appear “girlie”, we have all somehow managed to be pretty “tom boyish”. (My husband is always amazed when I throw a football with a perfect spiral!) And I always tell my clients that they wouldn’t even recognize me on my off days. I can be seen wearing running shorts, mismatched socks, and hair so tangly I sometimes need my husband’s help brushing it out! The memories of softball, gymnastics, swimming, muddy socks, pants with holes, and dirt on my homework is definitely the best memories someone could have!

Pricing:

• cuts ladies $65+ men $40+ girls (10 and under) $45 boys (10 and under) $25 bang trims & neck trim $5 styling shampoo & blowdry $40 *add $10 for hot tool up-do/glamour $85 brazilian blowout $250 express deep conditioning treatment $30 *add $20 for blowdry/style deluxe deep conditioning treatment $40 *add $20 for blowdry/style color *add $20 for blow-dry/style root touch-up $75+ all-over color $95+ partial highlight $95+ full highlight $125+ face-frame highlight $40+ color gloss $40+ color correction $consult makeup application $75 application (with lashes) $95 touch-up $45 eyes only $35 extensions *hair extensions and extension touch-ups are by consultation only waxing eyebrow $20 lip $15 chin $15 weddings/parties/events

Contact Info:

• Address: Southside Salon
  2014 30th Street, suite 101
  San Diego, CA 92123
• Website: www.southsidesalonsd.com
• Phone: 619.501.1681
• Email: southsidesalonsd@gmail.com
• Instagram: @southsidesalonsd
• Facebook: Southside Salon

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