Celebrity Suites offers hair stylists rental opportunities in Mentor
Jun. 18—Lots of little girls enjoy playing with dolls.
Jamie Toll took it as a chance to start working on a future career.
"I always knew as a child I loved doing hair, starting back in elementary school I would cut my Barbie's hair," Toll said.
Toll's passion for cutting and styling hair continued through her school days, leading to the cosmetology program at Auburn Career Center and eventually to open her own salon.
It has been a long time since she was cutting her dolls' hair, but it started Toll on a path that has led to her becoming a successful businesswoman.
After 22 years as a licensed cosmetologist, the Riverside High School graduate and current Mentor resident now owns Celebrity Styles on Lakeshore Boulevard, and in the fall of 2022 opened Celebrity Suites on Plaza Boulevard.
Celebrity Suites offers suite rental for those stylists who want the freedom of working for themselves without the responsibility that goes along with owning and operating an entire salon.
"I have been wanting to do this for years as it is very hard to keep employees because everyone wants to work for themselves," Toll said "Suite rental has become very popular over the past several years with many to choose from in the Mentor area. You have the advantage of making your own hours, setting your own prices and decorating the room to your style, all without with responsibility of managing a whole salon and paying utilities and other expenses."
"Having both locations also gives the opportunity for a stylist to build their clientele up at Celebrity Styles and then when they are ready, transitioning over to Celebrity Suites to rent out a room for themselves to be their own boss," Toll said. "I have enjoyed every step of the way on this journey."
Toll said her other passion is interior design and that designing the layout and picking out the furnishings for Celebrity Suites has been fun.
As Toll entered middle school, she would style her friends' hair and tweeze their eyebrows. She then got into junior high school and started highlighting her friends' hair. She attended the Auburn Career Center cosmetology program in her junior and senior years of high school, graduated in 2001 and proceeded to go to Columbus to take the state board. Toll became a licensed cosmetologist at 17 and opened her first salon in 2005 in Painesville Township.
In 2010, Toll opened Celebrity Styles in Mentor. She loves the city, and the city in return has been good to Toll and her business.
"I'm happy to say that this time around has been a great success," Toll said of Celebrity Styles. "I have been a Mentor resident a majority of my life. And the majority of my career has been in Mentor. I learned through a fellow business owner about the MEACO opportunity for businesses specifically located in Mentor and took full advantage of the resources they offered. I love the city and all it offers."
"It's nice bumping into my clients outside of the salon at events as well," she added. "I've had some of the same clients follow me for 20 years."
Celebrity Styles at 7355 Lakeshore Blvd. is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. by appointment only Saturday. Toll said there are three employees — including herself — and "we stay very busy." Toll said the location is in need of stylists and nail techs.
Celebrity Suites at 7870 Plaza Blvd. has just finished a second phase remodel and is ready for beauty professionals to fill the suites. That location is also by appointment only as each stylist sets their own schedules and appointments.
"Over the 22 years I've been licensed, I've watched many industry changes. From getting paid an hourly rate to commission being the popular way of being paid to booth rental of the chair, back to a sliding hourly pay scale and then the popular suite rental option," Toll said. "Today, all of these options still exist."
