Vibe Studio hair salon celebrates official grand opening in downtown Gardner

GARDNER – There’s a new vibe in the air downtown.

The Vibe Studio hair salon, which has been open since March 2020, celebrated its official grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, June 6.

Surrounded by city officials and co-workers, owner Eric DeJackome borrowed a pair of oversized, non-salon regulation scissors from the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce to cut the ribbon in front of his studio at 33 Pleasant Street.

DeJackome said he was grateful for all of the support the community had shown him since he first opened his business in the former Gardner Co-Operative Bank building. He said it was a challenge to establish his new venture during the height of the pandemic shutdown, but that he had little doubt he could make it work.

“It was slow going at first because there were only four of us (stylists), but now, including myself, there are nine of us – eight stylists and (Ryan Akin), our massage therapist,” DeJackome explained, adding that he wasn’t quite finished growing his business. “I definitely have room for more stylists.”

Stylist Denise Cerrati also offers a yoga class at the salon each Sunday, he added.

DeJackome said he would eventually like to provide additional services, including lashes, nails and skin care.

“I really want to bring in anything that would benefit the area, especially like things that you can’t get around here,” he said. “I just want to bring more to the community, more to the town. I really just want this (salon) to be its own little hub and have all kinds of things going on here.”

DeJackome said he was happy to be the latest business over the past few months to officially open in the city. He said one of his goals when he first opened his doors two years ago was to show that businesses could be successful in the downtown area.

“I want to be one of the reasons this town gets revived, and I feel like it just takes one step to get there, just one person to kind of set the trend,” he explained. “And I was kind of hoping to do that when I got this place.”

Jessica DeRoy, the city’s economic development director, said she appreciated the fact that DeJackome had the confidence to open his business during the pandemic.

“(The salon) survived, then thrived, and we’re here to help them celebrate,” she said.

State Rep. Jonathon Zlotnik, D-Gardner, said the success of Vibe Studio was an indication that the city’s downtown area was on an economic upswing. He said another sign things were going in the right direction was the amount of construction and renovation activity he saw on his short walk over from City Hall.

“I saw buildings with scaffolding, a couple more with people in hardhats going in and out – I think it shows the amount of investments and new commercial activity, and reinvigorated commercial activity, going on in the city of Gardner, specifically the downtown area,” Zlotnik said.

Mayor Michael Nicholson said the grand opening of another successful business in the city’s downtown shows that real economic progress is ongoing in the area.

“This is the seventh ribbon-cutting we’ve had this year in Gardner alone, and while Vibe has been here for a while, they opened during the pandemic and just weren’t able to have their official ribbon-cutting until now, and that just shows the resilience of this business,” Nicholson said.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Vibe Studio hair salon in Gardner celebrates official grand opening