A trip to Deana Martini’s new Southside salon isn’t just about getting a fresh look or a bodacious Brazilian blow-out. Customers at Deanna Merrill’s Salon Including Royalty Gifts encounter a new experience in a shop where they can update their looks while also accessorizing their wardrobe and sprucing up their home.
The latest in beauty trends blends seamlessly into a unique shopping experience in Martini’s new location in the King’s Crossing Shopping Center at the corner of Staples and Yorktown. She opened the combo salon and gift shop last year as she celebrated 28 years in the beauty business, 20 with her own salon.
Martini moved from a smaller, studio-type salon off Everhart in the Lamar Park area to King’s Crossing in June 2014.
With an eye on the continued growth of the city’s Southside, Martini easily spotted the joint opportunities.
“There was not a gift shop this far out,” Martini said. “Having been in the business for that many years, I also knew I needed to change things up a little bit — not just move my business again.”
Adding the gift shop to the salon also highlights an entrepreneurial spirit Martini said runs in the family. That same drive led her to open her first salon in June 1995 behind the Gulfway Shopping Center, building it from the ground up to include a staff of 18. She stayed in the bigger shop for 15 years, raising her two kids, but trimmed it down when the kids got older and busier, moving to the Everhart location.
“Then, we had two more kids,” Martini said laughing. “We call them our miracle babies.”
For her third move, she decided she needed something to keep the excitement going for both herself and her clientele.
“We needed to get something else out there,” she said, referring to the Southside. “This is where the city is growing.”
Thanks to that and the level of respect her clients have for her, she said almost all her customers followed her to the other side of South Padre Island Drive.
“I thank my customers every day for their business,” Martini said, adding that even after all her years in the industry, she still finds the work rewarding. “I love the people. I love it just as much today as I did in the beginning.”
Born for the beauty business
Martini said she knew early on she wanted to go into the beauty business.
“I was always liked to fix my friends’ hair, whether we were in gymnastics putting it up in buns, or wherever,” she said.
She took two years of cosmetology classes in high school and then passed the state board exams for her license after graduating. She worked in hair salons all through college as she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology. Friends often ask her why she never used that degree.
“I use it every day,” she tells them, adding slyly that they just don’t realize it. “It’s a nice degree to have working in the people industry.”
Along with two retail specialists in the gift shop, the current Deana Merrill’s Salon including Royalty Gifts now features herself and two stylists who provide full-service hair care for men, women and kids. A facialist and massage therapist rounds out the staff to seven.
In the gift shop, customers find high-quality, affordable merchandise not available elsewhere.
“That’s my number one thing going to market,” Martini said. “I look for high-quality, nice merchandise, but not outrageously expensive. I look for a moderate price base.”
The boutique-style storefront invites visitors to browse among the glitz and sparkle of one-of-a-kind jewelry, accessories and home items before walking through the door into an open, upscale, full-service salon.
“It’s great for picking up a drop-in gift, hostess gifts, birthday gifts or just-because gifts,” Martini said. “And you can always find something for yourselves.”
Drop in anytime to Deana Merrill’s Salon Including Royalty Gifts at 7602 S. Staples St. in Corpus Christi. Call (361) 994-7884 for an appointment. And be sure to arrive early so you can shop while you wait.