Cami Mathiason knew from an early age that she wanted to be a hairstylist. She loved their ability to make people feel beautiful and confident.
The Boise native grew up with self-employed parents, who helped inspire her to do the same.
“I wanted to be able to have a career that I could be a mom at the same time,” she said. “At 16, I fell in love with hair. Fast-forward 10 years, and I got into the hair extension side.”
Mathiason is the owner of MANE Styling Studio in Meridian, which primarily offers luxury hair extensions and color services.
Having worn hair extensions since she was 18, Mathiason said she came across her current method of offering them when she got a new set for her wedding in 2018.
“I had really short, thin hair. You just want beautiful, luscious hair for pictures and just to feel your best,” she said. “I had a local hairstylist introduce me to the Natural Beaded Rows (NBR) method. I found out the soonest training was the week after my wedding. So, instead of a honeymoon, we flew to Huntington Beach, California, and spent the week in training. … My love for the method showed. Six months later, I gave up the clientele I had and solely offered extensions."
While Mathiason said one of her favorite parts of working with extensions is being able to create a dramatic result, something else offers her more satisfaction.
“That’s definitely helping women that have health issues or autoimmune diseases: people that have significantly lost their hair,” she said. “We're seeing a lot of COVID hair loss right now. The ability to help them with hair extensions and hair replacement, ... being able to provide that confidence back, that's the most gratifying part.”
Mathiason had a recent example of a nurse who had contracted COVID-19 four times and lost nearly all of her hair.
“We were able put extensions in with the little hair that she had,” Mathiason said. “And she actually broke down into tears and was crying when we were finished just because she was so excited to have her normal hair look. She’ll have the hair extensions as she goes through the regrowth process. That happens a lot. We get a lot of tears in our chairs. It’s kind of great, especially being able to help somebody that goes through something that they just have no control over.”
Mathiason’s salon instituted an application process to make sure people were good candidates for extensions.
“It’s definitely a lifestyle,” she said. “We call them the ‘highest low maintenance type of service.’ Maintenance on extensions is about every 8 to 12 weeks. You come in, get them taken out, and moved up. You want to make sure you can commit to taking care of them to protect your investment.”
Once a guest is approved, Mathiason said they take a deposit, schedule the first appointment, and then custom order the human hair used for the extensions. The hair and the extensions are custom colored to match seamlessly. Then, the extensions are attached.
"Our methods don’t use heat or glue,” Mathiason said of NBR and the Invisible Bead Extensions methods. “We use just beads and strings. You can create a foundation with the beads and the strings and then we attach the hair to that. It’s tied in.”
From there, the hair is styled, ‘after’ shots are taken to go with the ‘before’ photos, and guests are sent home with products and care instructions. All in all, that first appointment can take anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours. As for the cost?
“An average, brand-new install is roughly $1,200, but our prices can range from $500-$3,900,” Mathiason said. “Hair extension services are personal to you and your needs. No guest is the same. From there, the tightening reservation every 8-12 weeks can be anywhere from $150 to $350, depending on coloring and how many rows we do.”
With MANE being an extension-focused salon, Mathiason said people travel from across the country to visit. The shop opened in February 2020, and is appointment only.
“I was training with NBR and training with salon owners from all over the country, and I saw a lot of different ways of running one,” Mathiason said about opening MANE. “I wanted to create an entirely different experience, focusing a lot more on the guests instead of just how many clients we can get in within a day. Idaho needed something different, and a salon that was niched in this service."
To learn more, visit ManeStylingStudio.com.
