Shades of Gray opens downtown

A new full service salon is ready to open in downtown Tea.

Shades of Gray has partially opened, but owner Wendy Mork expects the spa to fully open in a couple of weeks after they pass their inspection. Located in a more than 1,000-square-foot space on Second Street in downtown Tea, Mork and her three stylists will offer numerous services.

Clients will be able to receive services from colors to perms to cuts, plus full body waxing, facials, pedicures, nails, microdermabrasion, lash lifts, tints and makeup.

With 18 years of experience managing the salon at Dow Rummel Village in Sioux Falls, plus 12 years at the Stylist in Sioux Falls and owning her own in-home salon, Mork looks forward to owning her own full spa. Two of her stylists also worked with her at Dow Rummel.

“We just decided to do it. Tea has a few salons, but there’s not really any full service salons that offer everything and that’s what our goal is,” Mork said.

She said now was the time to open her own spa because the pandemic locked down Dow Rummel to only residents. The lockdown did not allow for any of their outside clientele to come in for services, which was about 50 percent of the business.

While Mork grew up in Marshall, Minn., she has lived in Tea with her family since 2001.

In her career, Mork said the beauty industry has changed. When she first graduated from beauty school, she was doing perms and basic highlights. Now they are doing a lot of microdermabrasions, lash lifts and facials and coloring hair differently.

“People are being more adventurous. When I graduated, it was perms and basic highlights. Now there’s a lot of different ways you can do color,” she said.

To keep up with the latest in the industry, Mork and her colleagues continue with classes. They feature Londa Professional products and Mork said the company plans to use her salon for classes in 2021.

Shades of Gray will be open Mondays through Saturdays with stylists having their own hours.