Strandz Salon & Threadz Boutiques Story
The owners Stacy, Julie and Stefanie are all sisters and grew up on a farm in Galena with their two brothers. Growing up whatever needed to be done was always done together from cutting grass to snapping beans or just having a good game of kickball. Not much has changed since then thanks to role models of their parents Betty and Paul Lenfert.
Growing up it was not very often that we were taken to get our haircut, normally that was taken care of by our Dad or a family friend. We often had the privilege of listening to our fellow classmates sing In the Navy to us as they thought we were boys from our bowl haircuts! Stacy realized this and knew we did not have any chance for any type of style so being the loving sister she is joined cosmetology school. It was great we always had trendy fun hair now if we were made fun of at least they knew we were a girl!
In 1985 the salon Stacy was working at went up for sale. Joking at the supper table one night, yes we all ate together every night regardless that was the rules, she mentioned if anyone knew someone who wanted to buy the salon or she might have to find a new job. Our Mom was in her 50’s and I was a teenager so looking back we guess it was Dads way of giving Mom a hobby after raising 5 kids for over 25 years! Needless to say they bought House of Rosemary and Mens Corner and Stacy continued to work there. It was one of the largest full service salons in New Albany with a separate area for Men, we have always tried to set ourselves apart from the “normal” salon.
From there many other salon opportunities came up:
~1987 they opened a second location in downtown New Albany on Pearl Street
~1988 they bought Heritage House at Highlander Point
~1989 they purchased Hair Affair in Palymra
~1990 their lease at House of Rosemary came up and the landlords wanted our space so they split the salon up into two locations one on Charlestown Road with the same name and purchased a new salon Beauty World off Grantline Road to move all their current stylist too. There was not one location large enough to house all the employees. Beauty World came with a bonus, stylist and artist Larry Dalhover!
~1991 we official opened a separate boutique that was connected to Beauty World, this was one of my dreams. We always sold accessories but this was the real deal its own space, the name was 3312 Plaza Drive Dad thought it was cool to use the address it was popular at the time!
~1993 our parents decided it was time to move on and offered the three of us girls the opportunity to purchase the salons. Sitting around Stacy’s kitchen table we struck a deal! Once we took ownership we changed the name to Strandz Salon & Threadz Boutique it stood for strandz of hair and threadz of clothing, thanks to Larry Dalhover who created it!
~1994 our lease came up for renewal and guess what our landlord wanted our space so he could start brewing his own beer. So once again we had to move but this time we decided we do not want to go through leases anymore! We asked our two brothers to join us where we created the Lenfert 5 partnership and purchased our current home at 322 Vincennes Street. Looking back it was a blessing they needed our space because it caused us to grow! Now the building we bought was vacant for 3 years and it was the old New Albany Beauty School where guess who attended school? Yep Stacy was back home again! Now looking at pictures it was amazing we could see past the plywood door and torn awnings to see the true beauty the building had.
~1995 Jolar Pet Store, which was between the buildings we just bought and our parking lot, decided after 36 years he was ready to sell! Yes we were not really ready for the extra space but it was an opportunity we could not pass up so we did.
~1997 after taking our time this go around we expanded Threadz boutique to the old pet store and connected it to the other two buildings.
~2004 we finally connected the buildings in the back so now the buildings were complete.
~2016 we started our Decades of Style in our event room in honor of the buildings being salon related since 1937!
Our parents always said take care of your community and your community will take care of you and it has now for over 30 years, we love our hometown New Albany!
