By Travis Duncan
YourHub Community Journalist
Missy Cowan had always loved singing and dancing. While at Lewis-Palmer Middle School and Wasson High School, she sang and danced in many choirs, musicals, and plays. So pursuing a fine arts degree in Music at UCCS should have been a dream come true ... except she hated it.

"I was really frustrated with studying. I hate math," Cowan said, describing how she had been lamenting taking her upcoming math final. "I was at home crying about it on the couch when I got the call from Toni & Guy hair school."

It was a confirmation call on a haircut appointment at the hairdressing academy in Security. An appointment Cowan hadn't made.

"She got one digit off on a cell phone number and got me instead," Cowan said.

Serendipitously, Cowan had already been questioning whether she should go to a hairdressing academy - she had always cut her friends' hair in high school and had even done prom hairstyles for many of them.

"I knew I was talented at hair. I just didn't know I was willing to give up music for it," Cowan said.

Cowan took a chance and asked if there was a class coming up. She was told she would have to pass a test to be eligible for enrollment; if she passed, she could be enrolled in the class that was beginning the following week. Cowan passed the test.

Nine months and 1,800 hours of class time later, Cowan received her cosmetologist certification and began working at Beauty Brands on S. Academy and Woodmen. The perfect end to a quirky story, right? Well, not quite.

Thirteen months later, Cowan was unsatisfied with her job. Cowan said Beauty Brands corporation gave out lots of free haircut coupons, often leaving her without any money to show for her work.

"I paid way too much for my education to give it away for free," she said, "so I started looking for other places to work."

And what started out as a search for a new employer eventually lead to an open storefront in a strip mall in Palmer Lake, and a chance for the 21-year-old Cowan to start a business of her own. Cowan decided to take the entrepreneurial leap with the help of her mother, who had recently retired after 31 years of teaching Spanish at Wasson.

Stellar Styles Hair and Nail Salon was born. In addition to her mother, Cowan said a few of the girls she worked with at Beauty Brands came with her to work at the new store. The salon offers haircuts, hair color services, conditioning treatments, facial waxing, Paraffin treatments, pedicures, manicures, and even a glass of wine if you happen to drop in after 3 p.m.

"We are all about customer service," Cowan said. "We serve wine for adults and have animal crackers for the kids. We do confirmation calls so you don't feel horrible if you forget. We love what we do. It's not just a job."

More information about Stellar Styles Hair and Nail Salon is available by visiting www.stellar-styles.com or call 487-9845.