Upper St. Clair native opens hair salon in Mt. Lebanon
After Meg Frattare graduated college, she started going to a hair salon for the first time.
She got hooked. She loved the way she felt when she entered the salon. She loved the people and the personalities.
And, most importantly, she loved the way she looked and felt when she left the salon.
A few years later in 2009, after experiencing what Frattare, an Upper St. Clair native, described as being a “struggling artist” as a fiber artist and sculptor, she decided to turn her artistic passion to hair.
Now 35, Frattare has her own, small hair salon in Mt. Lebanon.
“It’s the best job in the world,” Frattare said. “I love giving people that feeling that I got when I got my hair done.”
Frattare began in her salon, Meg Frattare Studio, as one of 18 individual salons at Sola Salon Studio at the Galleria in Mt. Lebanon in mid-October. Her first haircut was her father – and former Pittsburgh Pirates radio announcer – Lanny Frattare.
Sola Salon Studio is a national organization with more than 350 locations and more than 10,000 stylists. Sola’s tagline is “your life, your style,” as a focus on the autonomy of the stylists. Frattare, who had previously been a stylist at Izzazu Salon in downtown Pittsburgh, said she’s enjoyed being at Sola.
“It’s a really cool concept,” she said. “It’s really personalized, and everything inside those four walls is my decision. I get to choose everything. It’s really exciting, because I finally am making decisions on my own.”
While she enjoyed her time at Izzazu, Frattare thought it was time for her to take a risk.
“I had gone as far in the company as I could,” she said. “It was just time. The owners of the salon were really great mentors for me. It was just time to kind of take the reigns. I chose Sola because it’s a great way for a stylist to sort of start on their own without the huge overhead or a $100,000 loan. They take on everything, and you pay them rent. The company is awesome.”
Frattare specializes in custom men’s and women’s hair cutting, custom color, balayage and bridal and on-set styling.
“I keep it pretty classic with some updated, retro influences,” she said.
Meg Frattare Studio is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To schedule an appointment, visit bit.ly/MegFrattareStudio or contact her through her Facebook pages @megfrattarestudio and @MegFrattareStyling.