Glencoe-Silver Lake graduates relocate their salon and spa from Glencoe to Lester Prairie

After opening for a short time in Glencoe in mid-2024, The Mane Room Salon and Spa is now operating in Lester Prairie after opting to move there late last year, and it hopes to still serve residents of Glencoe willing to make the drive.
The business, now located at 282 Babcock Avenue Suite B, introduced itself to its new community with an open house last November where residents got to know its three owners and check out what the salon and spa has to offer.
Although The Mane Room is now in a new town, its ties to Glencoe remain strong as it is owned and operated by Glencoe-Silver Lake graduates Brooke Noeldner, 27, Mya Lyrek, 24, and Maren Roepke, 21. The three young women have known each other for many years.
Although they all work for the same business and style hair, each also has a specialty.
Noeldner has nine years of experience in the beauty industry, and for some time she owned and operated BROOKESBLONDES, a salon in Wayzata. Her first business received high praise as it placed second in the Best Hairstylist in the Twin Cities Collective Best of Hair Awards in 2021 and 2022.
She offers a variety of hair services from perms to hair extensions. However, she specializes in nail services and has extensive experience working with blondes.
Noeldner graduated from Model College of Hair Design and has continually taken more classes over the years. She has also taught classes, and through her assistant program, she has helped several stylists enter the industry.
Lyrek has been in the industry for just over a year, and she offers services such as hair styling, esthetics, spray tanning, and special event styling. She attended cosmetology school at Ridgewater College and recently completed the school’s advanced practice esthetics (APE) program.
This allows her to use and sell specialized advanced skincare products.
Lyrek also received her custom air-brush spray tan certification from the National Spray Tanning Professional Association and her hair extension certification from Babe Hair Extensions. She is the only one of the three women who can perform spray tans on clients. She specializes in facials and waxing.
Roepke started in the industry last year when she began assisting Noeldner at BROOKESBLONDES, and she has since learned all about hair coloring and cutting. She offers hair coloring and cutting, and she specializes in hair and lash extensions.
She attended cosmetology school at Nova Academy of Cosmetology in Mankato and is certified in hair extensions through Silvie Hair Academy in Wayzata. She is also certified in lash extensions through The Lash Professional Academy.
By working together, the three women can provide a wide array of services to their clients. Because each has their specialty, they often refer their clients to one another for specific services.
“For example, if one of my hair clients or nail clients wants a facial, I’ll just refer them to Mya, and if they want hair or lash extensions I’ll send them to Maren,” Noeldner said.
The girls also sell a variety of products at their salon, with each selling haircare products as well as products related to the services that they specialize in. As the only APE among them, Lyrek is the only one who can sell specialized advanced skincare products.
“Clients have to get them directly from me because only a licensed APE can order them,” she said. “All of the APE products you see on Amazon are fake.”

Businesses within a business

Though Noeldner, Lyrek, and Roepke all work for The Mane Room, they each operate as independent stylists.
“We each have different price points, and the hardest thing we’ve found we’ve had to navigate since being in a small town is that everyone wants to know our prices. We’re all at different levels in our careers, and since we’re independent, we run our own things,” Noeldner said. “As a whole, we’re one business, but we’re running three businesses out of one because we’re all in charge of our own books and of our own scheduling. We work completely independently, just out of the same building and under the same name.”
Roepke said that the setup works well for them.
“It’s nice because we’re all at different stages in our life and we all specialize in different things so we all learn from each other in so many ways,” she said.
Noeldner agreed and said that their specialties help to remove any feelings of competition between them.
“There’s just so much to learn in the industry, and all three of us do a lot of blondes and blonde coloring, but Mya does skin care, Maren does lashes, and I do nails so there’s not really any competition between us,” she said.
Bookings can be made online for each stylist at www.maneroommn.com/book. Potential clients can also call or text the business at 320-510-7675, or message it on its Facebook and Instagram pages.
The business services women, men, and children. All three of the stylists work full-time, and they are rather flexible in their work schedules. 
“A lot of people ask what our hours are, and we don’t have specific hours because we’re all independent, but all three of us are super accommodating,” Noeldner said. “Usually we’re open Monday through Friday, and Mya works some Saturdays, but we’re just trying to get people booked so if we can make it work, we usually do.”
However, they prefer that clients book appointments online rather than expect to walk in.
“We’ve had people walk in, though we don’t do walk-ins because we’re usually booked out,” Noeldner said. “If we have the time and someone walks in we’ll definitely do it; it’s just better to make an appointment.”
The only service offered by The Mane Salon that cannot be booked online is tanning. Those interested in tanning are encouraged to contact the salon directly to book an appointment.

Founding the Mane Room

Lyrek and Roepke each worked for Noeldner at her first salon, and it was during that time that they became much closer to one another. While Lyrek eventually left to work independently closer to home, Roepke stayed until Noeldner decided to close BROOKESBLONDES.
She did so after getting the idea to start a new salon in her hometown alongside Lyrek and Roepke.
They also hoped that a business closer to home would attract more people who lived in the area.
Things moved quickly, and last March they opened The Mane Room in Glencoe.
Noeldner said that while it was easier to start a business in her second go around, there are always new things to learn.
“There’s a lot of little things you need to do that I had experience with, but then there’s also been a lot of things that the three of us had to figure out together,” Noeldner said. “We’ve all become really close because of it.”

Moving to Lester Prairie

In July, the trio decided to move their business from Glencoe to Lester Prairie, and with the move came an expansion by way of their new space being about three times larger than their previous location.
This allowed them to add more services like tanning and nail services, and they now offer most services that can be found at high-end salons.
Lyrek said it was important to her and her co-owners to ensure that their new location offered a full salon experience rather than a quick stop. Noeldner echoed her comment.
“If people want a quick experience, there are other chain salons that do that. We try to make it so that our clients get a unique experience,” she said. “We’re also super accommodating to each client’s preferences, like if they want a silent appointment we can do that, or if they want to talk the whole time then that’s great, too.”
“We’re trying to make it more of an experience because I feel like that’s something you would usually find closer to the cities rather than in small towns,” Noeldner continued. “We want to bring a modern salon to Lester Prairie.”
She also said that the small-town environment of Lester Prairie will help to form relationships with clients and that referrals in a small community can make a big impact on a business.
“We want to connect with our clients and build friendships with them. You get so close with people because you’re making them feel good about themselves; if that’s not your favorite thing about this industry then you shouldn’t be in it because it’s so important to make people feel good about themselves,” Noeldner said.
“Some people are insecure, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, but this work involves a lot of building people up and a lot of emotional connection. We know things about people’s personal lives like if they’re having a bad day or if something happened in their family, so forming relationships with clients is something that I really value, and I know the other two feel the same way.”
While the three girls are happy to be serving residents of a new town, they hope to still serve those who used their services in Glencoe.

Open house for an open salon

While The Mane Room began operations in Lester Prairie last September, it did not host its open house until late last November.
The open house that it hosted was unique in that the three girls invited several local businesses to be a part of it as vendors.
“We are big on supporting other small businesses, and we had some sort of connection to all of the vendors we had here,” Lyrek said. “The biggest thing for us was to spread the word for them. Each of the vendors pretty much sold out on everything they had there.”
The vendors included Rest Massage and Spa, 41 Loaves Sourdough, Burnt Brims, SnackBOX, Stacked MN, and the local liquor store that shares a building with The Mane Room.
In total, around 150 to 160 individuals attended the open house.
“We are so thankful to those who showed up to the open house because we did not expect the turnout we got,” Noeldner said.
“That open house was better than we could have imagined,” Roepke said.