Mandy McCoy: Founder of Studio Galactica

CDN's weekly community profile

Mandy McCoy

Age: 47

Residence: Just outside of Bellingham

Lived here for: 28 years

Originally from: Skagit Valley

Notable: Founder and hairstylist at Studio Galactica, a salon in Bellingham

Tell me about how Studio Galactia got up and running in 2001.

I went to the Bellingham Beauty School, which doesn’t exist anymore, and when I was getting close to graduating, we had to do a project where we designed a fictional salon, like, what’s your dream salon? The owners of the beauty school were like, ‘Have you considered actually doing this?’ I was like, ‘Well, I’m 21 years old, so no.’ It didn’t even cross my mind. But when I was getting close to graduating, I was touring salons — that was part of what they would send us out to do. And I found that there were the Great Clips, Supercuts kind of places, and then there were sort of what then felt like mom salons to me, a little bit stuffy, higher-end places. 

I was like, it’s really weird to be in a college town and not have something that’s creative. At that time, Bellingham was a very vibrant place with a lot of local music and tons of art and people doing weird, interesting things.

So the owners of the beauty school offered to help me make this happen. [They] co-signed my original lease because I didn’t have credit … Then I found this space, and the landlord of this space, he was an older gentleman who had done well for himself, and he had daughters, and was really enthusiastic about women being able to be small business owners. He did a ton to help this happen, including giving me an incredible rental rate … It’s been a series of different random strangers in the community helping to grow [the salon]. 

How would you describe the salon to someone who's never been here?

When I first opened it, I just wanted a place where anyone could come in and feel welcomed. I wanted people to not feel like they were going to be coming into a place where there was judgment. We’ve tried to consistently make sure that our prices are accessible to people.

One of the unique things about this space is that we all have very separate stations. There are some salons where you find that you’re just stacked on top of each other. In this model, I guess people maybe feel comfortable becoming a little bit more vulnerable.

What do you like most about being a hairstylist?

The hair is important. It is also keratin that just grows off of our body. It’s important for us to help people to style, color, cut it in a way that they feel confident and good about themselves. But I think the people attached to the hair is the thing for me — hearing people’s stories, helping people get through different times in their lives. It’s an incredible thing when you have someone who you’ve been doing their hair and maybe they have an illness and they don’t have hair anymore, being part of that. And then being able to help them figure it out as it’s coming back in is pretty incredible. I think the connections with people — that’s the thing. 

“Faces in the Crowd” is published online and in print Fridays. Have a suggestion for a “Faces in the Crowd” subject? Email us at newstips@cascadiadaily.com.

Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.