Melanie’s lived in Kernersville since 1998, but she’s originally from Alexandria, Virginia. She’s had a love affair with hair and beauty ever since she was little. Just ask her cousins—Melanie constantly begged them to let her play with their hair. Even as she got older, her love for hair never grew cold. In college, Melanie turned her dorm room into a mini hair salon. She always treated her friends to fabulous hairstyles before they went out for a night on the town. 

Speaking of college, Melanie went to UNCW and majored in history. In 2014, she decided to pursue her true passion and became a makeup artist for Sephora. After a lot of encouragement and inspiration from her best friend and favorite hairstylist Heather Arnold, Melanie went on to attend cosmetology school and graduated in 2020. 

In 2020, Melanie also began her professional career as a hairstylist at Alkali. She started as owner Amber Woodall’s assistant and was soon behind the chair herself—where she’s always wanted to be. Her favorite color technique is balayage. She loves how effortless and soft—yet stunning—it looks and that it’s low maintenance too. Melanie also likes razor cutting due to the texture and fun movement it gives the hair. As for product, her favorite is Oribe’s Swept Up. It gives her the best of three worlds—fullness, volume, and texture!

The professional tools Melanie advises every client to invest in are a good round brush and blow dryer. You just can’t beat the look of a fresh blow out—and the better the tools, the better the results! Her top three home hair care tips are to use heat protection, apply conditioner only to the middle and ends of your hair to prevent oiliness, and shampoo in cool water to preserve your color.

In her free time, Melanie loves going to live concerts. If you do too, there’s a good chance you’ll run into her regardless of the genre because she loves all kinds of music! She’s also a sports fanatic. Her absolute favorite is basketball and she roots for Duke—go, devils go! She also loves to cook and bake lots of yummy goodies.