Many students feel the need to have a fresh look and good style for the beginning of the school year; now they will not have to go far to look their best.

The Truax campus is home to a new salon in the space previously occupied by Olivia’s Gifts. Students of the interior design, graphic arts, architectural technology, and barber/cosmetology programs collaborated on the project.

The name of the salon is Tru Style. The group wanted to keep the connection to Madison College and Truax while also giving it a modern and mainstream name.

“One of the things we really wanted to gain for our students was real world experience,” said Denise Reimer, associate dean for the school of Business and Applied Arts. “We saw a lot of students just sitting in the halls between classes, so we thought what a great opportunity for them to also have the services of a salon.”

Students in their last semester of school will be working in the salon to offer a variety of services. They will offer haircuts, styling, skin care, nail care, and hair coloring services. There will also be a variety of hair care products available for purchase.

The downtown campus already has a salon that will continue to remain open. The student employees will rotate between that campus and Truax.

The store management and store operation students that ran Olivia’s Gifts will still be a part of the new business. They will be handling inventory and integrating their skills into a new type of business that could also benefit more students.

Customers are welcome to come in and get a cut and the salon will soon be setting up an online appointment scheduler. There are eight stations that will be available in the salon.

The retained earnings of the downtown salon paid for all of the construction and retrofitting costs.