Sterling’s new Bombshell Beauty Lounge is a hit

STERLING – Grace Beck is hoping her new business venture is the bomb.

Beck, 21, owns Bombshell Beauty Lounge, 1811 E, Fourth St. She previously worked at two salons in Rock Falls, and decided this fall that the time was right to go out on her own.

“I told myself, heck, there’s not a right or wrong thing to do,” Beck said. “If I’m going to open up a business, it might as well be now, right in the pandemic.”

Her business has six work stations and five employees. One, Natalie Ehredt, focuses on facials and body waxing – not something all salons offer. It’s that extra touch that Beck says makes her business stand out

“A beauty lounge, you don’t hear that around Sterling or hardly any salon, so I wanted something where it’s comfortable, the atmosphere is great, it’s clean and relaxing.”

Beck, a 2017 Sterling High School graduate, could not be happier with her workplace. It is the former Hair & Company site, and when she and her mother, Kristen Bauer, checked it out this summer, something just seemed right.

“I was looking at different buildings, and in July, I saw this building,” Beck said. “The fact that it was already a hair salon before and it was a successful business for 20 years, that’s when I knew. Let’s renovate it. Let’s make it chic and new.”

Bauer is a recently retired beautician who did hair for 30 years. She has been a big influence in guiding her daughter down this career path.

“She was 100% influential,” Beck said. “I definitely could not have done this without her and just growing up watching her. Heck, I think I was 14 when I started doing her hair. I kind of grew with it, and that’s a huge aspect – learning and growing having her right there.”

She opened Oct. 1, and business has been brisk. She’s open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

“Honestly, it’s going perfect,” Beck said. “We have a great group of girls here. I would not have expected to be up and running here, especially in a pandemic, but business is going really good. We’re staying busy, and everybody is staying healthy, too. It’s been wonderful.”