Business & Tech
Raina's Makes it All the Way Back
The new, bright hair salon is the only original tenant to return to the Gateway Building on Humphrey Street.
Raina Morgan and her stylists will be back working their hair color magic any day now.
Raina's Hair Color Studio by the Sea is the lone business from the former Gateway Building to return after fire destroyed the original Gateway in March 2011.
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Her new Humphrey Street shop is bright, roomy and high ceilinged with touches of old and new.
"We call it industrial meets shabby chic," said Morgan.
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She looked around the roomy room. Light green and light blue and black predominate.
The salon looks open and elegant and understated.
Her cousin the mason built a brick wall at the back, a sturdy flourish that says permanence and harkens back to the former shop — Raina's Hair Color Cafe.
A chandelier hung from the ceiling.
Each of her five stylists' stations sport IPads, a feature that speaks to the business's forward looking bent.
The iPads will select music that customers prefer and make handy appointment books that accommodate notes.
Organic Aveda products give the room a clean smell. And it's decorated with an ocean theme. A starfish by the reception desk, blue wall art.
If it was an aquarium it would be big and well lit and have plenty of room to swim around.
The floors are made of light-colored wood.
Out the window waves roll on King's Beach.
Raina came back to her former location because the four years she was in the Gateway Building were four fine years.
She got along well with her landlord, with fellow tenants and felt connected to the neighborhood.
"We are a community salon," she said. A place for a cup of coffee, casual conversation and quality work.
Her original Raina's is in Revere, her hometown — been there for 21 years.
She will be splitting time between Revere and Swampscott but eventually wants to come up this way fulltime, she said.
The salon does blow-outs, cuts and color. Color is the salon's specialty.
She has her occupancy permit from Swampscott but was just waiting for her approval from the state before opening.
As of late last week she was hoping to open by Valentine's Day.
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