nouveau-reality-ashley-glover

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COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN — eMprint edition SUNDAY, JULY 8, 2012 — Page 8
nouveau
reality
By Roxanne Foster | Photos by KATIE ALAIMO
Despite detours, Ashley Glover holds on
to dreams of performing her music
Ashley Glover, left, removes the highlighting foils from a customer’s hair before rinsing, while owner Jessica Austic, right, finishes a cut
and styling on a customer on Feb. 24.
Scan this code
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audio slideshow
of the story.

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KIRKSVILLE
D
on’t be surprised if Ashley Glover
greets you with a hug the first time you
meet her.
She’s the type of person who’s never met a stranger.
She takes forever to finish her grocery shopping
because she stops and chats with everyone she knows.
She calls her clients at Salon Nouveau “darlin’” or
“honey” if they’ve been coming to her for a while.
This past St. Patrick’s Day, Glover made a small
multicolored top hat out of hair extensions she had
around the house. After donning a black T-shirt with
the words “My name is Lucky” on it, she secured the
hair-hat with a green polka-dot bow and wore it to
work. It’s just one of the ways she’s come up with to
showcase her abilities and follow her “you-have-to-
wear-it-to-sell-it” marketing strategy.
At 25, Glover is a fascinating blend of dreamer and
doer, optimist and pragmatist. The dreamer in her
has visions of singing on the “big stage” in front of
thousands of fans who know every word to her songs.
The doer in her goes to work in the salon so she can
take care of her daughter and fiance, while saving for
a debt-free future. The optimist believes she can get
what she wants in life. The pragmatist is careful how
she defines those wants.
Glover is among the generation of young Americans
who grew up with a sense of limitless possibility, then
slammed into the reality of a shaken economy and
adult responsibilities. But Glover sees her current
situation more as a detour than a destination. And she
feels she’s in charge of the journey.
“Sometimes you have to let go of the dreams that
you thought were the things that you wanted in life so
that you can move on and get to your bigger purpose
— what you really feel like you’re here to do,” she says.
For her, that purpose is steeped in her music.
Singing from childhood
Glover is the youngest of three girls and a self-
Ashley Glover
rinses highlighting
product from Haley
Davis’ hair, which
she then styled for
Davis’ wedding day.
At Salon Nouveau,
customers come
into the salon
for cuts, colors,
highlights and even
extensions.

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described “go-getter.”
She grew up singing in church and became com-
fortable performing in front of a crowd at an early
age. In high school, she was involved in theater and
cheerleading.
Just being involved wasn’t enough — she wanted to
lead. Glover believes that if she’s going to do some-
thing, she has to be the best at it. When she tried out
for school musicals, it was always for a lead role. As a
cheerleader, she had to be the captain.
“I just pushed until I got there,” she says. “I put in
my best effort, and it usually paid off.”
Her mother, Sandra Williams, grew up on a farm in
Novinger, just outside of Kirksville. Her father, John
Williams, is from the Gifford/La Plata area and is the
youngest of six kids. He dropped out of high school at
15 to work in his father’s auto repair shop and later
worked at the family’s sawmill. He worked in a paper
factory while Glover was growing up.
In spite of the lack of opportunities presented to him
in his youth, Glover describes her father as the “big-
gest dreamer” in her family.
“He never quits,” she says. “That’s just the kind
of person he is. You would never think that he didn’t
have everything he ever wanted in life — and I think
he really does.”
She credits him with showing his children that they
could do whatever they want — and achieve anything
— if they’re willing to work for it.
After hearing Glover sing a love song she’d written
about her first high school boyfriend at age 15, her
father gave her money to work with a few local musi-
cians and record a CD. Her family also pushed her to
enter a local pageant, which she won, that led to her
biggest concert to date — opening for the Northeast
Missouri Fair in 2003.
“They’ve always tried to get me to do something
with my music,” she says. “They believed in me when
I didn’t believe in myself.”
On her 17th birthday, her parents took her on a
Ashley Glover, left,
and Jessica Austic,
right, chat about
life outside of work
and the upcoming
relocation of their
salon while waiting
for any last minute
walk-in customers
at Salon Nouveau
in Kirksville on
Feb. 24. Glover
came to work for
Austic shortly after
graduating from
beauty school.

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scouting trip to Nashville, Tenn. It was meant to
encourage her to pursue a music career. They even
managed to arrange a meeting with someone in the
business who could look at her work.
The plan backfired.
“It was the scariest thing that I had ever seen — to
see so many people who could sing just as good as I
could, who could write just as good as I could,” Glover
says. “They were on every street corner, working in
every restaurant.”
The trip raised doubts not only about her abilities,
but about the lifestyle, she says. It left her asking the
question: “If I can’t go big, then what’s the point?”
Pursuing a second dream
Glover grew up harboring a second dream — to
someday have a relationship like her parents, who
have been married for almost 35 years and are still
“ridiculously in love — the kind of love everybody
wants,” she says.
But like her music, the road from dream to real-
ity hasn’t proved direct.
After high school, Glover moved to Columbia for a
year to try out life in a bigger city. When she decided
to move back home at the end of 2005, a “nice, sweet
guy” she had met followed her. They dated for a cou-
ple months, then got engaged. Six months later, they
were married — one month shy of her 20th birthday.
She decided that since she couldn’t fulfill her
music dream on a grand scale, she would focus on
building a family. She went to cosmetology school.
She embraced the role of wife. She followed,
instead of led.
Over the course of the next four years, the dream
unraveled.
She and her husband grew apart, both unhappy
with where things were going. Their relationship
looked nothing like the one that had been modeled
by her parents. So when doctors gave them the news
that Glover likely wouldn’t be able to conceive on
Ashley Glover, left,
is given a hug from
her niece, Anna
Maize, center,
after Glover styled
her hair for the
annual Heartland
Task Force Daddy/
Daughter Dance
in Kirksville. Her
father, Michael
Maize, brought her
an ice cream treat.

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her own, there was little holding the couple together.
They divorced in January 2010.
Glover found it both devastating and freeing.
“I was trying so hard to fulfill that role,” she says,
“that once it was gone, it was like, ‘OK, now I can just
step out and be me again.’”
A new reality
As her marriage was crumbling, Glover went back
to writing music and singing in church. It was a form
of therapy, she says — her “escape.”
After the divorce, she started performing around the
Kirksville area again and seemed to be gaining some
traction with her music. She even received money from
local investors to produce a music video for a song she
wrote after her divorce, called “Hysteria.”
It was during that time that she reconnected with a
high school classmate, Cliff “Greenjeans” Corbin.
In school, he was the quiet kid who fell through the
cracks while his parents were going through a messy
divorce. At 15 he dropped out and got into the music
scene. He spent much of the time at the Aquadome — a
music venue in Kirksville — playing shows and hang-
ing out with friends. He figured he could learn more
about music and management from being “out there”
than he could in the classroom.
Now 26, Corbin is a laid-back guy who loves wearing
tie-dye shirts, cracking jokes and playing any musical
instrument he can get his hands on. He prefers piano
and guitar, but he doesn’t pass up the chance to make
music whenever the opportunity presents itself.
“We both enjoy singing,” he says. “That’s a huge con-
nection we’ve had right from the beginning.”
He and Glover happened to be at the same bar one
night and were reintroduced. Glover invited Corbin to
a band practice she was having the following day for
a benefit concert. They fell into an easy relationship,
going to bars and clubs to play music, playing until
the early morning hours, not worrying about much
beyond the next day’s gig.
Joel Hodges sits
with his daughter
Eva Hodges, 2,
in the front room
of Salon Nouveau
in downtown
Kirksville. Hodges’
eldest daughter,
Addison, has
her hair styled
by Ashley Glover
for the annual
Daddy/Daughter
dance held at
The Crossing in
Kirksville.

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That ended abruptly about a year into their relation-
ship, when Glover heard the words she had given up
on: She was pregnant. The couple’s carefree lifestyle
came to an abrupt halt.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Glover says. “I was preg-
nant. I was in that family mode. I wanted something
more stable.”
She gave Corbin an ultimatum: Step away from the
music scene for the sake of their child or the relation-
ship was finished.
She didn’t expect him to agree. Corbin has two other
children, ages 8 and 3, from previous relationships.
But now he felt ready for the responsibilities of father-
hood and wanted something more substantial to show
for his life.
Quinley was born last December. Glover and Corbin
got engaged the following February.
Since Quinley was born, Corbin has played only one
show. His primary role these days is that of stay-at-
home dad.
The arrangement works well for the couple. With
Corbin at home, they avoid the cost of day care. Glover
works 40 to 50 hours a week at the salon and brings in
about $30,000 a year, which covers their basic expens-
es. They do without cable TV and Internet access and
use their income tax refund to pay big bills up front —
like auto insurance — for an entire year.
“I make sure that our bills are paid, that we have
a place to live, that there’s a roof over our heads and
that there’s food,” Glover says. “I’m willing to do that
if he’s willing to help me take care of (Quinley) and
our house.”
Corbin’s days are spent making up baby bottles,
changing diapers, cleaning house, doing laundry —
and watching “The View.” The change is worth it, he
says, for the long-term investment he gets to make in
his daughter’s life.
“The way I treat her every day — every minute of
every day — molds into something that’s going to be
solid for the rest of her life,” Corbin says. “That’s what
I love most about full-time care — you make a million
influences into their lives every day.”
That choice doesn’t come without some costs. A job
at the greenhouse at Truman State University opened
recently, and Corbin really wanted to apply. But it
didn’t make financial sense.
“I hate that, but we just can’t afford to do it that
way,” Glover says. “It’s cheaper for me to work and
pay our bills and pay his child support and do all of
that than for him to have a job.”
A customer reads
a magazine while
having her hair
dried at Salon
Nouveau’s location
in downtown
Kirksville. During
the gradual move to
the new building on
Halliburton Street,
the customers and
stylists of Salon
Nouveau shared the
space with ongoing
construction work
before the grand
opening.

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Life at the salon
Salon Nouveau might not have been Glover’s life
dream, but it certainly suits her.
When you walk through the door of the little white
house on South Baltimore Street, it feels like home.
The warm brick-red walls and black furniture are
professional but inviting. Customers are greeted with
smiles or hugs — just like family.
The salon offers everything from roller sets to razor
cuts, hair extensions to highlights, French manicures
to full leg waxes. On any given day, it could be filled
with teenagers waiting to get an updo for a school
dance, moms whose husbands sent them in for a bit of
pampering or dads who brought all of their kids in for
a much-needed trim.
Glover has worked here with owner Jessica Austic
for a little more than a year. The two met while they
were both in cosmetology school at Hair Academy 110.
Working with hair has been as constant as music
in Glover’s life. She was 8 years old when she gave
her sister Mary, who was a sophomore at the time, an
updo for prom. Later she’d have highlighting parties
with her friends and practice cuts, color and perms on
anyone who would let her. She started learning new
techniques — such as how to do extensions — because
she wanted them, but her family couldn’t afford to pay
for her to go to a salon.
“I’m all about the weave. Gotta have the weave,” she
jokes as she flips her hair over her shoulder. At the
moment it’s mid-back length, medium brown on top
with three shades of blond highlights below — what’s
called “the ombre” in the hair world.
She loves the fact that she is able to use her creativity
to bring big and small transformations to her clients.
“It changes the way people feel about themselves,”
Glover says. “Women come in who are attractive,
but don’t see themselves as such. I change one little
thing, and they think they look like a totally different
person. No, they were always that person, they just
didn’t see it.”
The salon is also a place where women gather to
share their lives — from the latest weddings or births
to how they’re dealing with the loss of a loved one.
Moms receive words of encouragement as they talk
about the struggles of raising children on their own.
Husbands seek counsel on how to make up for a wrong
move they’ve made with their wives.
Clients come from all over the region. Taylor Over-
street, a freshman at Indian Hills Community College in
Ottumwa, Iowa, drives an hour each way once a month
Nail polish lines the
windowsill of the
manicure station
that overlooks the
small driveway at
Salon Nouveau’s
original location
in downtown
Kirksville. Owner
Jessica Austic
said the decision
to move her salon
down the street
was made, in part,
to accommodate
the growing number
of customers in a
larger space.

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to have Glover add extensions to her platinum blond
hair. A friend from school who also comes to the salon
for a weave introduced her to Glover about a year ago.
“I got one before coming to her, and it was a really
bad job — it broke off a lot of my hair,” Overstreet
says. “Ashley spent two days fixing it. She took better
care of it and now my hair’s growing and coming back
to normal. I definitely trust her with my hair.”
As Overstreet sits in a refurbished black swivel
chair, Glover asks how school’s going and for an
update on the boy she’s been dating. As they talk, Glov-
er sews wefts of hair into tiny horizontal cornrows on
the back of Overstreet’s head.
The salon is a symphony of quiet conversation,
laughter and friendly banter, played to the backdrop
of soft country music and accentuated by the occa-
sional roar of a hair dryer. It gets so busy some days
that Glover snacks on string cheese between clients
because there’s no time to stop for a proper lunch.
Since it’s often been just Glover and Austic, there’s
not usually time for walk-ins, so they regularly have
to turn clients away.
Austic says that when she opened the salon in 2008,
people expected her to fail. The economy was head-
ing into a free fall, and several longtime salons were
struggling to survive. But she and Glover have defied
the odds through a combination of determination,
hard work and personalized service.
“Their satisfaction in the services you render and
your satisfaction in helping them — not just with their
appearance, but also with what’s going on in their life,
watching them grow and seeing the changes that they
experience — it’s an amazing thing,” Austic says.
Business has been so good that Salon Nouveau
recently moved to a larger space, renovating an
existing salon in a way that preserved the family-
style atmosphere. Services have expanded to include
facials, massage therapy and spray tanning. Three
new cosmetologists have joined the salon, meaning
customers are no longer turned away.
As the day winds
down, Ashley Glover
looks out over the
parking lot of Salon
Nouveau while
waiting for the next
customer. Glover
has been styling
hair for as long as
she can remember,
but says her
passion is music,
though performing
has been more
difficult since
the birth of her
daughter, Quinley.

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Dreams for the future
As the salon expands, so does Glover’s role. She
continues to offer new services and next year plans to
switch from commission to booth rent. She’d like to do
hair shows and possibly teach someday.
Lately, her dreams have expanded, too, and now
include owning a home. The family recently moved
from a duplex to a nice little three-bedroom house
with a big backyard. But Glover has a five-year plan
to save up enough money to buy a home of her own —
with cash.
“I don’t do debt,” Glover says. “I could afford a house
payment and have a house right now, but who’s to say
that one day someone can’t take it away from me? And
then, what was it for?”
Her voice gets passionate and her speech a bit hur-
ried as she cites her family’s past financial struggles.
She talks about her father losing the job he held for
20 years when his factory closed. She describes the
house she grew up in that her parents bought “for
cheap,” renovated, then were forced to sell so they
wouldn’t default on their mortgage. She tells of a sister
who had to file for bankruptcy.
At the salon, she has clients who talk about losing a
home, losing a spouse or losing a child.
“I’m in a job where it’s a constant reminder,” she
says. “It’s taught me a different way to get the things
that I want so that I can hold on to them. So everything
that I own I want to be able to pay for it in cash, and
have it and then it’s mine and no one can take it from
me. If I’m gonna own it, then I’m gonna earn it and
then own it.”
One thing she still owns, despite the detours, is the
dream of doing something big with her music. For
now, she doesn’t perform in public, other than filling
in occasionally on the worship team at Christ Family
Church. But it’s something she wants to work her way
back to, something she feels she owes the people who
have encouraged her and believed in her talent. Even
beyond that, music is a part of her core.
Haley Davis has
her hair styled after
receiving highlights
by Ashley Glover as
the two joke and
laugh on Feb. 24 at
Salon Nouveau.

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“That part of me never dies,” she says. “Sometimes
I wish I could turn it off, but I can’t. I’m always gonna
want to sing, whether it’s in church on Sunday or on a
stage somewhere. I’m always gonna want to have it.”
But dreams, she has found, come in their own
time and their own way. So for now, Glover sings
to Quinley.
ABOVE: The team of Salon Nouveau poses for
pictures in front of their new location during the
ribbon cutting ceremony on April 2. Jessica Austic,
owner of Salon Nouveau, and Ashley Glover —
the original Nouveau crew — were joined by four
additional staff during the transition.
RIGHT: Jessica Austic, left, poses with fellow stylists
Ashley Glover, center, and Casey Rethmeier, right.
Austic and Glover first met at beauty school and have
since remained close friends.

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