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Love Your Skin at Onyx

The salon and wellness spa’s mission is to help clients feel better about themselves

Heather Graves started doing other people’s hair and make-up while in high school in San Diego, California. She worked part-time as a receptionist at a salon, and did the hair and make-up for her school’s theater group. She went on to become an instructor at a Vidal Sassoon salon before moving to Topeka.
Opening Onyx Salon and Wellness Spa in 2018 fulfilled a dream for Graves. The name comes from the onyx being an empowerment stone, representing strength and courage. As a female-owned business, she wanted this space to be a place of female empowerment.
“I boosting someone’s confidence,” Graves said. “Making someone see themselves in a better way. And then there’s that relationship with clients. Nurturing them, loving them, and making them feel good about themselves. I just love everything about it.”
Esthetician April Morris feels the same way, with her sole focus being the skin.
“I was not interested in doing hair or nails,” Morris explains. “My specialty is skin care, waxing, lash lifting, and make up. I just fell in love with being able to make someone feel better about themselves.”
While Morris isn’t able to do facials in the spa because of the Covid pandemic, she can perform a number of other treatments. With everyone wearing masks, eyebrow shaping and tinting are popular, as is a lash-lift. This curls you natural eyelashes upward, much like a perm curls the hair. Then the lashes are tinted black so it always looks like wearing mascara.

Morris has also created an at-home kit of 302 Professional skin care products so women can do facials at home. She says, “Taking care of your skin is more important than putting make-up on top of it. You have to have a good foundation before you can make a masterpiece.”
To get started:
Step 1: Call April at 785-221-4522 for a quick consult. This allows her to create a customized kit of product just for you. Then all you have to do is stop by the spa to pick it up.
Step 2: Cleanse your face—twice. This ensures the removal of all dirt and make-up.
Step 3: Spray on the calming, toning mist.
Step 4: Use the facial scrub and wipe it off with a warm towel. (Just wet a towel and pop it into the microwave.)
Step 5: Use the mask according to the direction. A warm towel is also a good way to remove it when the time comes.
Step 6: Moisturize with one of the two offerings in the kit. The Remedy RX cream has an SPF to protect the skin and reduces inflammation, while the Recovery Day/Night cream is a richer moisturizer good for all skin types.
“The best thing you can really do for your face is hydrate it,” Morris notes. “Hydrated skin creates plumper skin to make you look younger. Eighty percent of what your skin looks like is what you intake into your body. Twenty percent is what you put on top. So, the more you hydrate, the more your skin will be hydrated. It’s very important to focus on what you’re eating and drinking. Water is skin’s best friend.”
Along with hair styling, manicures and pedicures, clients can also go to Onyx for
massages, body scrubs, waxing and facials for the hands, back and buttocks. The spa has an infrared sauna to help you beat the winter blues. Before and after an appointment, they can pop into the Onyx café for coffee, juice combos, kombucha, and protein treats.
“Onyx is an open, welcoming, positive space,” says Graves. “All the women are
extremely talented. It’s super important to me that we’re talented, trained, professional and clean. Nothing but the best.”
Onyx Salon, Wellness Spa and Café
920 N. Kansas Ave.

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