The team at Headwaters Spa and Salon offers a welcoming space for all their clients. From left: hair stylist Maddy Shuck; nail technician and owner of Sheena’s Nails Sheena Arbogast; esthetician Derek Trull; spa and salon owner and hair stylist Casey Horton; Mountain Medicine Massage owner and massage therapist Katie Workman; massage therapist Erin Boone and hair stylist Jan Skellion. Not pictured, hair stylist Chasten Taylor.
Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
When Casey Horton opened his first business, Alpha Matter, in 2016, he had a vision. The Snowshoe-based salon was just the beginning for the hair stylist. He had a dream to serve the communities of Pocahontas County with a full-service spa and salon.
It took him nearly 10 years to bring that vision to life, and now it is here – Headwaters Spa and Salon in Marlinton.
Before opening Headwaters, Horton made a few changes in his location and services. First, he came to Marlinton as part of Allie’s Shop on the corner. Then, when owner Allie Callison left to pursue a degree in law, Horton took over the space.
Horton was joined by Sheena’s Nails owner Sheena Arbogasat and the pair worked together for years before Horton expanded the shop to include the space next door and added more stylists, an esthetician and space for Mountain Medicine Massage.
“Whenever I’d commit to having an employee, that’s when we started, when my concept could expand to include a bigger salon,” Horton said. “Then Katie [Workman] came along and was going to go to massage school. That’s when everything was kind of falling into place.
“I didn’t necessarily get out of school and say, ‘I’m opening a spa,’ but it was more or less – I think a demand in the area that really made me go, ‘this is what the community needs to grow and just to be a better community,’” he added.
The salon now includes Horton and Maddy Shuck, as well as booth renters Chasten Taylor, of Backwoods Beauty and Jan Skellion, of the Corner Shop, in addition to Sheena’s Nails.
In the spa, esthetician Derek Trull is joined by Mountain Medicine Massage owner Katie Workman and massage therapist Erin Boone.
Workman initially started her business in hopes of having enough clients for a part-time gig. She quickly learned that massage was in high demand in the community.
“I had this level in my mind – if I could get here in a year would be good,” she said. “I was there in six weeks. The need that the community presented was kind of the driving factor behind a lot.”
Workman wasn’t planning to expand to include employees, but due to the demand, she hired Boone.
Horton and Workman have been lifelong friends and they talked about Horton’s dream a lot when they were younger.
That dynamic – which now includes Horton’s partner, Trull, who completed his training as an esthetician in January of this year – is what makes the spa and salon so welcoming and inviting.
The atmosphere is filled with love and compassion due to the relationships everyone there has.
“We love each other,” Horton said. “We care about each other.”
“We lift each other up,” Trull added.
“That’s the most important thing,” Workman said. “We want to create a space where people feel safe and welcomed and can relax.”
As a one stop shop for both exterior beauty and interior wellness, the spa and salon employees and business partners are focused on making all their clients happy and healthy.
“Whether it’s making someone feel more comfortable in their skin or feel less pain in their body, or like the way their hair looks and their nails – what that does for people’s mental wellbeing, emotional wellbeing – then radiates out in every interaction they have,” Workman said. “We all are better in the world whenever we feel better in our bodies.”
It doesn’t hurt that the practitioners are open to lending an ear to their clients and be a shoulder to lean on when needed. They have a knack to know when a customer wants to talk and when they prefer to have silence during their appointments.
“I’ve seen people when they come in here, honestly, I can see it in their eyes – their tone of voice – that they’re here for conversation,” Trull said.
Horton has come to know his clients well enough that he can read their body language and tell whether it’s going to be a talking day or a quiet day.
“I’ve been around so many people that I can almost sense when not to talk at this point,” he said. “When you get into more of a local community, you can know your person so well – I’m pretty keen on when somebody isn’t ready to talk. you have to teach yourself not to fill that silence because they’re not going to necessarily appreciate it.”
“It’s definitely one of the more nuanced parts of what we do,” Workman added. “Spa or salon, we’re all tending to people’s physical bodies and we’re interacting in people’s physical space and their energetic space. There is an exchange.”
They welcome the chat and are open to talking to people about anything they need to, but they also understand if clients prefer silence or just background music.
What matters most is the comfort of the client.
The latest addition at the spa is esthetician Derek Trull, who completed his training in January. Trull has a quiet and relaxing space, shown above, where he provides clients facials, hair removal and other skin health services.
Mountain Medicine Massage owner Katie Workman rents space at the Headwaters Spa and Salon in Marlinton, above. When the spa expands this spring, Workman and fellow massage therapist Erin Boone will relocate to the second floor and expand to two rooms to better serve clients.
While they are not doctors that can diagnose issues, Trull and Workman are healthcare professionals and they can make suggestions to their clients if they notice something of concern.
“I bring with me three years of medical school training,” Trull said. “I can’t diagnose. That’s not part of my license. We are healthcare professionals. We can recognize and we can point you in the direction of who you would need to go see. We can bring a concern to you and say, ‘this looks a little off to me.’
“That’s something that a lot of people don’t realize,” he continued. “Your skin tells you everything. You can tell with the texture of skin over muscles or joints that things are awry. Your skin tells you a lot. That’s what we’re trying to educate people about around here. Skin cancer is one of the leading killers.”
Even Horton has pointed out concerns with clients that turned out to be melanomas. He noticed them on the neck and scalp in separate instances and luckily, the client was able to get it taken care of.
Trull and Workman are excited to be able to work together and share customers who want to get a massage and a facial or skin care treatment. Together, they offer the perfect spa day.
They are also looking into creating a line of natural products to sell at the spa.
“We are really excited about the potential of using and developing natural lines of products,” Workman said. “There are a lot of people in the area – I’m connected with some herbalist and others like that. We have so much herbal medicine in this area.
“That’s what excites me about the future of Headwaters Spa, is that we are not just a full-service spa,” she continued. “We are a full-service spa that is rooted in our local culture and the natural world.”
With the expansion of employees and services naturally comes the expansion of location. Fortunately, Headwaters Spa and Salon is in a building with a second floor, which is now part of the business.
Horton is thrilled to say the second floor is now going to serve as the salon. With the massage and esthetician services moving upstairs, they will be away from the more chatter-filled salon, and their clients will be able to relax more.
The spa will have a separate entrance from the salon, which will help streamline services.
“We’ll still have accessibility in the salon for massage customer if they don’t have the ability to do steps,” Horton said.
All the upgrades are planned to be done by the weekend of the Great Greenbrier River Race, when Headwaters Spa and Salon will host an open house.
“You’re going to be able to do a walkthrough, so we’ll be able to show off the space,” Horton said.
With several businesses under the roof of one, Horton said not to worry about calling the wrong place. If you call the Headwaters Spa and Salon number, he will be sure to point you in the right direction.
For more information, visit Headwaters Spa and Salon online at hwspaandsalon.com
For more information on Mountain Medicine Massage, visit mtnrxmassage.com
