About Us

To say that Marielle always wanted to be a stylist would be putting it lightly. For as long as she can remember, hair was her thing. She began her career at the young age of 16 as a front desk receptionist in 1988.  Her dreams sent her to Cosmetology school in Grand Rapids where she graduated first in her class (she may have only skipped one Saturday for a killer party).  Mar worked behind the chair for 6 years, while attending Aquinas College for business.  It was important to her to have a balance between her right brained creativity and her passion for understanding the biz.  In 1998, Marielle feel in love, not only with her hubby but with Aveda. She loved the aroma, it’s kick ass environmental approach to beauty and the integrity it brought to being in the salon industry. Soon after, Marielle feel in love again, this time with the philosophy of  Frederic Holzberger, who offered her a dream job as a representative for Aveda in greater Grand Rapids. He taught her the importance of underpromising and overdelivering,  if you’re not 15 minutes early you’re late, and that life is always a crawl to walk to run. As Fred said, you can never wait for the busy bus, so Mar jumped on the opportunity to purchase an established salon, Coiffeteria in 2006.   As a salon owner, she has mentored, encouraged and developed her team to become their very best- and that life is simply too short not to sparkle!  After a trip to Serious Business ( an indiustry event that features best practices), it dawned on Marielle that the tools presented, while valuable, were not always designed with a small salon in mind. Her goal then became to create a tool that would be assessable and applicable to stylists in any setting. Marielle is on a mission to help peeps learn how to take care of themselves so they can better take care of others, and ultimately FLOURISH!

As far back as she can recall, Lori was the go-to “coiffeur” for her family and friends. Although she never anticipated being a stylist, her plans changed in 2007 when she scheduled a hair appointment at the Douglas J Aveda Institute in East Lansing. Following her amazing experience, she enrolled in their Cosmetology program. Her love for Aveda as well as the Douglas J culture led her to join the Okemos design team for the company two weeks after her graduation. There, Lori excelled behind the chair with Doug and Tj Weaver as her mentors, among many others. They not only taught her cutting edge techniques, the art of a kickass consultation, but that each guest in her chair was an event. She took advantage of every opportunity to hone her craft through continuing education with world renowned hairdressers. In 2010, Lori had a strong desire to share her incredible knowledge with the future of our industry and went back to school once more to become a Cosmetology educator. She relocated to Douglas J Aveda Institute in Grand Rapids where she worked in the classroom and on the clinic floor. In 2011, Lori was offered the role of Classroom Coordinator at the campus, where she coached and developed the education team along side the Director of the Institute. Marielle and Lori’s paths crossed when Mar was invited to speak to the students about professionalism. She quickly realized that she missed being behind the chair, and with Douglas J’s blessing began her journey at Coiffeteria as a stylist. It wasn’t long before Lori’s gift of leadership earned her the role as the Creative Director. She continues to share the importance of consistency, extraordinary guest care, and that success in a salon is a group effort with the team at Coiffeteria. In 2016, Lori had an ah-ha moment at Serious Business. There, she noticed that the support tools could be a financial stretch for small salons. Following a brainstorming session between Lori and Marielle, FLOURISH was born.