A New Salon Opens Downtown and It's a Familiar Setting—Right Down to the Ghost

Thomas Wolfe said it most famously: "You can't go home again." But, then again, the author never had the chance to meet Chris Nadjarian.

If you take a chair at Nadjarian's new salon, Aura, located in the picturesque Victorian at the corner of University and Pine, and ask him if he's from around here, his answer might surprise you.

"I'm from right here," Nadjarian said. "I grew up in this house."

A second shot

Nadjarian's father, Andre, bought the house in 1980 and converted the main floor into a hair salon. Nadjarian, then a teenager, moved into the apartment upstairs with his dad.

"There were no walls up there," Nadjarian remembers. "My dad said, 'Just pretend there are walls, you'll get used to it.' And I did. But I never got used to the ghost."

Nadjarian said he believes it's a friendly spirit that resides in the house (it was built in 1870 and holds a lot of history) but that doesn't make trips to the laundry room in the basement any less creepy.

Nadjarian returned to the house after college, where it served as his bachelor pad until marriage, children and other careers pulled him away. 

But when he heard his dad was getting the building back, he was ready to return.

"I said 'Let's do it, let's give it a second shot,' " Nadjarian said. 

Every color has a meaning

Aura is a full-service salon, but Nadjarian's personal passion and area of expertise is hair color.

"I like what 'aura' represents," Nadjarian said. "Every color in the spectrum has a meaning behind it."

Those colors, when applied to hair, create a cycle we follow year after year, according to Nadjarian — from honey blonde to warm brown, copper to auburn.

"The reason we have fashion is the change of seasons," Nadjarian said. "It's the feeling that you get of transition."

Aura Salon is located at 302 W. University. Call 248-997-1555 with questions.