Refresh Spa and Salon moves to downtown Copperas Cove
By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
Refresh Spa and Salon opened its doors nearly 10 years ago at 312 E. Avenue D, first offering spa and wellness before expanding to offer salon services as well.
The spa and salon has relocated to a newer and bigger location downtown at 109 Avenue E and is holding a ribbon cutting on Friday, January 24, at 4 p.m. and invites the community to stop by until 7 p.m.
The new location, which was formerly known for being a bike shop, is next to Babies N Things. There are two entry doors at Refresh, with one being for the spa and wellness side and one for the salon side.
Owner Ashley Lyons says this is on purpose. When she first opened Refresh, she focused more on the spa and wellness and feel-good side of the business, with the hair and nail salon part coming later.
On the spa and wellness side of the storefront, the atmosphere is quieter, with a small waiting area at the front, and a hallway of suites that leads to a back hallway that connects to the nail salon and hair salon portion, where conversation flows more freely.
“My background is in esthetics, and I’d been traveling a lot for work, and I saw places just like this, more on the spa/wellness side, of course, but just like this in other communities and in other cities, and I loved it,” Lyons said about how the idea for Refresh came about. “I loved that there was a need. I saw the need within our community.”
Lyons said that the business started as Refresh Yoga, Spa and Boutique, featuring acupuncture and yoga and kettlebell classes. They also did the makeup for the pageant contestants with the Rabbit Fest/Five Hills Scholarship Pageant, she said.
There was also a nutritionist, but with many of the staff being military spouses and moving, the business changed as well, Lyons said.
“I’m a military spouse too, and so we left for a little bit with my husband to follow him, and so we moved into bringing on the salon,” Lyons said. “As the salon came on, we still had a need, like there’s just more of the desire to grow, and I wanted to kind of get back to our roots a little bit more, too.”
Lyons added that she loves having the salon as part of the business and thinks it goes hand in hand with the spa side.
Lyons shared that the building on Avenue E was the building she initially wanted to open Refresh in 10 years ago.
“I was not ready to do it, but this is the building I wanted 10 years ago, and it definitely probably would have been too big of a project to do back then, but it was always in my sights, like this is something,” Lyons said.
When she and her husband moved back to Copperas Cove, they approached the original owner and asked if they would reconsider. She said she feels the whole community is striving for the downtown area to be revitalized, and the owner was open to it, telling them that he wanted to see stuff downtown and had no plans for the space.
“I loved where we were, but I just I see it and I feel it within the community of wanting community events, like we’re wanting to revitalize, and 10 years ago that wasn’t the case,” Lyons said. “When I was talking about coming downtown, everyone thought I was crazy, you know, but now you see more and more like thriving and asking for it and also supporting it, and so for us, we doubled in size.”
Lyons said the move allowed for the stylists and technicians and therapists who have their established clientele to keep that, while the constant traffic downtown will bring new exposure to the salon and hopefully to the other businesses downtown, like the new brewery that is set to open next month.
Lyons said that someone who might never pass by the Cove Theater could have the chance to when they come to get their hair done.
Refresh Spa and Salon offers a multitude of services that pamper and treat the whole body, from the hair to the toes.
On the salon side, there are four hair stylists, plus two vacancies for additional stylists waiting to be filled. The hair stylists serve both women and men clientele and offer a variety of services, depending on the stylist.
There are two nail technicians, Brandi and Shauna, who do pedicures, manicures, acrylic nails, gel nails, and “everything nail related that you can think of,” Lyons said.
In the new location, the stars of the salon currently are the new pedicure chairs that feature built-in massage features. Clients can relax and enjoy a glass of wine while getting their feet pampered.
On the spa side, there is a licensed master massage therapist, Kara Mills, who has been in the industry for 14 years. Mills specializes in pain management therapeutic massage, reflexology, lymphatic drainage and offers something special called lipo-cavitation, which is a non-invasive weight loss service that uses sound waves to break down fat cells, which are then removed by the body’s lymphatic system. Mills said that the process essentially melts the fat, which can then be transferred elsewhere.
She used bacon in the microwave as an example to compare it to.
“That fat you see on it, the white part, is no longer there when you take it out, right? It’s just liquefied, so that’s the same thing with our body,” Mills said. “We liquefy the fat, and once it’s liquefied, we can transfer it, and once it turns back into a solid, that’s what it is. No surgeries…[it] doesn’t hurt.”
Lyons said that Mills is one of the only people to offer this service in the immediate metro area. Mills said she wants to focus on expanding her services, like with this method, to be able to extend the longevity of her career in the health and wellness world while limiting the damage to her own body.
For four sessions of the lipo-cavitation, the cost is $440, and Mills said the sessions can be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and can be broken up to be as frequent as the client needs, to suit their lifestyle.
Also on the Spa side is Dora Rassbach, with Lotus Wellness Center LLC. Rassbach is a certified Spinal Flow Technique practitioner and also offers Reiki therapy and offers a Vitality booth, which uses different lights as well as salt therapy, using pharmaceutical grade salts, which are good for helping with allergy relief and respiratory health.
“[Clients] can hop in here before they go into a massage, or after, same with the facial, so it gives kind of a very co-op type feel, where you can definitely have, like a one-stop shop for spa and wellness, so it’s exciting,” Lyons said.
Robi Akers is the spa’s aesthetician, offering so many kinds of services from teeth whitening to facials and skincare and chemical peels and waxing services and beyond. Akers focuses on personalized skincare treatments, which sets her apart, Lyons said.
“You’re not coming in and just saying, ‘I want an acne facial’, or ‘I want an anti-aging facial.’ Instead, it’s, ‘I want a facial,’ and you’ll pick, ‘I want to come in for 60 minutes.’ ‘I want to come in for 90 minutes.,’ and she will not only analyze and talk you through what she’s seeing in your skin, what your goals are, and then she’ll personalize that treatment to the season,” Lyons said.
The spa has two suite openings as well.
When talking about the significance of 2025 marking 10 years in business, Lyons mentioned how she has seen posts or comments by people on the community Facebook pages where they are shying away from business.
“Maybe the buildings aren’t perfect, or maybe whatever it might be, but I think we are the perfect story of things going wrong, or not things going wrong, but just that things could work against us, and you can still succeed,” Lyons said. “We went into an older building that we had to do a little bit of a facelift for it to match my needs. It matched the previous tenant’s needs, but it needed to match a spa’s needs. Absolutely so thankful for the landlord that helped us, really, truly helped a small business grow. Without Marc Payne and Ray Payne, I can’t honestly tell you that we would probably still be here, so we had a great place to start, but then we made it through COVID, and we made it through like every twist and turn that could. It’s adjusting to the community’s needs even, and so when I look at it, genuinely, at a decade, when I see that, it’s like ‘Just do it!’ The city and the community will rally behind.”
Lyons added that she was 23 years old when she opened Refresh.
“If a 23-year-old can do it, I think anybody can do it in the community, but it’s starting. It’s literally just launching,” Lyons said. “It’s having a good business plan, but having a plan and then going for it. It doesn’t have to be the perfect building. Like I said, this building was the building I wanted 10 years ago. If I had to probably undertake this building when we first started, I don’t know where we’d be.”
Lyons added that she felt this new location and expansion venture came at the perfect time and that everything happens for a reason.
Refresh Spa and Salon will be holding its ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce today, Friday, January 24, to celebrate the new location. At the ribbon cutting, there will be raffles and giveaways as well as wine from Season 3 Vineyards. People will get the chance to take a tour of the new location, which has kept some of the historical features of the building, which was built in 1890.
Refresh is open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Their Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/coverefresh/.