Tiffany Wheelhouse

Tiffany has been in the health and beauty industry for 20 years. She has worked in salons in the twin cities area for most of her career as well as a Boulder Colorado. In 2016 She parted ways with her home salon to venture out on her own and found herself at a cute rental salon in Downtown Minneapolis. During this time she was called to try something she had stumbled upon: a fun side gig teaching group fitness at a local fitness studio in North East Minneapolis. The skill she developed through working with individuals who were working on goals with their overall health and wellness opened up a whole new outlook. Tiffany recognized her ability to lead others and change individual mindsets toward a more positive outlook and started to wonder how she could implement that into her career.

Meraki Hair Lounge was born with a vision of leadership, mentorship and community. All of the things she was able to become for others in the group fitness training setting felt so much more aligned in the salon environment. During the shut downs of 2020 she waited to build her salon, no one knew when things would open back up. Kids were out of school and mental health for everyone started to decline. During this time of staying home Tiffany’s 15 year old daughter took her own life. Somehow through all of that she still managed to get the salon up and running by August of 2020. It’s hard to summarize the events of that year, and skimming over this event seems strange but there are simply no words the belong with losing a child.

Years later, after focusing the salon culture around mental wellness and physical wellness and many countless hours trying and doing every healing modality offered after loss, Tiffany was approached by MV Ventures to open a 3rd salon in Viking Lakes. They loved our focus and intention on wellness and wanted to have like minded businesses in their vicinity. Tiffany had always wanted a way to honor her daughter so naming the salon Velvaere Mae felt perfect.

Velvaere is a Norse word, which felt appropriate in Vikings territory, meaning: holistic (whole) in nature, like pieces of a puzzle coming together to create a broader picture of our satisfaction, our sense of purpose, and how we function on a personal and social level. It acts as an umbrella term to describe the balance between the body, mind and spirit, which encompasses our physical, emotional, spiritual and social wellness.

To be in a state of velvære/well-being can mean different things for different people, of course. There are internal and external factors influencing our well-being, so it’s important that one’s individual view of their well-being and their feelings are balanced with other aspects of life such as health, social interaction and physical activity.

Mae of course being Aeva’s middle name. Tiffany likes to think of Aeva as her Northstar in her business and guiding light in her life. Her hope is that every person who visits her salon spaces feels they belong and leaves feeling more at peace and able to take on the different challenges we face in todays world.

We offer our stylists quarterly wellness clinics where we focus on a different type of nervous system regulation to invite the opportunity as well as introduce different ways our stylists can be more balanced and in turn offer a balanced experience to their guests.