Amelia Herb, though Georgia born, moved across the Midwest and Southern U.S. throughout her childhood. She attended cosmetology school during her high school stint in Indiana. Graduating both from Carroll High School and beauty college, she went straight into the hair industry. Amelia, a single mom, was let go from her job during the COVID-19 pandemic when she found herself without childcare for her daughter. She continued to provide hairstyling services to clients from her porch and theirs, which inspired her current move of opening a salon that captured the intimate and welcoming experience of cutting hair on a sunny, plant-filled porch.
Today, Amelia is the Founder and Owner of Ceremony Salon in Athens, where she focuses on transparent, straight-forward service pricing and thoughtful, personalized hair care plans. Appointments at Ceremony are booked conveniently online 24/7 through the website. Herb also employs a gratuity-free business model at the salon, instead, allowing stylists to set rates that give them the wages they need.
In addition to her work at Ceremony, Amelia also serves as Vice President of the Board at the Daily Groceries Co-op in Athens. She also owns an AirBNB in Tiger, Georgia, which she rents out to traveling nurses. She lives in the Newtown neighborhood of Athens with her 14-year-old daughter, Georgie, their adopted dog, Fig, and their cat, Delilah.
What do you love most about the work you do?
It’s a bit of a meditation for me. Visually I have a good eye for form and shape, I can even see whether someone has an opal, square or heart-shaped face, very quickly. I can take into consideration the existing hair on their head– their texture, porosity, density, elasticity–and with all those elements and variables create a formula. And then I can take into consideration their lifestyle, and how much they’re willing to put into their hair (or not) and create their look. My favorite look to create for people is a styled cut, as I do specialize in precision hair cutting. I also specialize in curly cutting. What I love about this visual intake is it does give people balance, and when people see themselves balanced and put together in a way that is the path of least resistance with the most that they visualize for themselves, it does calm our nervous system. It gives you a space to be authentically yourself. That takes a few appointments, sometimes it’s just one, but usually it takes a few. I have clients who I’ve been doing for 20 years because of that. That’s pretty special. That’s what I enjoy the most, creating that balance for them. And it changes and evolves as they have babies, new careers, transition, and age.
When you’re not working, what do you love to do in and around Athens?
I’m a big thrifter, so I like to pop into our local thrift store on Prince, The Emmanuel Episcopal Thrift House. The women who work there are some of the sweetest people. I like to support the local thrifts more than chain ones, although I appreciate what they’re doing. But their prices…. So I stick to the local ones. Athens has a variety of thrifts–Project Safe Thrift (local women’s shelter), America’s Thrift, and St. Mary’s. And since I have a 14-year-old, bringing her along with me is very budget-friendly.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
I can travel anywhere in the world. And I do travel! My favorite place that I’ve been thus far and that exceeded my expectations was Wales. It’s magical and otherworldly. But I also visualize in my mind’s eye Australia, and what that would look like. Also Greenland. I’ve seen it online and it’s kind of not what you’d expect– look it up, you’ll be surprised.
Do you have a favorite book, or a book you often re-read, gift, or reference?
Brené Brown has a lot of really good ones, and I enjoy those. But one of my favorite writers is bell hooks. She’s a matriarch of the written word. Her books are some of my favorites because although you can turn the pages, you can also just open up and read that page. Her stuff is very moving. I also just finished Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garrmus, and noticed that it’s a show on Netflix now! It’s fantastic. It brings to light the struggles that women had that, for patriarchal reasons, you don’t find in film very often. It’s surprising to me how many men are like “What? Women couldn’t have a credit card in their name until 1974!?” Even in 2020 I couldn’t get a loan! Even with great credit, without my dad’s signature on it, it wasn’t going to happen. So yeah, it’s nice to see that stuff come to light.
Do you have a favorite movie? Or, what’s the first movie you remember seeing in a theater? OR, what’s something you binge-watched recently and loved?
The OA on Netflix was an unexpected delight. It’s a bit older, from 2016. If you’re up for a mind-bending surreal drama that leaves you on your seat (literally, they ended the series after season 2 with no finished ending) then this is an interesting watch.
If you could put any message on a billboard, what would it be?
“The more you know, the less you need.”
What advice would you give your younger self?
I’m divorced, so I would say not to share my money with anyone, and invest all of it. Being good at being poor is an asset. Keep being good at being poor, even when (if ever) you’re wealthy. And since I’m a millennial, it’s better to live below your means, and find ways to enjoy it, because the cost of living is about to skyrocket.
If you could have lunch with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and where?
It would be bell hooks! I would want to eat with her at like, Shoney’s. God, that place is so good and nostalgic. It’d be an honor to sit with such a wise sage.
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word “Home”?
Warmth, plants, candlelight. It’s very aesthetic for me when I think of home. But I’m also in a relationship now where it makes me think of home as family dynamics and support and kindness and joy.
