About Echo Salon
You can get a great haircut, extensions, and color at a lot of places, but not all places truly care about you, and your hair’s health and history.
At Echo, we believe in treating people with respect and operating with integrity, and that means keeping hair as healthy as possible through every service we offer.
Too many of us have had a poor experience with a bad cut or color, leaving our hair in shambles and our hearts broken. It’s hard to trust a hairstylist after an interaction like that.
That’s why I’ve brought together this team of stylists- to help you through your hair trauma (or keep your hair healthy and gorgeous!) and give you the very best experience possible- caring at first about YOU as a person, then getting into the nitty-gritty of your hair.
I’m Melissa Looman, owner of Echo Salon. My goal is that everyone who has an interaction with Echo feels truly cared for inside + out, because the thing that matters most in this world is the people in it.
Cheers to great hair and a great life!
Melissa Looman
Owner + Stylist, Echo Salon
Abby B says:
“I have visited Echo several times now for cut and color, and can I just say, I always feel so welcome. The culture of the salon is very kind and welcoming, and I usually see Halley and Aly, but recently met Bethany as well. My hair always turns out great and always have a good time while it's being done. I love them so much the salon is also doing all of the hair services for our wedding this weekend! 10/10 would recommend!”
Our History
It all began with an idea. Echo salon was created in 1999 during the Y2K craze by Mike Deem. He took a risk in a “risky” area of Grand Rapids in the Heartside neighborhood and brought his salon dream to life. It was cool, funky, and wild at times (remember those Christmas parties?). There were moody colors and a edgy, club-like atmosphere.
In 2009 Brandi Rinehart took over ownership of Echo and brought with it her own spin on the brand- fun bright colors, disco balls, and amazing window displays. Brandi found the business side of things unappealing and handed over operations in 2017.
Melissa Looman bought Echo in 2017 and rebranded, using the cool, industrial building as inspiration, adding lighter and brighter colors and furniture to bring a laid-back, luxury vibe to the space. She loves to enhance and inspire inner beauty by coaching her stylists to achieve their dream careers and keeps a small clientele of mostly hair extension and color guests to stay “in it”, to bolster creativity, and keep a finger on the pulse of life as a stylist.
In 2022, we expanded to Lowell, Michigan bringing our “big city hair” to the small town of Lowell. We had a ton of fun but decided to close our doors in 2025 because of our next big adventure.
In Fall 2025 we will open Echo Salon Creston, in the old Red Ball Jet Cafe building at 1431 Plainfield. Melissa (along with her husband Adam) bought this one-of-a-kind, historic building and are excited to see it full of life again. We will have a similar feel to our OG downtown location with industrial floors and exposed brick, tin ceilings, huge windows, and beautiful crown molding. We hope to do justice to this crown jewel space and hope everyone enjoys it just as much as we have enjoyed our original location.
We plan to keep both locations (downtown GR and Creston) and expand our team to fill the two spaces. We can’t wait for you to be a part of it all!