Meet Meredith and Jane Connors, Owners of MJ's Styling Lounge

Welcome back to Down the Boulevard, a feature on Hasbrouck Heights Patch where we ask the business owners in our town a few questions about their business and themselves.

There has never been a time when Meredith Connors didn’t want to be a hair dresser and there never will be a time in her life that she won’t be doing hair.  

She wears the hairdresser role proudly. In fact she wears a symbol to it on her arm. Right on her left forearm is a tattoo of cutting shears. Meredith says the tattoo is the exact replica of the cutting shears her mother gave to her when she was 16. The tattoo is even true to size, she says as she holds up the pair of shears next to her left forearm to compare.

“People know I’m a hairdresser when they see it,” she says of the tattoo, which happens to be her favorite one. She says people have asked her what would she do if she never did hair anymore and the only answer she had was that she never thought she wouldn’t be doing hair.  “Even if one day I am not in a salon, I know I will still be working with hair,” she said.

Born and bred a hair stylist, just like her mom Jane, the two generations of Connor women head up which has been serving the community for about five years since the duo first opened up the shop back in 2007.

Meredith and Jane, (which is what the MJ stands for)  chose Hasbrouck Heights for their salon because it has a good community where people really get to know each other. Jane said when she saw the location “it really caught my eye and I knew that Meredith was  really going to make it into something.”

Both are salon owners but Meredith is now running the business and heads the team of stylists as Jane is now semi-retired but she is in the shop every Friday.

Jane has been doing hair for about 42 years and once owned Janie's Hair Boutique on Anderson Avenue in Cliffside Park for years. She opened the shop back in 1980 and ran it for about a decade before she decided to close in order to devote more time to Meredith who was still young. Jane continued to cut hair part-time at salons in the area.

Meredith says she grew up in her mother’s first salon back in Cliffside Park. In fact there are customers who come into her salon in Heights that remember her as a baby back in her mother’s salon. The duo has many longterm customers. There is one customer who Jane has been working with for so long the woman remembers her from before Jane married and opened her first salon.

Meredith recalled the days of being a kid and remembered that her mom always had that smell of perms and always had a happiness about her when she came from work.  She said she was always interested in the arts and painted but once she started doing hair she was happy. “It’s a passion I just can’t turn off.”

She began beauty school in high school and has now been cutting hair for 12 years now. Meredith is also an educator and has worked for product lines travelling around the country teaching. She runs an education driven team and every week she conducts a class to continuously keep up with their skills.

“If you are a true professional hairdresser you should look the part all the time,” Meredith says. “When people see you they want to know what is hot, what is sexy and it’s my job to help people with that.”

Meredith is looking to expand her education driven team of hairdressers which she says will then add to their hours as well. Currently the shop is open Wednesday to Saturday. She also hopes to get some community events going such as a cut-a-thon or a ladies night out events to benefit local causes.