TikTok Charlotte Graves to open salon at Audmoor House March

Charlotte Graves - aka @raisinghadley on social media - opened her first salon at the age of 19. She ran Tangled Up from 2014 to 2018, however it was destroyed during a fire.

"After the fire and losing my business, I lost my confidence and myself," she said.

"I flitted around a bit between salons, and then converted a building in my garden and worked from home for four years.

Since then, she has had three children, lost 11-and-a-half stone and built her business back up.

READ MORE: Burnt out hair salon in March High Street will have to be demolished

Having been sharing her weight loss journey on social media for the past year, she added: "I knew that, if I was going to be successful in building a big hair and beauty business, I needed to get back to my old self."

Now, aged 30, Charlotte is gearing up to launch her new business, Ivy Reign Hair & Beauty, at Audmoor House in March. 

The historic but currently empty building was once a register office, then housed the Cambs Times' newsroom and, until recently, was the home of March Physiotherapy Clinic. 

"I've always passed it and never really known what the building was but thought about how pretty it was," she said.

After a tour of Audmoor House with her friend, she was sold: "I was in awe of the building so much that I woke up excited every morning at 2am."

READ MORE: Audmoor House refurbished to create intimate wedding venue in March

Having pieced together a business plan (using multiple Excel spreadsheets), she met with the landlord who looked over the proposal. 

"It was a bit liked Dragon's Den," she laughed, describing herself as "super driven and ambitious".

"It all went well and I had a folder full of marketing strategies," she added, sounding relieved.

Charlotte then applied for funding from Fenland District Council, which she hopes to receive in the coming months to help pay towards furniture.

"I've been extremely lucky because 120 businesses have applied for it," she said, adding that she is covering the rent and amenities.

With everything in place, the building is currently undergoing a renovation: "The landlord is going to take it back to freshly-painted white walls then we can do what we want."

Not only will Audmoor House become a hair & beauty salon - including barbering for men - but she plans to rent the many upstairs rooms out to a range of aestheticians. 

The offerings will range from massages, nails and lashes to hair and even a Japanese head spa treatments. 

Charlotte added that she hopes to be able to support students from the College of West Anglia by offering them work experience at the salon and "hopefully, give some jobs out if they're really good".

That's still not all, however, as Charlotte also plans to have an on-site supervised play room upstairs too.

"We'll have Level 3 qualified staff and parents will be able to book their children in for a maximum in for two hours, but that won't be until a few months after we open.

"It will mean that mums can come in and get their hair done, nails waxed and not have to worry about asking a friend or relative."

Charlotte hopes to open Ivy Reign Hair & Beauty in September 2024.

For the first few months, she plans to get the downstairs part of the salon up and running, before "gradually taking over upstairs as well" and potentially growing her team.

She's confident that her new venture will be a success, too: "Nobody else really does it around here.

"I just want to really be a part of the team, train them (especially in social media), boost them up, keep them going and, most importantly, make it a place where there's no animosity."

"Everyone is going to moan because it's a salon, but I hope that they'll see it's different and that it will create jobs and enable parents to come and freely have treatments."

To keep up to date, follow Ivy Reign Hair & Beauty on Facebook. 

Charlotte Graves opening her first salon, Tangled Up, aged 19, in 2014. (Image: Charlotte Graves)