For Selena Foss, nail care and facials are more than skin deep. “It’s not just a vanity thing,” she said. “I’m really interested in not just doing nails, but caring for hands and feet.”
Her salon, Selena’s Nails and Other Details, opened less than a year ago in Point Reyes Station’s Creamery Building. It offers a range of services, including full-service foot and hand care, and is drawing an increasing number of customers from across West Marin and beyond.
Laura Roxon, who lives in southern Marin, sets aside time on some weekends to receive what many women see as a form of therapy. “Having your nails done is important,” she said late last week as Ms. Foss touched up her nails. “It’s good hygiene, is what it is.”
Maintaining a groomed appearance, said Ms. Roxon, who retired last year as superintendent of operations for the Marin Municipal Water District, is essential for both women and men. “As a professional, you always want to have a manicure,” she said. “It’s a privilege to take care of yourself.”
That is what drives the career of Ms. Foss, a native of Inverness who has worked in the beauty industry for 20 years.
After working as a makeup artist at a cosmetics company to help pay for beauty school in San Francisco, Ms. Foss pursued a career as a licensed manicurist and esthetician as she crisscrossed the region with her husband, Elliott Holland, settling for about 10 years in Port Townsend, Wash. There, she ran a full-service salon for several years before relocating to Sonoma, where she worked at the Sonoma Renaissance Resort and Spa.
She later landed a job at a salon in Corte Madera, where she has worked as a beautician for the past five years on an occasional basis.
After moving about a year ago back to Inverness, where she now lives with her husband’s family and one-year-old daughter, Holiday, Ms. Foss sought to resume her career in a part of the world that watched her grow up.
“It was always something in the back of my mind,” she said of her aspirations to open a salon in West Marin, where beauty services are limited.
But to Ms. Foss, running a salon has turned into more than just a business; it is a way to build reciprocal relationships with customers seeking to rejuvenate, both physically and mentally.
“…You’re making people feel good,” she said. “You get to meet people and talk to people at their best.”