Interview by North Hall High senior and Abernathy Cochran intern Tori Skinkle
Meet Paige Grindle! Paige is a Gainesville girl, born and raised. She and her husband have recently opened The Peach Salon in Gainesville, their goal has been to create a safe space in their salon so people can have a retreat; having been involved in faith-based ministries in the past they see their business as a new path of ministry in their lives. You can often find her at Meadowlark Coffee, as she loves their black coffee.
We want to thank Paige for spending time with us recently and telling us more about her life and love of Hall County.
Question: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
Answer: “In high school, I just started randomly cutting my best friend’s hair, I’m not sure why she let me, I had zero understanding of it…During that time, I started dating Micah, who’s my husband now and his mom knew how to do hair. I started inviting my friends over to her house and I would mess up their hair and I’d be texting Tracy for her help.
When I graduated, my mom and dad really encouraged me to go the traditional College route which was fine, but it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t until I turned 23, we had been living in Maine, and then we came back here and I just knew instantly as the Lord put on my heart to pursue this. I started working at a salon in Duluth and it was with an amazing hairstylist, who is high up in the hair world, he knew all the things and I loved it. I was his assistant at the front desk and I thought ‘I’m going to quit so I can go to hair school.’ And he said, ‘No, just work for me and learn from me. Do an apprenticeship.’”
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Hall County, and what do you love there?
A: “I’m going to say Meadowlark. I eat a lot but more than that I drink coffee non-stop all day long. So, I’m a black coffee girl and no one does black coffee well until Meadowlark came on the scene, and I was like ‘This black coffee tastes so good.’ The atmosphere is kind and welcoming, I feel like we’re really like-minded and you feel like family and best friends all at once with the Baristas there and the owners are amazing.”
Q: How long have you lived or worked in Hall County?
A: “I’m 28, so 26 years, I only moved away for 2 years. Working in this industry three or four years.”
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met in Hall County and why?
A: “Probably Mary Margaret, she is the area director for Young Life Hall County. She’s new to the area. It’s crazy to me because I feel like she has been connected to people here longer than I have, she has friends from every sect of Gainesville. She just loves the community so well, she’s so outgoing, and she’s so poised. I love her, I think she’s amazing.”
Q: What is your favorite childhood memory?
A: “I had a really tight-knit group of friends from a young age from my church group and we’re still best friends to this day, which is insane. Probably, just like our slumber parties, I mean it’s not one specific slumber party but it was the sweetest group because we were all fully ourselves without any apology. You didn’t have to pretend to be someone else, and as we grew we still grew together we didn’t grow apart; from the age of six to 28 or 29 we still have slumber parties and it’s just the same.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
A: “Goa, India I’ve been going there since I was 15 and some of our like best friends are there; so mainly just to spend time with them, they’re like our family. I love Indian food with my whole heart and the beauty of Goa; it’s on the coast, so it’s a tropical Paradise but you’re eating Indian food and it’s like the most beautiful colors and culture. I’d go there in a heartbeat”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “I would travel to Europe, any part of Europe. Never been, I’ve just flown over or flown through.”
Q: What local business makes you the most nostalgic about Hall County and why?
A: “Probably Longstreet, I grew up going there every Saturday morning with my mom and our best friends.”
Q: Choosing anyone (past or present and a non-relative), with whom would you love to have lunch? And where locally would you have this lunch?
A: “I would go to either Consuelo or Sweet Magnolias depending on what I feel that day. Kendall Jenner, people are going to be confused by that. She’s such a good businesswoman but so down to earth and she just does being famous well.”
Q: What is your favorite thing about Hall County?
A: “I love that it’s a big small town. It’s growing and more people are coming in but they instantly become family. There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t walk down the street and I don’t know at least 10 people.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
A: “I see myself here honestly. I think I see the Peach thriving and maybe a little bit larger and I see myself kind of taking on a more mentorship role within the business instead of being fully behind a chair. Now, I won’t ever stop being behind the chair, I love doing hair. But yeah, traveling a little bit more having some good work-life balance with my family and friends.”
Q: What is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
A: “I’m actually an introvert. I’m a really good extrovert and love people; but I have to recharge alone and if I don’t I lose my mind.”
Q: If you were cast in a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your costar, who would you choose?
A: “Blake Lively, I think she is the most beautiful woman. I think she’s a great actress but she does such good things in her community, too. She’s a mom, she’s a wife, and she does it pretty dang good. I’d love to learn from her.”
Q: If you had a full-time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose?
A: “Probably a chef who would buy my food and make it and put it in containers for me. I am terrible at cooking, I’m terrible at baking, I’m terrible at making coffee. I love going to the grocery store for snacks and sometimes it’s therapeutic I’ll put my headphones in.”
