Bronze and bask at Ready, Set, Glow Tanning
BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — Ready, Set, Glow Tanning provides locals with tanning and other aesthetic services, and will soon offer significantly more options for customers.
“I have three levels of UV painting,” said Ready, Set, Glow Tanning Owner and Operator Rhea Prather. “I offer sunless spray painting, and I am also a certified lash artist, so I do lash lifts, tints and eyelash extensions. I’m currently about 70% done with esthetician school. So in January, I will be able to offer facials, treatments and full body waxing. I’ve always enjoyed makeup and skincare and all things beauty related, and that kind of drove me into spray tanning.”
Prather said she has enjoyed working in Chambers County, and she appreciates the support of her customers who have allowed her to expand her business.
“The people here in LaFayette are so welcoming and supportive,” Prather said. “I have clients that have hung in here with me since I was spray tanning four and a half years ago in a room at Magnolia on Main Hair Salon, and they still come to me for spray tans. I’ve built relationships through owning a business in LaFayette, and I couldn’t be happier.”
While working on completing esthetician school, Prather said her customers have been accommodating with her shifted schedule and supportive of her pursuit of further education.
“My customers are so supportive,” she said. “So right now, with me being in school, I leave at around 3:30 p.m. every day, and I used to leave at 6. So that cuts a good chunk of time out of my time here, but they’re very flexible with me.”
Prather said becoming a licensed esthetician has been a dream of hers, and she is excited to fulfill it at the East Alabama School of Esthetics.
“I’ve had licensed estheticians here before, at my salon renting rooms for me, and I just enjoyed watching them work and the services that they provided,” she said. “I never thought that I would be able to go back to school, because I have two children, and they’re in school and after school activities and sports and all the things, and East Alabama School of Esthetics opened in Auburn, and it was like an answer to prayer.”
After receiving her license, Prather will be able to expand the services she can provide for her customers.
“I’m going to be able to expand my business into so many new avenues,” she said. “I’ll be able to offer facial waxing, full body waxing, body treatments, facials, microdermabrasion, chemical peels and anything you can think of.”
Prather said that for many of her customers, visiting her business is an important part of self-care and it helps them refresh during their week.
“If they come on their lunch break and take 20 minutes to get in a tanning bed, if they come after work and get a spray tan, if they come and get a lash lift or get their lashes filled in, they just talk about how it’s so therapeutic for them, how it helps them relax and just take that time for themselves,” she said. “They feel good when they leave, because they’ve done something that can help their outward appearance, but it really just kind of restores what they feel on the inside as well.”
Through finishing her esthetician license, Prather looks forward to offering even more opportunities to help her customers look and feel better.
“I wanted to get into esthetics, because when you look good, you feel good,” she said. “I enjoy making other women feel beautiful. That is just a wonderful feeling for somebody to sit up and smile and tell you thank you, that they feel beautiful.”
For more information, visit Ready, Set, Glow Tanning on Facebook or call (334) 740-3480.
