Zhanna Grigorian is doing what she always wanted to do. As a young girl, she loved playing dress up and experimenting with her own hair and makeup. And that dream led to a perfectly focused career path.

After moving away from her native Armenia at 6 and going to school in Glendale, she began studying cosmetology at 14, and actually earned her license at the tender age of 17, working in the salon that she would one day own.

After four years at that Salon—Alex and Friends—she went to work cutting hair for the well-known Beverly Hills hair stylist Frederick Fekkai for two years. Eventually she returned to Pasadena, where as it turned out, most of her clients, lived anyway.

Then one day, happily working at a nearby salon, she learned that Alex and Friends has closed.

“I was shocked for like, three weeks,” she told Pasadena Now. “ I thought ‘How can this be?’” Eventually she reached out to her old friend, and asked for his blessing in taking over his old shop. As it turned out, he had made peace with closing his own shop, and moved to Louisiana.

Zhanna took over in September of 2013, and Alex and Friends became Zhanna the Salon House. She recruited and hired his former staff, and the two old friends still remain in constant touch with each other.

Nowadays, the shop specializes in color, cuts and classic looks, says Zhanna.

“I love doing wedding hair and makeup, and we hope to do more of those,” she says. The shop also has its own makeup and facial person, and as Zhanna describes it, works together “as a team.” As the staff is eventually finalized, she hopes to also hold a formal grand opening.

She caters to a number of professional and corporate women, working in the nearby Lake Avenue offices and surrounding areas, and her loyal client base continues to grow. “It’s lawyers, and real estate professionals, a lot of women like that. They were all really helpful to me when I first opened here, and I am very grateful.”

Where other salons specialize in “edgy,” she describes her own style of hair design as “classic and traditional for successful women. It’s modern and classy at the same time.”

Seems to be working.

Zhanna the Salon House is at 902 Boston Court, Pasadena. (626) 578-1224. www.zhannathesalonhouse.com.