Tom St. Germain Gets His Own Style Refresh

Tom St. Germain (center), owner of The TSG Experience, with stylist Julia Paone (left), and Shaina Mongeau, owner of Lotus Salon.Photograph courtesy of Tom St. Germain

Sometimes simplifying is the way to success. Salon owner Tom St. Germain knows firsthand after launching his own salon, St. Germain Studio, in 2018 inside a tiny purple carriage house on Broadway in Providence.

He recently downsized and rebranded his business to The TSG Experience, and moved to a new location inside Lotus Salon in the city’s Jewelry District. Instead of spending time bookkeeping and managing the salon, scaling down has allowed him to refocus on what he truly loves, transforming hair through cutting, coloring, styling and extensions.

“Closing my salon was a big decision, but it came from a place of growth,” St. Germain says. “I wanted to strip things back and reconnect with why I started — creating great work and building real relationships with clients. This shift gave me the space to do that in a more intentional way.”

St. Germain reconnected with Shaina Mongeau, whom he worked with at the former W Salon before starting his own business. Mongeau now owns Lotus Salon, and had chairs available for taking on new stylists.

“It’s a very similar kind of aesthetic to my salon, just much bigger,” St. Germain says.

His longtime team member, stylist Julia Paone, came along for the move into the bright and airy plant-filled space with plenty of on-site parking. “It has all the things that I loved about my space; it’s one block from the highway, just on the downtown side versus the West End, and then the biggest, greatest part of it is the parking lot,” he says.

St. Germain also features a new Swedish-based color line called Maria Nila. “I’ve always carried some of the best products and color on the market, but it’s really important to me that they are naturally derived,” he says. “Everything that I use has naturally derived ingredients and is nontoxic. They are also vegan and gluten-free.”

Maria Nila focuses on blonde color, but has all different shades available. “I have a lot of blonde clients,” St. Germain says. “But Maria Nila has been actively adding more brunette shades and a curly line, too.”

St. Germain also specializes in tape-in extensions. “When I learned that you can do a full head application in forty-five minutes, I started entertaining doing them for some of my existing clients that were looking for a little length or fullness,” he says. Extensions can help women with thinning hair achieve more volume.

Scaling back on managing a salon has allowed St. Germain to get more involved in other passions, like on-location hair services and charity work. He can do hairstyling at private homes and businesses, and signed on as the co-chair for The Affair for Air Gala to support the American Lung Association. The event returns Nov. 13 to the Graduate hotel in Providence. “This cause is near and dear to me as I lost both my grandmother and stepmother to lung disease, so I do it in their honor,” he says. @the_tsg_experience