What started as a hair salon in a travel trailer—what owner Angel Maxwell calls a “hairstream”—is now a community gathering space in Old Town Leander. Smooth Hair & Wax Studio, located in a silver 1973 Airstream Ambassador travel trailer, just celebrated its first anniversary Nov. 9. The salon offers haircuts for both men and women; color and highlight services; and waxing for the body, face and bikini areas. “You wouldn’t believe how many people walk into my door and just want a haircut in an Airstream,” Maxwell said. Maxwell said she originally wanted to have a smaller trailer and drive to customers’ homes to cut hair, but then she found the Airstream. “It was practically sitting in our backyard a few blocks from our house,” Maxwell said. “It was rotting away, and we had to save it.” Not only is the trailer cheaper than a brick-and-mortar location in a shopping center, but seeing that polished silver Airstream in the middle of an outdoor lot among grass and trees is an attention-grabber, Maxwell said. She and her husband, Chad Maxwell, lease the lot, and on weekends activity picks up as Maxwell helped put together the Old Town Leander Farmers Market, which brings together local vendors. The market also makes for a day out for the family as the location includes activities and room for children to run around and play. “We want to keep it local because that is what our interest is,” Maxwell said. “We’re trying to build this area and make it a destination.” She is in the process of preparing a 1947 Spartan trailer to have a second trailer on-site to serve twice as many customers. Maxwell said the plan is to have the second trailer open in the spring and she hopes that Smooth II is the second in a line of franchised “hairstreams.” In the more immediate future, the Maxwells are also hoping to convert a school bus into a bar along with a permanent bar and another Airstream trailer into a functioning, clean restroom to replace the portable restrooms that are currently on-site.

Smooth Hair & Wax Studio

203 W. Broad St., Leander 512-698-1839 www.smoothhairandwax.com Hair hours: Tue.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Skin hours: Thu.-Sat. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Old Town Leander Farmers Market: Sat. 9 a.m.-1 p.m.