Story and gallery by ASHLEIGH ZAELIT
Devynne Toote wakes up in the morning and takes her 3-year-old daughter Grei to her mother’s house. She grabs her morning coffee, and gets ready for work. When Devynne gets off around 7 p.m. she picks up her daughter to go home and make dinner together. She gives Grei a bath, they read a bedtime story, and then it’s time for bed.
Toote referred to her life as “work and mom.”
Yet Toote, who is a single mom, doesn’t mind this exhausting schedule because she is turning her dreams of owning a medical spa into a reality. She owns Bye Bye Med Spa with friend Kaeci Durfey, who is also a single mother.
Toote met Durfey seven years ago at the Mandalyn Academy, the beauty school they both attended. They became best friends and moved in together.
“We had always wanted to open up a med spa, it was our dream,” Toote said.
After school Toote started doing eyelash extensions. She later started training where she taught students the ins and outs of lash extensions, and even started her own lash company.
Toote was 20 years old when she got pregnant with Grei, and has been working to show her daughter that she can do anything.
“I just want to be a great example for my daughter,” Toote said. “Being a single mom and working full time is not easy but it’s fulfilling at the end of the day when you start accomplishing things. We don’t have time to waste. It’s hard to do alone but both my parents have helped me along the way. What makes the biggest difference is having a support system.”
She said it can be very difficult to balance the need to work to earn a living with the desire to spend time with her daughter.
Toote said it can be daunting to be a single parent and entrepreneur. But she advised other women, “Don’t let the fear of it all stop you. As long as you’re working hard and remember who it’s for, it will all be worth it.”
Kaeci Durfey is a medical esthetician. A medical esthetician specializes in advanced skin care treatments to develop and maintain healthy, beautiful skin.
Durfey provides the service of microneedling. This is a treatment that improves the look of scars, fine lines, wrinkles, stretch marks, and minimizes pores.
She starts the microneedling treatment by cleansing the face. Then she uses a device that stimulates the production of collagen, uses different kinds of light therapy, and removes impurities. Next she applies a topical numbing cream on the face followed by going over the face with a microneedling tool.
Both Durfey and Toote loved their jobs, but they wanted to expand. Opening Bye Bye Med Spa was the first step in their 20-year plan.
Bye Bye Med Spa is located at 4698 S. Highland Drive in Millcreek. Services include Injections like Botox, microdermabrasion to lighten and tighten the skin, eyelash extensions, microblading, waxing, airbrush spray tanning, and even weight loss programs. The spa also gives clients a great selection of everyday skin care as well as supplements.
Toote and Durfey would love to help others accomplish their goals and are leasing out rooms to anyone, even those who aren’t estheticians. Rent starts at $650 a month and includes social media marketing, business financial services, and web design.
Kendall Robbs is a 21-year-old single mom who rents out a room at Bye Bye Med Spa. She provides facial waxing and eyebrow tinting, and she specializes in microblading.
Microblading is a type of permanent makeup applied to your eyebrow. Robbs uses a special blade to tattoo individual hair strokes giving a fuller, natural looking brow.
Kendall moved from Salt Lake City to Orem two years ago for an internship where she learned microblading. She decided to move to Bye Bye Med Spa because the location would better accommodate her clients.
“The location is great, and everyone offers something different vs. other places where everybody just does one thing. Since there are individual rooms each client gets a more comfortable experience,” Robbs said.
Robbs related with Toote and Durfey, saying, “They are young single moms trying to build a career and I just really connected with them being a single mom as well. We just get each other.”
Toote and Durfey have a lot of plans for Bye Bye Med Spa, including offering cool sculpting. Cool sculpting is a device that dissolves fat cells in the area of choice.
They just recently got a laser to provide skin-resurfacing, laser hair removal, and tattoo removal for their clients. Kybella was also recently added, which is an injection that completely paralyzes fat. They would like to partner with a plastic surgeon in the future.
Bye Bye Med Spa is planning a grand opening this upcoming summer but anyone is currently welcome to set up an appointment for a skin care treatment, eyelash extensions, microblading, or spray tanning session.
The confidence of their customers is their top priority. All women and men are welcome, regardless of their color, shape, or size.
U NewsWriting 