Gracie Kroeger Is Setting The Beauty Standard

By Mackenzie Branstad

BENTONVILLE, ARK.- Gracie Kroeger strokes her hairbrush through her clients hair. The bright pink walls of her suite are carefully decorated with pink whimsical prints filled with swans, bows and roses. Coloring, cutting, blonding and adding extensions is what she specializes in at The Beauty Standard, Northwest Arkansas’s first fragrance-free, vegan and allergy-friendly hair suite.

Kroeger, 25, was diagnosed with Alpha Gal Syndrome and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome in November 2025. Alpha Gal is a disease known for making people unable to eat red meat but can also cause an irritation to animal-derived fragrances often found in hair products. Alpha Gal is transmitted through the lone star tick, a species of tick known to be aggressive and distinguished by the white dot on their back. 

“Alpha Gal went from being almost nonexistent five years ago to an explosion of diagnosis now,” Dr. Bethany Galimore, a doctor at The Farm Clinic in Bentonville, said. 

Arkansas has the most cases of Alpha Gal in the country due to its high population of ticks. The CDC estimates that as many as 450,000 people in the United States may be affected by Alpha Gal. 

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a rare condition caused by overreactive mast cells. MCAS can cause episodes of swelling, hives, trouble breathing and can cause life-threatening anaphylaxis. 

“I got to the point where I was completely bedridden. I was going into Anaphylaxis all the time and I could hardly eat anything at all,” Kroeger said. 

Kroeger’s symptoms mainly began from her MCAS. She didn’t know that she also had Alpha Gal until November 2025, when she was hospitalized. She constantly felt really nauseous and would get really dizzy when she first started noticing her symptoms. 

“I realized when I was at work that it was the fragrances and chemicals that I was using that was giving me the reaction,” Kroeger said. 

Gracie Kroeger doing Olivia Sneathern’s hair. 

Photo by Mackenzie Branstad 

Once she found out she had Alpha Gal, she found a community of people that she could relate to and solidified her decision to open her own suite. One of Kroeger’s clients was reacting to everything and was unable to get her hair done for five or six years because of the lack of fragrance-free options. Kroeger loves to create an inclusive suite to serve people that could not get their hair done elsewhere as most of her clients have sensitivity to fragrance. 

“Having clients that have this shared experience means we can connect on a different level,” Kroeger said. 

During her six months away from work, Kroeger spent her time brainstorming how she would continue doing hair without fragrance. She grew up watching her mom cut, color and style hair at the Wildflower Salon in Bentonville and loved being in the salon. After finishing high school she knew she also wanted to do hair. So she began doing hair alongside her mom in 2020. 

“My favorite part of doing hair is being able to uplift people when they are going through a hard time, make people feel beautiful when they haven’t in a while,” Kroeger said. 

After her diagnosis, she was scared of losing her clientele from the salon and disappointed to no longer work with her mom but remained determined on finding her way back behind the styling chair. 

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder and my time off gave me a rejuvenated perspective on hair,” Kroeger said. 

Kroeger’s product shelf. 

Photo by Mackenzie Branstad 

Kroeger kept some of her clientele; she found that the peacefulness of her suite made her clients feel more comfortable and as an introvert she felt more at ease. She loved the busy energetic culture of her past salon but also now enjoys the little serene moments of her new suite. 

 “I noticed clients open up so much more being one on one. Even clients who struggled to open up immediately felt more comfortable here,” Kroeger said. 

Olivia Sneathern, one of Kroeger’s clients, went to get her hair done at Wildflower Salon, where they became instant friends. Sneathern found Kroeger on the internet after she moved to Arkansas from Kansas. She was especially worried as Kroeger was in hospice because Kroeger was going to do her hair for her upcoming wedding day. 

“Not only was she supposed to do my hair for my wedding but she was also in my wedding,” Sneathern said. 

Sneathern noticed a difference in her hair from when Kroeger switched to vegan products. She believes that her hair gets less greasy and loves the inclusive community  the new products bring in. Even though she doesn’t have Alpha Gal she knows many people with sensitivities and prefers the vegan products at the salon. 

Kroeger smiling while doing Sneathern’s hair. 

Photo by Mackenzie Branstad 

Due to Arkansas’s tall grass, and humid summer climate, it has become a highly populated spot for ticks. Many believe that tick season is specific to the spring and summer but many species are active all year long. 

Though peak conditions of tick activity are during the warmer months. Due to warmer winters the speed of the ticks lifestyle is being affected and populations are on the rise year-round. 

As the Alpha Gal diagnoses continue to rise in Arkansas, more modifications will need to be met to accommodate for the disease. Kroeger loves the community that she has created within the suite and the community she gathers from posting videos online. She continues to learn as she just completed her extensions course and will continue to foster an inclusive environment for people prone to allergies and with Alpha Gal.