'It's the best experience of my life': Salon owner shares son's adoption story

Mariana Veloso
The Evening Sun

Bryan Asper always wanted to be a father.

While working at a salon in Carlisle, he got to witness his cousin start a family of his own. Asper wanted the same, so he started taking classes to become a foster parent.

"I wanted to give a child a life that I didn't necessarily have ... my dad walked out on me when I was young," Asper said.

One day, a client came in and told him about a woman who was eight months pregnant and just getting out of prison.

"Now I've always wanted a boy, so, when she said that I said, 'Oh yeah, what is she having?' and she said, 'She's having a boy.' I was like, 'Oh, my gosh,'" Asper said.

In the end, it was a perfect match. 

"There was just some (coincidences) ... the mother was from Aspers, Pa., my great great great great grandfather owned the town of Aspers, her middle name was Lucille, my grandmother's middle name was Lucille," Asper said.

"I think that Ryker was meant to be my kid. God put him in my life for that."

Bryan Asper with his two-year-old son Ryker Xaiver.

Being a single parent has its challenges, he said, but it's all worth it. "It's the best experience of my life."

While in the process of adopting Ryker Xaiver, Asper was also working on his long term goal of owning a salon. 

"That's the reason why I wanted to do this because I can show my son that hard work and dedication can pay off and you can always go for your dreams," he said.

Hope Salon, 512 Broadway, is located where Strickler's Hobby House used to be and is the only exclusively Aveda salon in Hanover. 

"(The location) had a great business in here before so I thought, you know, that can only give me good vibes," he said.

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Hope Salon is located at the former Strickler's Hobby House at 512 Broadway in Hanover.

The name of the salon means a lot to Asper, who struggled growing up gay.

"Throughout my years I was bullied and made fun of and beat down and had some family issues, and I just turned to drugs," Asper said.

A "hope" tattoo on his arm gave him strength to power through hardships.

"Every time that I really would start to get down to hitting rock bottom, I saw that and it just brought me back, back to myself. Until one day where I hit rock bottom and I was like, 'OK, I've got to stop this crap, I'm getting to be older and I'm too smart for this,'" he said.

"It just really gave me hope that I could be a better human being and chase that dream of having more."

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Bryan Asper is the owner of Hope Salon, located at 512 Broadway in Hanover.

Asper hopes that his salon can be a place where people come to relax.

"My vision for the salon is to feel like you're walking into a city salon, but have that feel of it being ... you're walking into a salon that is your family, and you can talk about anything," he said.

Through Aveda, Asper offers their chemical free, 96 percent plant flower derived product line including color, makeup and skincare.

"Everything you put into and ingest into your body, it has to come out of somewhere," Asper said. "I just feel the less chemicals in your body is better."

Hope Salon is the only exclusively Aveda salon in Hanover.

Mariana Veloso is the Quality of Life reporter for the Evening Sun. Mariana focuses primarily on the opioid epidemic in south central PA, along with coverage of everyday issues in the Hanover area. If you have a story idea, you can email her at msveloso@eveningsun.com. Follow her on Twitter @MariVeloso9 to stay up-to-date with her latest articles.