ABOVE: Southern Minnesota Skin Solutions opens in Fairmont on Monday. From left: Natalie Shimon, McKenzie Terfehr (owner) and Rachael Sauck.

FAIRMONT– New business, Southern Minnesota Skin Solutions, will open in Fairmont on Monday. The business, owned and operated by McKenzie Terfehr, is located at 1235 Highway 15 S.

Terfehr grew up locally in Welcome and now lives south of Fairmont with her family.

When asked if this was something she always wanted to do, Terfehr said, “I would never dream I would want to open my own business.”

However, she said changes in her family life led her to want better hours and more flexibility in her life. Most recently, Terfehr has been commuting as she’s been working in central Iowa as a dermatology provider.

Terfehr is actually a nurse practitioner who specializes in dermatology and has been working in the field for 13 years.

As for why she likes what she does, Terfehr said, “There’s the normal things you see on a regular basis, but there’s also something new and different that walks through the door every day.”

She said that when working with skin, it encompasses so many things including systemic disease and localized disease.

“It’s so crazy how the skin is integrated so many ways into our bodies,” Terfehr said.

She said that dermatology is evolving so fast and that there are many different treatment modalities. There are also new treatments that are constantly being tested.

Terfehr said she was only really thinking of opening her own business for about the last six months.

“I’ve always been a huge proponent of Fairmont growth. Our kids are deeply rooted here, too. We want to continue to see it thrive and grow,” Terfehr said.

She said it’s better for the community to bring services, especially dermatology, which is highly specialized, to the area.

“It’s very highly needed. There’s not a lot of options for availability,” she said.

Terfehr said she feels lucky with the location that she found as she learned about the building through casual conversation. She said it all fell into place.

“We gutted everything and started over. We had 100 percent renovations throughout the space to update it and make it more accessible,” Terfehr said.

Southern Minnesota Skin Solutions will offer mainly medical dermatology, which is different that the spa-like services that have recently opened up in Fairmont. While it will offer some cosmetic services, Terfehr said the vast majority is medical dermatology.

“I would like to see those other businesses take over more of the cosmetic aspect,” Terfehr said.

Some targets service areas include acne, eczema, hair loss, warts, psoriasis, rashes and skin cancer.

The services will be really unique to the area as the last place that offered dermatology was Mayo Clinic Health System-Fairmont, though they stopped that service during Covid.

“This is definitely unique to the area compared to what’s been available previously,” Terhefr said.

Terhefr said she’s also a big proponent of rural healthcare and acknowledged that there’s a big disparity when it comes to rural healthcare.

“Adding small town, home-grown feel with highly specialized dermatological services will be very much needed and a huge asset to the community,” Terfehr said.

While Terfehr is the only provider, she has two staff members, Natalie Shimon and Rachael Sauck, though she hopes to grow over time.

Southern Minnesota Skin Solutions will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays. More information can be found at southermnskin.com.