Motherhood Inspired a Pilates Studio – and Something More
The first year after becoming a mother was one of the darkest periods of Allie Hair’s life.
A Southington native with a degree in elementary education, Hair had already realized that teaching wasn't the career for her when she became pregnant. When her daughter was born, Hair followed through on her plan to stay home with her, but she wasn't prepared for how difficult that time would become.
“I had a really hard time just figuring out how to be a mom, figuring out myself,” Hair said. “It was something that really consumed my life. Like I couldn’t leave the house.”
“I felt so alone and isolated from everyone I knew,” she added. “I was in survival mode 24/7.”
What Hair eventually realized was how badly she needed something that existed outside of being “mom”—a mental break, an outlet and a way to reconnect with herself. She found some of that in Pilates, a form of exercise she had discovered before the pandemic and continued practicing on a mat in her living room during COVID-19.
“Pilates helped me feel like I could connect to myself in whatever stage of life,” she said. “After becoming a mom, that was the only part of my day I had to connect with myself.”
But after spending so much of that year at home, Hair wanted somewhere she could go to practice Pilates outside her living room. Southington didn't have a dedicated reformer Pilates studio, which uses specialized equipment to add resistance to Pilates movements, and finding the experience she wanted meant traveling out of town. Hair began considering whether she could create that place herself.
What Hair imagined wasn't a particular aesthetic or even a specific kind of studio. “It was more a feeling,” she said. “It was the feeling of being me before having a baby.” That feeling became the foundation for Align Studios, which Hair opened with her fiancé, Zach, in Southington in January 2026, at 360 North Main Street.
Although Align was designed for anyone, Hair's postpartum experience shaped what she wanted people to find there. She thought about the friends who had stuck by her during that difficult year, listened when she needed to talk and reminded her of the interests and parts of herself that had existed before motherhood. She wanted the studio to offer some version of that same support, even in the smallest interactions.
“I knew I wanted a space for anyone, but especially moms, to come to and just feel that way with either an instructor or the person next to them,” she said. “Sometimes all it takes is someone on the reformer next to you saying hi.”
Opening a Pilates studio, however, wasn't always the plan. Hair and Zach, who also grew up in Southington, were considering a much different future when Align began taking shape: leaving Connecticut for Florida.
“We actually went through a little part right before where we kind of had to make a decision: move to Florida or stay here and do this,” Hair said. They chose to stay, a decision that pushed Align from a recurring idea into something they were ready to pursue.
Zach brought years of business experience to the venture, having owned several businesses and currently operating a tree company. While Hair shaped the vision for Align, he took on much of the behind-the-scenes business work and helped turn that vision into a physical studio, even assembling its reformers.
Building Align together also gave Hair, a first-time business owner, a new perspective on the demands Zach had been navigating for years through his own businesses. Working through those responsibilities together gave her a greater appreciation for what went into his work and, she said, ultimately brought them closer as a couple.
When Align held its sneak preview party, Hair got her first sense of just how much interest there was in the studio. “The amount of people who RSVP’d made me so fulfilled, even to this day, that so many people wanted to come see this space I had created,” Hair said.
Since opening, Hair has watched the kind of connections she hoped for take shape: strangers who met on neighboring reformers making plans for coffee, breakfast or dinner, and longtime clients welcoming someone new before Hair or an instructor has the chance.
One interaction in particular brought Hair's own experience full circle. A client who is also a mother approached her after class and described what the studio had come to mean to her. “She was just like, ‘I can't thank you enough for the space that you've created. This is my time, and I just love it here,’” Hair recalled.
“Every time I think about it, it makes me want to cry,” she said. “That's what I wanted. I'm so happy that I can give that, even if it's just one other person.”
That sense of connection has extended beyond the studio through pop-ups, partnerships and events with other local businesses. Among Hair's favorites was a sponsored Pilates event aboard a boat, with a class on the top deck and smoothies, food and brunch below.
The partnerships have also made Hair especially grateful that she and Zach chose to stay and build the business in their hometown. “I am so happy we stayed in the town we grew up in and created what we did,” Hair said. “It has been an honor to be able to meet other local business owners, host and go to events.”
And choosing to stay has turned out to be only the beginning. Less than a year after opening in Southington, Hair and Zach are preparing to expand to Simsbury, where a second location is currently under construction.
As Align expands, Hair wants Simsbury to have the same welcoming, connected feel as Southington without losing sight of the community that helped the original studio grow. She is also proud of the instructors she has watched grow alongside the business. “I feel like I've given them a space to actually flourish and do what they want,” she said. “It makes me happy to know that.”
The expansion is a considerable shift from the year Hair spent struggling to leave her house, but she credits that difficult period with changing the way she sees both herself and the people around her. “It made me who I am today,” she said. “I have become more empathetic towards people. You truly never know what someone is struggling with behind their smiling face.”
That empathy ultimately shaped what Hair wanted to build: a place where people could walk through the door, feel seen and have something that was theirs, even if only for an hour.
