Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series for Arts Access examining the health and well-being of our North Texas arts economy.
During the early days of the pandemic, Victoria Leiato was furloughed from her corporate job as an executive assistant in Dallas. After a few months, she eventually found a job in a much more creative space – a beauty salon.
“There’s just something really cool about seeing people transform,” Leiato said. “You literally hold the power to help them feel more confident when they go into the harsh realities of the world. It’s amazing how simple beauty is, but it just has that impact.”
When Leiato started as a general manager there, the business was struggling. She hired a local Latina artist to paint vibrant canvases to hang on the salon’s gray walls. She brightened up the space with colorful patterns, pastels and more lighting. Six months later, she had successfully transformed the salon when something familiar happened.
“I got let go from a second job within the year,” Leiato said.
Leiato swore she would never go back to the corporate world. Plus, she liked working in the beauty salon and wanted to keep helping the careers of beauty professionals blossom. She saw how many people lost their jobs during the pandemic, so she decided to create a space that would help others with financial stability. She founded The Bloom Space last year. The beauty studio seeks to help independent beauty professionals start their own businesses, work on their craft and learn how to become financially independent.
“[The professionals] run their own businesses. They do their own thing here,” Leiato said. “Where they shine, I just get to be a part of it.”
The Bloom Space, located on West Page Avenue in Oak Cliff, is filled with pink furniture, earth-toned coffee tables, leafy plants and brown styling chairs. The interior is inspired by Mexico City’s colorful neighborhoods. Leiato said she chose Oak Cliff because the Latinx culture reminded her of her hometown of El Paso, where she lived until 2017.
Growing up, Leiato and her family lived in government housing and survived off food stamps. Her mother, an immigrant from Mexico, was working as a registered nurse when she enrolled in beauty school to pursue her dream job as an esthetician. While taking classes, she worked at a salon to make additional income for her family. Ten years later, her mom was able to pull Leiato and her sisters out of poverty.
“I fully recognize that the only reason I was able to even have a college education was because my mom really worked hard to push us forward,” Leiato said.
The beauty industry was a way out for Leiato’s mother. With The Bloom Space, Leiato hoped to provide other Latinas the same.
“If I’m going to start [The Bloom Space] it has to be for my people and it has to be to give them accessibility and resources so that they can succeed,” Leiato said.
While Leiato does hope to help out fellow Latinas, those who really want to cultivate their careers are welcome to become a member of the salon.
“Without ownership or skin in the game, you can’t come into this type of industry to succeed,” Leiato said. “It happens to be that most Latinas are indeed those type of go-getters, so my mission really is a medium that allows them to hustle and hustle well.”
Membership to The Bloom Space provides them with a work station, shampoo station, laundry care, space to sell their retail, business assistance and marketing guidance. There are different work stations for different services, such as tables for the nail technicians and private rooms for body contouring and body waxing. The professionals just bring their own tools.
Unlike the salon Leiato worked at before starting The Bloom Space, stylists set their own prices for services and receive 100% of it. This business model is different from hourly- and commission-based salons, which sometimes underpay workers. Under an hourly pay structure, a stylist gets paid for the hours they work not for the individual service they provide. In a commission-based salon, stylists receive a commission rate for the clients they bring and retail products they sell. The more clients they bring in, the more money they make. Again, they’re not paid for the individual service they provide, instead they’re compensated based on a percentage of the salon’s revenue per service.
Members at The Bloom Space can rent a space for contracts that can range from month-to-month up to a year. The prices of membership packages are flexible and depend on a professional’s financial stance, their role at The Bloom Space and the length of lease. The longer the lease, the cheaper the weekly rate.
For example, a hairstylist could pay $370 weekly for month-to-month or $275 weekly for a year. A lash technician or tattoo artist could pay $225 weekly for month-to-month membership or $175 weekly for a year.
Leiato said about 22 professionals have rented these spaces since The Bloom Space opened, and those who commit to shorter contracts usually renew the lease for a longer stay.
“The longer [they] stay, because it creates stability for the business, [they] get a more affordable deal,” Leiato said. “It also pushes people to actually put effort into their own business so they can succeed.
Stevie Chapa, a hairstylist at The Bloom Space, has been cutting hair for 10 years in different salons in Dallas, including commission-based ones. She said the good thing about working at The Bloom Space is that Leiato also helps bring in new clients and allows walk-in appointments.
“This is my first renting and I was kind of nervous about the transition, but it’s been really good because I have gotten a lot of clients from [Leiato],” Chapa said. “It can be hard when you’re doing it on your own.”
At The Bloom Space, workshops are also included in membership packages. Leiato invites financial professionals into the shop to teach members accounting or how to invest their money. The shop also hosts classes where members can learn new skills from one another, like barber cut classes or how to do hair extensions.
Zuri Diaz, an esthetician, said The Bloom Space helped her register and file taxes for her business Glowin’ Angel. Pamela Elliott Smith, a hairstylist who has worked in the industry for over 20 years, said The Bloom Space taught her how to use social media, like Instagram Reels, to market and brand herself.
“I’m kind of honing in my focus on things I ignored for a while in my career because of being a mom,” Elliott Smith said. “It’s just been a breath of fresh air, for a better way to say it, it has shot life into my career.”
Leiato said these classes are all about creating resources for the stylists to create generational wealth. “If my mom had me 10 years into her career and had something like this, she would be making way more bank sooner to provide for her family and take care of them,” she said.
Ultimately, she hopes the salon can live up to its name.
“I just really wanted to be a place that exemplifies flourishing – where women can really grow,” Leiato said.
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