We recently connected with Laura Signore and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any advice for creating a more inclusive workplace?

Our salon is not just a salon, but a lgbtq+ safe space. Our salons mission is to promote gender equality and inclusivity, lgbtq+ inclusivity, and strive to make the world beautiful through self love internally and externally. When I first opened the salon back in 2021, I started it off with an idea. Southwest Michigan salons rarely “get political” with their audience. Lilith’s was not going to be just another salon. Our staff is all apart of the lgbtq+ community and over half are trans. Our clientele are all walks of life, lgbtq+ or an ally. With the staff I’ve hired and the clients who frequent our space, it’s really turned my little idea into a fully functioning queer hub in downtown Grand Rapids. We do shows for pole performers, drag performers, and burlesque performers 3 times a year as well as host many nonprofit drives. For example, one of our drives is currently to get warm items for the houseless community of Grand Rapids. Activism drives our salon.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As a child, I always loved doing hair and makeup. Growing up in a small town, I experimented on a lot of my friends for free. I grew talented as a non official hairdresser in my town. When I graduated highschool, I went to gvsu for art for two years until I dropped out. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I went to beauty school for about half my hours I needed to be a licensed cosmologist. I dropped out again before I could find. Lost, I started working at a make up shop inside the mall. I loved makeup, so I walked there full time as a manager for 5 years until covid forced our company to shut down all our storefronts. Laid off and no where to go, I decided to finish my beauty school hours. I finished beauty school in October 2021. As soon as I got my license in December, I immediately opened liliths lair. My salon opened in 2022 of January and has been growing every since. A lot of people doubted my idea and a lot of people believed in it. The people who believed in me and my idea have helped me grow to the point where our salon is now going to expand into a larger location the end of this year.

I personally specialize in vivid haircolor and so do a lot of other artists inside my shop, but we can do any hair service revolving around cuts and color. What sets us apart is our inclusive environment, our creepy cute salon decor, and stylists who are all independent contractors who all specialize in something.

Our stylists set their own hours and make their own prices. This focus on independence helps foster a salon staff that cares deeply about their craft and what they put out into the world. We are specialists, not just stylists.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Since our salon is booth rental, building our clientele is essential. When our salon first started up, I decided to advertise off my own personal social media. I went through and added a lot of local folks from Grand Rapids and eventually my page had over 5k friends. This larger platform helped me get the word out about our business. Our biggest marketing strategies have been our photoshoots. We curate photoshoots every once in a while that seriously helps drive out our brand. Everyone in our staff is unique and fun, so clients love to see us during those photoshoots and it gives us content to post. Our engagement goes up from those and our three times a year shows we host. Honestly driving up business is done best by us when we work within our community and do as much community outreach as we can,

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As I stated in a prior question, I was a two time school drop out. I had no idea where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. Both times I dropped out, I was suffering with horrible depression and anxiety. I was moving through my traumatic highschool experience and I was floundering. I’ve always been shy, queer, and never fit in. I really grew into myself when I opened lilith’s. I lost a lot of people who I thought were close friends that I had formed trauma bonds with that I hadn’t let go of. My fiancé was also not working and I was the sole provider for my household. I was also suffering and still do suffer with agonizing back pain and migraines. In my opinion, I had A LOT against me. Lack of money, lack of friendships, lack of self appreciation, etc, but I pushed through. I owe a lot to my community and my family.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.lilithslairgr.com/
• Instagram: Lilithslairgr
• Facebook: Lilith’s lair gr
• Other: Zenithcreations_ on Instagram is my personal hair page

Image Credits
Strzyphoto Triptychsphotography Erikatownsleyphoto All Instagram handles