We were lucky to catch up with Santos Ruiz recently and have shared our conversation below.
Santos , appreciate you joining us today. Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?
Honestly the best boss I’ve ever had has to be my mom. When I decided to follow my dreams and become a hairstylist full time, we decided to open up our own beauty salon. My mom is the owner and I am co-owner of Ziur Beauty Salon. I’m very blessed to be able to learn so much knowledge and wisdom from her. My greatest mentor in life. And I don’t take it for granted one bit! Maybe my younger days for sure we make mistakes but as I got older I definitely learn as much as I can from the og! Haha and you’d think because we are a family owned business my mom would let me slide with many things but nope, I’m grateful she’s one to call me out on all my wrongs and mistakes! She’s always pushed me to become the greatest version of myself and have confidence. To feel empowered and strong. That nothing is impossible, if we work hard and stay consistent. I’ve learned so much from my mom and I’m truly grateful to God for this blessing.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Santos Ruiz. I am Co-owner of ZIUR Beauty Salon. Born and raised in Houston Tx. Back in 2008 it was a huge era in emo/ scene culture. I remember my hair being super long past my waist and seeing a YouTube video on how to cut layered bangs and tease your hair for a puffy emo look. I grabbed a pair of my mom scissors and started chopping my hair away. Obviously I was butchered bad but my hair was definitely layered up. The next day my mom seen my hair and was super pissed. She ended up booking me a hair appointment at Toni & Guy and I was so excited to finally chop all my hair off and have stupid amount of texture and layers!! As soon as I got to my appointment, my mom strictly told me to tell my stylist to even out the haircut and keep the length but I had a google picture i printed out to show as inspo. It was the most emo scene hair you could think off. I’m talking Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon haha and my hairstylist surely did that!!! I remember the sectioning and how detailed he was with the haircut. The amount of texture that was created and how voluminous my hair looked and felt. I fell in love with the art of transforming hair. Since that experience I’ve become so dedicated to give the same feeling or similar to my clients. Ziur Beauty Salon is a small family owned business by my mother, Angelica Ruiz, and I! She’s 18+ years in the hair industry and I am 7 years in. When we first opened up the salon we made sure to make it an only by appointment and to remain that way. I can proudly say we’ve sustained the salon by appointments only since 2018 to now. We make sure to always respect and give our clients the privacy and time they book for. It’s been such a journey but I love the bonds we have with our clients. Most of them are like family now I mean we’ve laughed, cried, supported, listened and ranted all together in one space and it’s a blessing honestly. But most importantly to be able to work with my mom is a blessing as well. She knows all the old school tricks and I’m learning all the new gen tricks so when you combine both techniques you truly create art and history. What sets us apart from everyone else is that we listen and give our clients what they want. But most importantly we listen. I think sometimes the clients just want to be heard and in ways of getting exactly what they want or just simply ranting and being understood. And that we also specialize in color corrections haha. We prioritize hair care. Making sure to always protect the integrity of your hair so when you rinse it at home it does not feel gummy, dried up or worse starts to break. Your portfolio is your client as soon as they step out the studio. It’s important to make sure you do your 100% best in hair transformations because you want strangers asking your client where they got their hair done so that they can go there to! I’m very proud of how far we’ve gotten the salon. Through hardships and challenges but we never gave up and we’re still standing strong! All thanks to our clients and their support. Forever grateful for them!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
In all honesty we are booked thanks to our clients referrals. The only slow season is usually June and July but because moms and everybody else is on vacay and they don’t want to take their kids to the salons because it’s their moment of relaxation and forgetting problems! The most effective strategy for us to grow our clientele is word of mouth! Believe it or not old school has definitely helped out so much. We opened up at the prime of technology and we were super scared because what if our videos didn’t get views or if any of our content went viral. The results and experience play such a huge role that clients love to express and speak about how much they loved their experience and make sure to get you booked out with their friends! I mean social media is a factor as well but 90% of our clients come from word of mouth referrals!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
What helped me build my reputation within the market is being passionate about my craft and patience! I do color corrections take that up to 13 hours to do but that’s where patience comes in play. I take strand by strand to make sure it’s all evened out and not breaking. Prioritizing hair care is such a huge factor and vibing with the client at the end of the day. Building relationships with them and memories while also creating a safe comfortable environment for them. I love what I do honestly. I enjoy everyday even if it’s doing a simple shampoo and wash. You get to finish it with a nice blow out and seeing my clients smile is the best reward In my career!
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