We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Serina Padilla a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Serina, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Growing up no one understood how to cut and care for my curls and that is what lead me to where I am now. Having curls made me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed and therefore I decided to straighten my hair repeatedly till it was so damaged it would no longer curl. As i grew older I decided to be a hairstylist and very early on realized I wanted to embrace my biggest insecurity, my curls. My business expanded so quickly that I found I wasn’t the only one with this insecurity. I’ve been able to create a community here in Sacramento, Ca filled with Women, Men & children who now love their curls and embrace them whole heartedly.

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.

I’m Serina Padilla born and raised in Sacramento, CA. Growing up I was ashamed of my curls and decided to hide them with heat damage and constant straightening. As a young adult I decided enough was enough and went on a self love journey, that meant it was time to embrace everything I was blessed with, including my curls. When first starting I trained constantly with multiple Curl based corses, I still currently travel around the country taking classes and learning all I can about Curls. I own The Curl Lounge Sacramento the first Latina owned curl based salon in sacramento. I pride myself on creating a comfortable environment for all curly girls and guys because I truly know how important this process is. My mission is to help you accept and love your curls and give you the ability to watch your curls thrive! Things I’m most proud of is that we strive to educate children on their curls and help guide them at a young age to love and care for their curls. It builds so much self confidence and really helps them grow to not want to straighten and damage their hair.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Ive know since I was a child that I wanted to work in the hair industry, I’d never felt called to anything els but hair. Right from graduating beauty school I figured out working on straight hair was not for me. It genuinely felt like I let myself down, kinda sent me on a spiral. I then knew I had to pivot, one thing about me is I never give up. I did a lot of self reflection and decided I wanted to go natural on myself. It felt like I was teaching my clients how to prevent damage yet here I am a fraud constantly damaging my hair. While on my journey clients asked if I permed my hair, or how they could get their curls to look like mine. I would call them my undercover curlys. In that moment I realized I could really make a difference for my curly clients while healing my own inner child.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media was my big turning point. Now over 8 years ago was when I really went heavy on my media presence. Julissa Prado founder of Rizos Curls said in a conference “ in vision the person you want coming to your business, what do they look like? Are they kind are they funny, what do they value” and it blew my mind i know longer posted just to send it into the universe I posted with purpose. My Goal was to find all women/ men of color who truly didn’t understand their hairs potential, people family oriented, people who are kinda weird like me. I use social media as a window into my life and show people who I am.doing that has brought me the most connections, clients who feel like my best friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Thecurlloungesac.com
• Instagram: @yourhairstylistserina @curlloungesac
• Facebook: TheCurlLoungeSac
• Youtube: Yourhairstylistserina

Image Credits

Credit all to our long time photographer Aarti B Photography