Today we’d like to introduce you to Lesley Santafield.
Hi Lesley, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Circa 1993-1994 at Sam Houston High School on the east side of San Antonio is where I earned my Cosmetology hours. I worked as a shampoo assistant on the weekends for Philip who owned Hair Unlimited which was located in the shopping plaza of H-E-B off W.W. White Rd. I took State Board exam and failed initially. Once I relocated to Houston I partnered up with Houston Community College Cosmetology Instructor who willingly allowed one of their students to train me on the side to get me prepared for the State Board Exam-although I still did not feel confident enough to retake the exam. I had to relocate back to San Antonio due to family issues-but that didn’t deter me. I confidently went to Sam Houston High Cosmetology Instructor at the time who was Carmen and asked for help. She willingly allowed me to come to the school and train alongside her students and when it was time for her students to go to State Board she rented a van to go to Austin and it was then that I passed the practical Cosmetology exam. During that time TDLR was changing their written test to be proctored by PSI and I failed the written exam so many times. I finally passed the written exam in 2005/2006. By that time I was living in Houston again and I ventured out to work at a salon. I started out at Visible Changes Galleria and working part-time as a shampoo tech while attending their apprentice program as a Chemical Specialist. It was there that I earned my most valuable training as a Cosmetologist. Afterwards I worked at JCPenney Salon Meyerland until I became pregnant and went back into corporate America for as a Human Resource Coordinator at Transocean. In 2009 it wasn’t until the recession affected me and I decided to move myself and my son back home to San Antonio. From there on I did not immediately start doing hair until 2013. I worked at numerous salons none of them worked out due to hairstylist jealousy, negativity/drama. At the time I felt like San Antonio was not a great market to do hair as a full-time career, I had realized that my skills proceeded the demographic area. Then I had to reinvent the wheel-I challenged State Board for my Cosmetology Instructor’s license and passed while I kept working in corporate America. I worked for AT&T and once things seemingly demanded me to exit-I did in May 2016. I decided to use my 401K to get me started with my career as a Cosmetologist. The salons I worked at did not work out and it was like I made a mistake leaving my job until reality hit. I had opened my first salon suite at Salon Gallerie Suites in Selma, TX. It wasn’t until a few months after leaving my job-someone committed bank fraud against me which made me have to go back into corporate America. In May 2017 I went back to seeking entrepreneurship again this time I rented a chair on the Northeast side and far Northwest side of town. Once clientele from the Northeast side started to dwindle I let that go. Clientele was booming on the Northwest side and I opened up my suite at Truesdell Salon which at the time I highly recommend for new beauty industry pros to start because of their incentives. Eventually I landed a part-time job as an Instructor for University Cosmetology Arts and Sciences (UCAS) while working as an entrepreneur. In August 2018 I was wrongly terminated from my job at UCAS and I felt discouraged on my hair journey and closed my suite-I felt like I experienced more bad energy than good and decided to relocate back to Houston. This time I tried salon after salon and was turned away until I started out at JCPenney Salon in Sugarland, clientele was very slow it wasn’t like the old days where it seemed like every JCPenney salon location was booming. This time I worked for USPS and once my schedule allowed I found a salon in the Cypress area of Houston to work at part-time. I worked with successful hairstylist Sharon Blackmon (Trendy Looks Hair Studio) and Dekosha (Blessed Hands Beauty Salon) where I earned valuable experience as well but this time my job was demanding me to work more hours and entrepreneurship was not that sustainable to work alone. During this venture I worked alongside and I sought out successful hairstylists in the Houston area to mentor me like Ashley Mitchell (Ashley Mitchell Salon and Spa), Carronica Durr (aka Mookie Jones), Alana Rhodes (Royal Signature). The experience that I gained with these ladies was priceless. God’s timing could not have been better-He prepared me to relocate back to San Antonio, I started accepting appointments while my employment at USPS ended in January 2020. My lease in my apartment was ending in March of 2020, while I still owned my house in Universal City my mortgage company had also advised me not to rent my property out again due to the upcoming economic events. I withdrew my son from school the week before Spring Break 2020 and we moved back to San Antonio during March 2020. I was accepting clients full-time then the pandemic forced everything to stop. Once the pandemic ended I continued working at Designer Glitz and Glamour salon until I discovered that I could rent a salon suite cheaper than booth renting and I opened my salon suite at Mallorca. Business was doing great until a little over a year customers started expressing their concerns about their hair and I discovered over time that someone had been illegally entering my salon suite and tampering with my salon products, my booking app was being hacked and someone was changing my pricing as well as someone committing bank fraud again. Their was a lot of weird energy and it was becoming palpable so I decided to close in September 2021. In 2024 I slowly began booth renting on a daily basis, but in 2025 I decided it was time to restart this time feeling the community support.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It was not a smooth road, but it made me a wiser Entrepreneur. The struggles I encountered mentally was not for the faint at heart. Entrepreneurship is challenging and it can be very rewarding with the right mindset, mentorship and skills, The obstacles that I encountered were mainly from the salon owners who would gossip about my clients loud enough to where my clients could hear them (and my clients would report to me what they heard and in turn I would confront the hairstylist). Stylist would steal my hair products or in general tamper with my products so they would not work effectively or it would become a hazard to use. Ultimately that’s what made me chose salon suites.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My initial dream was to become a celebrity makeup artist before I became licensed I studied celebrity makeup artist like Sam Fine, Bobbi Brown and many others. I took an International Makeup Artist mentorship in Las Vegas with the late celebrity make-up artist and Dudley Educator Buntricia Bastian. Once I started to realize that I got more attention from hair than makeup I took classes to further my skills, I specialize in all hair textures, initially my niche was making wigs and making weaves look natural, haircutting and hair color. I like to do short hair, natural hair, weaves, and men’s braids.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Do not become weary in well- doing and do it scared, give it your all and most importantly do someone’s hair like you would want yours done.
Pricing:
- Know your market
- Do not price yourself out of business
- Do not be greedy
- Learn cost-analysis with product usage
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wowbeautysalonstudio210.booksy.com
- Instagram: @wowbeautysalonstudio210
