Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Alvarez.
Hi Amber, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In 2016, after leaving my third salon in one year, I walked into what was still a fairly new concept at the time: salon suites. I was 22 years old, didn’t have a big business plan or a savings. I pawned a designer bag to pay my deposit, took a chance on myself, and opened Luna Hair Studio in central San Antonio. Ten years later, Luna is still here.
For most of my career, I focused on continuing education, building my skill set, and becoming a blonde specialist. I cared deeply about the craft, and the trust it takes for someone to sit in your chair. But over time, I realized the work was more than just pretty hair.
If someone asks me what my favorite service is, I don’t usually name one. My honest answer is that I love listening to the stories of everyday women. Career driven or not, so many of the women who sit in my chair have lived entire coming of age stories that they talk about like they are normal. They have pivoted through grief, career changes, motherhood, divorce, ambition, burnout, reinvention, and every wall life throws at them. Being trusted with those stories has given me a tender heart and a deeper awareness of how many women are quietly carrying so much.
In August of 2025, I launched my podcast, Amber Talks Too Much, inspired by the women in my chair. I wanted to create a corner of the internet for women who are starting over, building careers, pursuing education, running businesses, or simply trying to figure themselves out. I interview friends, peers, and women I’m personally inspired by, while also being honest about the challenges of entrepreneurship. My brand has always been upfront about the hard parts, because I think honesty gives other people permission to feel less alone.
The last ten years as a salon owner have been far from easy. I could probably count more moments of grief than moments I once considered success. But that is also what shaped me. I started to understand how many of us are silently struggling, how many of us stop telling the truth, and how many people give up because they feel like they are the only ones going through it.
Today, I see myself as more than a hairstylist. I am a listening ear. I hold space for people in a way they may not always hold space for themselves, and I take great pride in that.
Networking and visibility have always brought me anxiety, but I continue to move through that fear because I know my voice matters. From being featured on Michelle Obama’s podcast on the topic of fear during professional change, to participating in a virtual panel with the Governor of Texas to advocate for independent contractors during the pandemic, I would say my biggest accomplishment so far has been learning how to use my voice.
I started with a pawned bag, a salon suite, and a lot of fear. I got here by continuing anyway.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road. I think one of my biggest struggles came from lack. Lack of resources, lack of financial literacy, lack of a back up plan, and honestly, lack of room to dream bigger when I was constantly trying to survive.
People often say things like “change your mindset” or “invest in yourself,” and while I understand the intention behind that advice now, those options did not always feel available to me as a twenty something trying to build a life and a business from survival mode. While many people in their twenties were racking up debt from vacations or nice things, I was racking up debt from groceries, salon inventory, and things like a Square register so I could keep working.
I did not grow up in a financially literate family. I dropped out of high school and later earned my diploma online. For a long time, all I knew how to do was scrape by and figure things out as I went. It was not until I turned thirty that I really started to understand my finances, how to pay myself properly, and how to look at my business with more structure instead of always operating from panic.
Another major challenge was learning how to put myself out there. As a small business owner, visibility is not optional. You have to market yourself, your business, your niche, your work, and sometimes even your personality. You have to network, talk about what you do, and ask people to trust you. For someone with a lot of anxiety around being seen, even handing out a business card once felt debilitating.
And of course, there was the global pandemic. I was five years into my business and only 26 when I had to shut down for two months. The world changed, the economy changed, and small businesses had to adapt very quickly. That was one of the hardest wake up calls for me. It taught me that you can plan, prepare, and work hard, but there will still be moments completely outside of your control.
A lot of my journey has been learning how to survive without letting survival become my entire identity. I have had to learn money, visibility, confidence, boundaries, and resilience in real time. None of it was easy, but it shaped the business owner and woman I am today.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work started behind the chair. I am the owner of Luna Hair Studio in central San Antonio, where I specialize in blonding, lived-in color, color corrections, and creating hair that feels beautiful but still realistic for someone’s everyday life. I have always cared about the technical side of hair, from placement to tone to maintenance, but what I think I have become most known for is the experience I create.
My chair has always been more than a place to get your hair done. It is a space where women can exhale. They can talk about their careers, relationships, grief, ambition, burnout, reinvention, and all the quiet things they may not always have room to say out loud. I think that is what sets me apart. I do not just see the service, I see the person sitting in front of me.
Over time, that naturally grew into my podcast, Amber Talks Too Much, and my blog, where I continue the conversations that started behind the chair. I interview women, creatives, entrepreneurs, and people navigating change because I believe our everyday stories are worth documenting. I am especially drawn to conversations around business, identity, healing, community, and what it looks like to start over without pretending the process is easy.
Recently, I have also begun pursuing screenwriting, which feels like another extension of the same purpose. Whether I am doing hair, hosting a podcast, writing a blog, or working on a script, I am always interested in women’s stories, especially the ones that are tender, complicated, funny, resilient, and often overlooked.
What I am most proud of is that I have built a career rooted in trust. I started as a hairstylist, but my work has grown into storytelling, community, and holding space. I am proud that women have trusted me not only with their hair, but with their stories. That trust is something I do not take lightly.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it wasn’t all for nothing.
For a long time, I thought I wanted to become a well known hair educator. Looking back, I think what I really wanted was recognition. I wanted to feel like all the years of work, rejection, sacrifice, and hearing “no” meant something. I have been a hairstylist for twelve years, and there were so many moments where I felt like I was not good enough, not edgy enough, not trendy enough, or not visible enough.
After 2020, there were many Friday nights where I found myself crying on my kitchen floor because clients were canceling, moving, or struggling financially themselves. I was trying to keep a business alive while also trying to understand who I was becoming. At the time, so much of it felt like failure.
But now, as I pursue writing, podcasting, and screenwriting, I can see how my paths were slowly crossing the whole time. In a virtual screenwriting class, a producer once said, “Writers have to think like producers, directors, and bosses. The most important skill you need in today’s time is managing a business.” I remember exhaling and thinking, “This wasn’t for nothing.”
Being a salon owner taught me how to manage people, money, time, expectations, rejection, creativity, and my own resilience. It taught me how to listen. It taught me how to tell the truth. It taught me how important it is to protect my peace, because protecting my peace also protects my business, my brand, and the work I am meant to do.
I have also learned that you cannot do everything alone. I wish I had built community sooner, networked sooner, and asked for support sooner. Support does not always come from family, and sometimes you have to intentionally seek out the rooms, people, and communities that understand where you are trying to go.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lunahairstudiosa.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunahairstudio
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/0EtaLtm6koSEHJCBV7t0yi?si=9abe14d7e87746a9
