(Corrected, Nov. 9)
It was a little more than six years ago when Luz Arteaga Pray took over the Wickenden Street hair salon where she had worked for a decade. She bought the 20-year-old Hairspray Salon, as well as the building where the basement shop and three other tenants are located.
Yes, it was a huge step for the native of Medellin, Colombia, who grew up in Cumberland. When asked if she was prepared in 2005 for the added burdens she was taking on, her frank answer was: “God, no!”
However, she added, “I haven’t regretted a day.”
She has transformed what was a typical Providence hair salon into a full-service unisex spa and, almost as an afterthought, combined the hairdressing business with what might seem an incongruous partner: an art gallery featuring the work of local artists. “I wish I could say that this is exactly how I saw it all and how I planned it,” Pray told Providence Business News. “But the truth is, these things just happened.”
She came to this country as a child when her father relocated the now-defunct factory he helped manage from South America to the Blackstone Valley. He chose to settle his family, not in a place such as Central Falls, where many Hispanics lived, but in suburban Cumberland, where back in the 1970s few Latinos resided. Yet, Pray stressed, “make no mistake about it, Colombian ties were our lifeline.”
Pray explained that her dad wanted “to immerse us completely” in the American lifestyle and he figured the best way would be to cut daily ties to the Hispanic community. Pray, who spoke Spanish as a child, remembers the rigors of learning English – “the English language is very difficult to learn,” she said – without the assistance of today’s ESL (English as a Second Language) programs.
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After graduating from Cumberland High School, she immediately went to hairdressing school in Providence, although she had no intention of becoming a hairdresser. She thought she would use her hairdressing skills to complement her actual goal of becoming a dancer – but, as is often the case, “life led me another way,” she said.
Then the economy started to plummet.
You can see the plunge reflected on Wickenden Street, whose identity is “shifting,” Pray said. Up-scale art galleries and antique stores have given way to ethnic eateries and trendy trinket shops geared to college students. Pray managed to retain a steady clientele at the salon and hold onto her 10 employees.
Pray made certain that her salon offers just about anything a client, male or female, would wish for, such as waxing to remove body hair (even from the back and chest), extending lashes, threading eyebrows and whitening teeth. Other services include reiki, aromatherapy, manicures, pedicures, herbal body wraps of mud or salt glow and various kinds of massages, including Swedish, deep tissue and shiatsu.
But still, all the services in the world could not guarantee a steady stream of customers, so around 2007, Pray started mulling over what else she could do to connect with more people. She decided she needed to network, but how could she find the time to network while raising a family and running a business? The only solution was to have the people she needed to meet come to her.
“I started hosting artist events,” she said. “I did it for us [her and her stylists] to meet people and to build a clientele. Artists always want a new venue. Maybe, for whatever reason, they don’t get into the official galleries, but they’re always looking for ways to have their art seen. I figured, I have walls, there are a lot of local artists that need a place for their art, so why not have it here?”
At that time, Pray explained, salon lights are dimmed and salon-related accoutrements set aside so the focus is on the art that hangs on the walls. A disc jockey plays music, salon staff members act as hosts, and light refreshments are served, as at any gallery opening. Pray said she has had as many as 100 people attend her exhibits.
In between shows, the art remains on display. People held captive in salon chairs, waiting for 30, 40 minutes as their hair dries or their color sets, can contemplate the art more than they could standing in a gallery, Pray noted.
The art runs the gamut from sculpture to paintings, photos and even jewelry.
Near the door of the salon hangs a framed, black-and-white collage of scenes from the 1960s by artist Peter Flood, with music legends Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia among those shown. In a nearby glass case are jewelry pieces hand-crafted by local artist and designer Patty Roy, whose business card says her work is made “with love, patience and heart.”
Most startling to Pray is that – without advertisements, without marketing, without promotional efforts of any kind – the artwork sells.
“Selling the art was not a goal or even an expectation on my part,” she said. When a piece is sold, she keeps a percentage of the price as her commission, with the rest going to the artist. “I am booked to the summer of 2012,” she said. “I don’t even look for artists anymore.” •
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Pray’s father owned the factory and that she had been “completely immersed” in the American lifestyle.
I want to thank Denise Perreault for such a well written article.However, I would like to make some clearifications. My father did not own the factory,he saw an opportunity to manage the project of the company coming to the states. As for all eight of us being completely immersed in the American lifestyle,our Clombian ties here in Rhode Island,make NO MISTAKE, were our life line. One of the many reasons my family was able to immerse completely,we had a very STRONG Colombian support system,and great role models of how to make our way in this new world…..
Luz Arteaga-Pray
Please explain to me how this is an example of business(woman) of the month:
Based on this article, I decided to buy a $40 gift certificate from Hairspray for my sister for a holiday present. I buy online via PayPal and receive a link. The page won’t print from my apartment, so I wait to print it out from another computer and find that the link is valid only once. I e-mail Luz (the sender’s address for the GC) twice over two days to request a new link, as this was an innocent and honest mistake. When I receive no response from her, I call the salon directly. Surely this has happened to others before and can be cleared up rather easily.
When I speak to the manager, he tells me that this is a system put in place so that I don’t print an infinite number of gift certificates and that he cannot give me a new link or a new GC. I explain to the manager that if each GC is given a unique identifying number, then it shouldn’t matter how many I print out as I can only use that GC once. It’s like a UPC code or an Amazon GC code. This isn’t really that complicated.
The manager begins to cop a MAJOR attitude with me and says that there is nothing he can do. I request a refund, again, shouldn’t be too hard given that I purchased through PayPal. He refuses to do this and says he’ll give my phone number to Luz. As a manager, shouldn’t he be able to authorize these refunds and transactions, especially if the owner seems to be out of pocket most of the time? I told the manager several times over that he was raising his voice with me and giving me an attitude I did not appreciate, to which he sarcastically responded “I’m just trying to help.”
I have since had to file a dispute with PayPal directly to resolve this matter. Even if they could provide me with a replacement GC, I do not want to send anyone to this salon given the amount of hassle it’s taken just to buy a GC—I can’t imagine what it’s like to book an actual appointment.
And ultimately, the actual GC isn’t the problem at all, it’s the face that this business has presented. Not once did I receive any apology for the confusion experienced on my part with this arcane GC delivery system. The manager argued with me and implied that I was trying to steal goods/services from the salon by printing off multiple GCs—which is not the case at all—and then said that there was nothing he could do to resolve the matter in a way that was satisfactory to me. Businesses can screw up, we’re all human, but the fact that they were unwilling to offer any customer relationship management or service to me was downright shameful. I sincerely hope this experience was an anomaly as I’m guessing that between this article and the upcoming holiday season, there are going to be quite a few GCs purchased.
To add insult to injury, the salon’s latest post on Twitter was for “User friendly Online Gift Certificateshttp://www.hairspraysalonprovidence.com/”
Please explain to me how this is an example of business(woman) of the month:
Based on this article, I decided to buy a $40 gift certificate from Hairspray for my sister for a holiday present. I buy online via PayPal and receive a link. The page won’t print from my apartment, so I wait to print it out from another computer and find that the link is valid only once. I e-mail Luz (the sender’s address for the GC) twice over two days to request a new link, as this was an innocent and honest mistake. When I receive no response from her, I call the salon directly. Surely this has happened to others before and can be cleared up rather easily.
When I speak to the manager, he tells me that this is a system put in place so that I don’t print an infinite number of gift certificates and that he cannot give me a new link or a new GC. I explain to the manager that if each GC is given a unique identifying number, then it shouldn’t matter how many I print out as I can only use that GC once. It’s like a UPC code or an Amazon GC code. This isn’t really that complicated.
The manager begins to cop a MAJOR attitude with me and says that there is nothing he can do. I request a refund, again, shouldn’t be too hard given that I purchased through PayPal. He refuses to do this and says he’ll give my phone number to Luz. As a manager, shouldn’t he be able to authorize these refunds and transactions, especially if the owner seems to be out of pocket most of the time? I told the manager several times over that he was raising his voice with me and giving me an attitude I did not appreciate, to which he sarcastically responded “I’m just trying to help.”
I have since had to file a dispute with PayPal directly to resolve this matter. Even if they could provide me with a replacement GC, I do not want to send anyone to this salon given the amount of hassle it’s taken just to buy a GC—I can’t imagine what it’s like to book an actual appointment.
And ultimately, the actual GC isn’t the problem at all, it’s the face that this business has presented. Not once did I receive any apology for the confusion experienced on my part with this arcane GC delivery system. The manager argued with me and implied that I was trying to steal goods/services from the salon by printing off multiple GCs—which is not the case at all—and then said that there was nothing he could do to resolve the matter in a way that was satisfactory to me. Businesses can screw up, we’re all human, but the fact that they were unwilling to offer any customer relationship management or service to me was downright shameful. I sincerely hope this experience was an anomaly as I’m guessing that between this article and the upcoming holiday season, there are going to be quite a few GCs purchased.
To add insult to injury, the salon’s latest post on Twitter was for “User friendly Online Gift Certificateshttp://www.hairspraysalonprovidence.com/”
THANK YOU for correcting the article! Wow! That was so fast! I’ve had sooooo much positive feedback! I REALLY appreciate all you have done!:-)