Working a magnificence enterprise within the epicenter of politics and energy comes with unconventional challenges. Throughout a State of the Union deal with, for instance, the nailsaloon will get “name after name” from purchasers sharing their site visitors and street closure woes, apologizing for working behind. When there’s a state dinner on the White Home, purchasers are available in for a midweek manicure with elaborate updos {and professional} make-up.
“We additionally get numerous calls from our resort concierge colleagues asking us to come back and carry out a service for a VIP,” Vieira says. “Oftentimes I’ve to signal a blind NDA saying I can’t reveal who the service is for.” She will say, nonetheless, that Vice President Kamala Harris was a consumer throughout her time within the Senate. And at a latest White Home occasion for Hispanic Heritage Month, Vice President Harris gave shout-outs to native Latine enterprise homeowners in attendance, together with Vieira.
Yene Damtew, a salon proprietor and hairstylist behind a few of Michelle Obama’s most iconic appears, is certainly one of Vieira’s common purchasers. Damtew already has her biweekly appointments at nailsaloon booked via the remainder of the 12 months, at all times with nail technician Marnae Orton on the Logan Circle location. “Nobody else touches my nails,” Damtew says. “I’m very explicit.”
Nailsaloon’s consideration to element makes all of the distinction for Damtew: the refreshments supplied upon strolling in, the sugar scrub included in every service, and the soothing music choice, which creates a chilled ambiance that transports purchasers distant from the sounds of city building and motorcades. “It’s like my escape,” says Damtew.
I interview Vieira through Zoom whereas she’s visiting household in Brazil, throughout which period we talk about coming from a big Latine household, bootstrapping a magnificence enterprise, and what it means to her to have help from a few of the strongest folks in D.C.
Attract: Inform me about your upbringing. The place did you develop up and the way did that affect your life path?
Andréa Vieira: I used to be born in Brazil. I’m at the moment in my hometown, Belo Horizonte, that means stunning horizon. It’s within the mountains; a very stunning metropolis in a valley. I come from an enormous household. I’ve 20 aunts. My mother and father are every certainly one of 10. My mother and father had been subsequent door neighbors. You’ll be able to think about what household life is like right here. If you’re in a household of 150 folks, 160, it is advisable be loud to be seen.