Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Alva.
Chelsea, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My family’s beauty started with my great-grandmother, Phyllis Adair in 1929. She owned and operated a very successful beauty college in Redlands, CA in the early 1930’s. Following her footsteps, was my grandmother; Maxine. Grandma opened her own salon as well and her 3 children later joined our family legacy as well. 2006, I decided to enroll in beauty school while my mother was ill with cancer and get something under my best while I put my nursing program on hold. I had always been encouraged to go to college instead of beauty school, so I wouldn’t have to work as many hours as the matriarchs in my family had to work. I had excellent role models who showed me what hard work looked like and growing up in so many salon generations, the beauty industry felt very natural for me to be in. In 2012, I decided to open my own salon, Salon Adair. Starting out, we were located in Encinitas for 3 years.
During that time, encouraged my husband to join me and complete barber school. After he was done with school, we decided to close that location and expand 100% with renters and employees in Carlsbad. We have been open for three years and have exploded with great success since our move. And 2014, I took on the role As artistic director of Phoenix salon suites. I traveled all over California, and trained Stylist from all over the country on the chemistry of hair, color correction, artistic technique’s and even got to begin styling celebrities at Coachella. In 2017, I attended Loreals salon summit seminar and my business really began to grow. With the coaching from them and support from Matrix professional, my clients and employees could feel the opportunities we had here.
It has been no easy ride, but hard work has definitely been in to pay off this year! I have had many opportunities around the country, getting to know other successful hairstylists, leaders, mentors, insulting teams and even my clients in my chair have helped coach this path for us. Salon Adair has been nominated for the past four years to compete in San Diego’s best salon competition with the battle of the salons “and salon Adair is been nominated for the past four years to compete in San Diego’s best salon competition with “battle of the salons”. I decided to take a leap of faith, compete – and we came in first place! We will be competing for the first-place title of best salon in America in February in Las Vegas. After attending a giant seminar in Florida in January 2018, I decided to enter in a contest to style Fergie‘s hair for a concert in New York.
To my surprise, I came in first prize and won the contest! The concert will take place in July. Another exciting event days That is coming up is a TV show we will be featured on in the next couple months on NBC. Definitely soaking it all in, and continuing to take our business to the next level. San Diego is the best salon that is coming up in a TV show, we will be featured on in the next couple months on NBC. Definitely soaking it all in and continuing to take our business to the next level. Clients have definitely been feeding off of all of this excitement and it’s incredibly good for the culture of our salon. We are a solid team, working seven days a week and are open 16 hours every day. We can’t wait to see what’s in store next! We are nowhere near done yet!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Definitely has not been a smooth road. I found out I was pregnant only six months out of Beauty School, my beautiful daughter came into my life, and gave me everything I needed to work harder and create a life for her that she deserved. My husband picked up the pieces of my broken heart after my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He had just lost his brother and new the pain of losing a loved one. He stepped right in and helped me care for her completely until she passed away in my arms. She fought hard for six years and gave everything she could to me until she was too sick to do so. She trusted my husband to protect me and care for a family moving forward. Our new baby was diagnosed with a seizure disorder at only five months old. She had seizures every eight minutes for several months and abnormal brain activity until she was around five. Two years later, my stepfather passed away in less than one-year timeframe and that was the second hard blow to our family.
During the same month, we got a phone call, and my husband’s eldest brother passed away in his sleep. We were only 25 years old and lives by no means were getting easier for us. We were very grateful for everything we had, but government funding was holding our lives together and this was not the life that we had envisioned for ourselves. Step-by-step, day by day, we continue to grow our career and put 1 foot in front of the other to get to where we are now. We funded our business alone and did not qualify for any funding since bankruptcy was the only option we had after our financial crisis when my mother passed away. Finding a place to live, rent or work became nearly impossible. I had invited prospective landlords, employers and clients to come to watch me work or inspect my current living situation to prove to them that they could trust me to succeed.
Please tell us about Salon Adair.
I love to create, make my clients laugh, relate to people on a real genuine level, and show them what true passion looks like. I love to show them the raw, honest truth about me and my troublesome youth and mentor young kids away from tempting dangerous situations and into leadership roles. My mother always told me “it’s not about the nails… it’s about using the beauty industry as a medium to reach out to our community”. Clients tell me every day how much they look forward to coming to see me at the end of their day and how Salon Adair feels like home. They talk about the energy, culture and the comradery between the staff. Everyone knows everyone and they guests love that vibe. I look for stylists that want to continue to grow as people, artists, and a team and that is who we keep around.
Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
In my early 20s, I was left on my own to figure out which direction was left from right, right from wrong and I hit every tree branch on the way down. I was in the wrong relationships, wrong groups of friends and did anything that was going to give me a cheap thrill or sense of belonging. My Mom was terminal, my brother was deployed or in college, and my dad and mom were divorced, so I never had him there to coach me either. I had to learn the hard way every time. I watched my mom make mistakes in the beauty business and basic survival was a struggle at times for us. She had money management problems that scared me as a kid, but I really feel like that is how I learned to be financially independent. Don’t get me wrong, she did what she had to do, but borrowing money, getting sued, losing electricity, restraining orders, not being able to afford registration tags for the car – all of those things made me grow into a person that made sure, no matter what, I would never be in those shoes.
Pricing:
- Haircuts $55-$82
- Balayage $150+
- Color $73+
Contact Info:
- Address: 6894 Embarcadero Lane, Carlsbad, CA 92011
- Website: Www.salonadairstyle.com
- Phone: 760-842-4247
- Email: contact@salonadairstyle.com
- Instagram: Salonadair
- Facebook: Www.facebook.com/salonadair
Image Credit:
Chelsea Alva, Allen Davis
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