For most people, having the chance to run a business is enough to handle. STLCC-Meramec student Alicia Reyna is quite the exception to the rule. She is attending Meramec while running a hair salon full time.
Patrick Olds
– Opinions Editor –
For most people, having the chance to run a business is enough to handle. STLCC-Meramec student Alicia Reyna is quite the exception to the rule. She is attending Meramec while running a hair salon full time.
Reyna started at a young age after the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” did a feature on her while she was working as a hair and makeup stylist for younger kids’ birthday parties.
“Hey, I was good, or at the least that’s what I was told,” Reyna said.
When she was 8, Reyna was already receiving requests by women to do their makeup.
In high school, Reyna had no plans to take over the family business from her grandmother, Marta Reyna. She had mostly worked in the hair salon as a receptionist up to that point. She had planned to take a more traditional route and attend college then she had a realization.
“I was looking at colleges, planning on becoming a nurse and I said to myself, ‘I have this business in the palm of my hand, why not take advantage of this golden opportunity?'” Reyna said. “Being the only grandchild and having some skill at what I do, I felt like I had the responsibility to my family to do both.”
When her grandmother heard the news of Reyna’s decision, there was some friction between the two.
“I told her specifically that she was going to go away to school and there would be no discussion,” Marta Reyna said.” Alicia refuted that, and look how much she has proved me wrong.”
Starting full time right after high school, Alicia Reyna already had ten clients. She is now has more than 100. She routinely sees more than 75 per month. Those numbers don’t daunt Reyna in the least. As she openly admits that in this economy there is no talk about being too busy, it’s a good problem to have.
Reyna said she found a special job that is near and dear to her heart.
“To have found something that I love to do as a job is special,” Alicia Reyna said. “I finally know what it means when people told me, growing up, that they loved what they did, I never believed them. I do now.”
Even though Marta Reyna has been cutting hair for more than 50 years, there was no disagreement from her grandmother on this topic.
“People come in smiling and talkative. It honestly doesn’t feel like a job. Through daily interaction, I can tell Alicia makes people feel comfortable in our store in a way that is unique to anyone else working here,” Marta Reyna said.
Though there are always difficult times in any business, there was one thing that Marta Reyna always had going for her.
Hairdresser Miceael Hampton said that Alicia Reyna has done a lot of growing up in the salon.
“I have only been in the shop for six years, but she had done a lot of growing up, with as many responsibilities as she carries as a college student with a full-time job. It’s impressive.”
Reyna is taking business classes in order to attain her associate degree from Meramec. She has plans of attending the University of Missouri-St. Louis to earn a business degree.
Alicia Reyna said she wants to prepare herself and try not to limit herself in any way.
“Part of the reason is that I want to be prepared in every way I can. I don’t want to limit myself. I wanted a business degree under my belt, just in case something doesn’t work out or if and when I expand my horizons in the future, like I plan on. I want to be ready,” Alicia Reyna said.
In the future Alicia Reyna said she hopes to eventually move into her own building. She would like to offer many services that are currently unavailable at their current location. For as much as they get done at the small shop, there is still much that they wish they could offer.
Alicia Reyna continued by saying that her future goals include becoming a Redken-certified educator so she can teach at the top hair styling schools and maybe, down the road, she would be interested in teaching at the beauty school from which she graduated.
That isn’t the only thing she has started to take charge of around the shop either as her grandmother can attest to.
“I hate to admit it, but she bosses me around now,” Marta Reyna said.
