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In the Eye of the
Beholder
Yolanda Aguilar has come a long way since her days
as a young entrepreneur in Morelos, Mexico. “I
started my hairdressing business when I was 10 years
old,” Aguilar says. “I had already decided that’s
what I wanted to be.” Today, the 61-year-old
entrepreneur is the president and founder of Los
Angeles’ Yolanda Aguilar Beauty Institute and Spa, a
full-service salon specializing in skin care using
natural ingredients.
Aguilar’s mother was the source of her inspiration.
She watched her mother practice homeopathic medicine
in local hospitals and at home, making hair- and
skin-care remedies from scratch. “She used to put
out a big tub to collect rain water, and she used to
bathe in it,” says Aguilar. “She used it and mixed
it with oils to make her own creams and make her own
conditioner for her hair, mixing water and things
like olive oil and almonds. The same for her massage
creams. She was incredible.” |
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Aguilar wanted to further her education as a
hair-care specialist, and she studied with famed
Italian hairstylist Marcelo at the Presidente Hotel
in Mexico City. In 1963, she left Mexico for the
United States with the purpose of learning English.
“I came to this country when I was only 18 years old
to learn,” she says, “because I wanted to open a
business in Mexico for the American people—because
where I’m from, there are a lot of American
tourists.” It was a time full of changes for
Aguilar: She also got married that same year.
Once she began to study and work in the United
States, Aguilar decided she wanted to stay in Los
Angeles. “At that time, I didn’t speak good English.
I just picked it up from my American clients,” she
notes. “I entered a lot of hair dressing
competitions. I signed up for everything that was
possible to enter.”
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Gladys Pellerin, the former manager of a government
credit union, knew Aguilar in those early days and
was her hair model for the first few years. She says
Aguilar’s style—the same back then as it is
today—makes her clients feel very comfortable. “It’s
her method of working, her personality, how she gets
people in. When I first knew her, she owned a beauty
shop on 9th street. The customers would be out the
door waiting for her. She’s that good,” says
Pellerin. “It’s her work ethic—nothing is ever too
much trouble. She started her business 40-some years
ago. And she was the talk of the town. She’s just
outstanding.”
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Aguilar opened her first hair and nail salon in the
late 1960s, when she was eight months pregnant with
the first of her two children. In 1973, she decided
to expand her salon services to include skin and
beauty treatments, leading her to open her
full-service salon in Los Angeles. To enhance her
work as a skin-care specialist, she studied
throughout Europe and Israel to learn about beauty-
and skin-care treatments.
While abroad, Aguilar noticed distinct cultural
difference in relation to beauty care. “They are way
ahead of us. French women, at lunch time, they go to
the salon. They don’t use that time to eat,” she
says. ”Here, the first thing Americans go to do is
eat at lunchtime. [In France,] they go to do their
nails. They go to do their hair, their skin. The
salons and spas are packed. People have two hours
for lunch, and they go and spend it having a
relaxing, wonderful time. Over here, the restaurants
are packed. It’s totally different”.
After decades of devoting herself to providing salon
services, Aguilar decided to take her treatments one
step further by developing her own line of skin-care
products, inspired by her mother’s work using
natural ingredients. In 1997, she came out with two
facial products. Today, she has eight, focusing on
specific skin-care concerns: acne, the effects of
age, and hyperpigmentation. “Hyperpigmentation,”
says Aguilar, “affects a lot of Hispanic women.
People used to bake in the sun—and the darker, the
better. Unfortunately, now they’re paying the
consequences.” Her beauty products are sold at her
spa and online, at
www.yabeauty.com
Aguilar says she still has another frontier to
cross; she wants to take her products to a national
audience. “I want to go to QVC—that’s my goal. Or
the Home Shopping Network. I think that will be
incredible. That’s my next step.”
Leon Garcia, a Los Angeles–based lobbyist, is
convinced that Aguilar’s track record of success
will continue. Garcia met Aguilar close to 30 years
ago, when she borrowed money from his
venture-capital company to start her business.
“She’s willing to work very hard and make things
happen,” says Garcia. “She’s tenacious, but very
good with people. She’s willing to react to market
conditions. For her to establish the business that
she did, it’s incredible.” Garcia credits Aguilar’s
drive to what he calls her “immigrant’s mentality.”
“She doesn’t believe anyone owes her anything,” he
says. “She had to learn English, had to learn where
the capital markets were, how to start her business.
She learned by working very, very hard.”
Aguilar says that with the right attitude, other
Latina women can be just as successful as she has
been. “You have to believe in what you’re doing,”
she says. “You have to be prepared for a lot of hard
work. It’s never simple. But today, there are more
opportunities. Women can take courses and be
prepared.” Aguilar adds that along with having a
passion for your work, women must also be open to
learning, a never-ending process. “You can’t
accomplish any success without research. You’ve got
to research your business. My mother told me,
‘Pepita, if you want to sell, you’ve got to be the
best.’ But most of all, you have to love what you
do.” |
