Beauty Salon for Plus-Size Women Focuses on Body Positivity
By Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy. Photos: Courtesy of Instagram.
For Jamie Lopez, 31, that feel-good rush from a little self-care break at the beauty salon was often tempered by the feeling that she just wasn't welcome there as a plus-size customer.
"I started off as a makeup artist and was highly discriminated against for being a plus-size woman,” Lopez tells Yahoo Beauty. The feeling extended beyond professional discrimination; Lopez noticed an absence of local salon locations that served her specific needs as a customer, and she decided to do something about it.
This month, Lopez is opening Babydoll Beauty Couture in Las Vegas, a body-positive salon where women of all shapes and sizes can enjoy makeup and nails, hair extensions, waxing, and spray tanning. Lopez also has a Los Angeles Babydoll Beauty Couture location.
"I was inspired [to open Babydoll Beauty Couture] by there being no place I could get my nails or hair done in Vegas that would accommodate my needs as a plus-size woman, and I decided it was time to make some changes for the plus-size women of the world," Lopez told Yahoo Beauty.
The salon will feature simple, practical updates that make it not only accessible, but also welcoming and comfortable for plus-size customers, including pedicure benches that can hold up to 800 pounds and can accommodate guests with hips up to 85 inches wide, and a waxing bench that can accommodate up to 600 pounds. The changes Lopez implemented will no doubt be appealing to customers who have felt uncomfortable and unwelcome in other salons. In March, reports surfaced about a Memphis salon that allegedly posted a sign saying "overweight" customers would be charged more for a pedicure. Although the owner reportedly denied posting the offensive sign, he did tell reporters that he does not service any customer who is "severely overweight," reports local news channel WREG.
"It makes me very upset to be mistreated because of my size and not have a place where I can get beautiful," Lopez tells Yahoo Beauty. "When women walk away from getting services done at my salon, I want them to feel beautiful, confident, and sexy."
This story originally appeared on Allure.
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