From Teen Mom To Salon Owner
The location at 33 Deer St. has three personal service businesses under its roof. One of them is Vanity, a hair salon owned and operated by Heidi White, a teenaged mother-turned-up and coming entrepreneur.
White had originally dreamt of becoming a psychiatrist, but at the tender age of 17 she found herself to be a brand new mother.
Endless diaper changes and sleep deprivation were not going to slow White down, however. The first thing she needed to do was get a job. She chose to work nights and weekends to allow her to go to school and care for her baby during the day. Being a waitress didn’t appeal to her and, after seeing a beauty school ad on TV, she decided to look into that.
“In high school I was one of those people that would always help everyone do their hair and makeup, but never thought of it as a profession,” she said. “I was very successful in (beauty) school. I really liked it a lot, and I found it was my calling.”
After completing school, White worked in the hair industry for nine years. During that time, one of White’s clients tried to persuade her to go back to school again for business so she could start up her own hair salon.
White took her client’s advice and earned an associates degree in business, even though she was pregnant with her second child at the time.
“I just scheduled my (work) days according to school, and then I went to online school after my son was born and really pushed myself through,” said White.
At that point White had her older child, a newborn baby, a day job and school. So when she needed to study, it was usually late at night.
Now White has her college education and Vanity, the salon that opened in March. It is her own business, but she leases out the space with two other businesses — Sorassa Salon, a body waxing and precision dry cutting salon; and Lipstick, a retail makeup salon that also caters to application and education. The three businesses co-exist in one leased spot, allowing customers to browse and shop for all their personal care needs in one location.
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