Victoria Leiato was wearing a hazmat suit covered in paint when she first met Melinda Rodriguez.
After the burnout of working a corporate job and being furloughed through the pandemic, Leiato was taking her business skills into her own hands.
Leiato could practically see it in her head: a beauty salon that “did it all,” nestled right in the heart of Oak Cliff. On the day Rodriguez stepped into the bare bones building to meet Leiato, it didn’t matter that there weren’t yet salon chairs — or anything, really — set up in the space.
“I saw her vision, and I just had an overwhelming feeling that this was going to be my second home, and here I am. I’ve been here from the beginning,” Rodriguez says.
The Bloom Space opened in May 2022 and offers services in hair styling and coloring, manicures, nail art, teeth whitening, waxing and more.
Rodriguez jumped on board after that first meeting and became one of the first team members at the Bloom Space. She specializes in teeth whitening and teeth jewels — Swarovski crystals that can be attached to teeth in glimmering patterns — and prides herself on her affordable pricing.
Leiato and her husband built out the space from scratch to ensure that it would be exactly what she imagined.
But while Leiato did envision the white brick walls, the large gold mirrors and, yes, even the completely pink bathroom, there was a bigger motivation behind the Bloom Space than just aesthetics.
Leiato’s mother immigrated to the United States not knowing English but was able to break into the beauty industry in El Paso, where Leiato grew up. Leiato credits the beauty industry with creating a path of upward mobility for her family, and she knew that with the Bloom Space, she wanted to provide the same opportunity her mother received.
At the Bloom Space, all of the stylists are women, and 70% are Latina.
“We were the most financially marginalized during the pandemic; we lost the most jobs and were the most unemployed,” Leiato says. “I wanted to make sure that if we created a space, it was going to help women, but predominantly help Latina women.”
Leiato says the Bloom Space’s rental model was designed to give agency to the women who work in the salon.
Instead of requiring long-term contracts, stylists pay a weekly or monthly rent to use the space. While an uncommon practice for salons, Leiato says that allowing stylists the flexibility to enter and exit the space ensures that there are “only happy people” contributing to the culture.
Thais Wise has been a hair stylist in Oak Cliff for 23 years and says the ability to try out the Bloom Space without committing to set up shop permanently was what initially attracted her to Leiato.
“That I could come in and try this and not sign a year’s contract was really big. That really is what settled it in the end,” Wise says.
It was the third move in Wise’s career, which she says is unusually low for what is usually a “transient” profession. She worried she would lose clientele because of her move, and she says she spent many nights “sweating bullets” about how the switch would impact her career
In her first three months at the Bloom Space, Wise says she had 100% client retention.
Photography by Yuvie Styles
“(My clients) love it here,” Wise says. “I’m so happy to be in a place where I can really pamper them and take care of them and make them feel really welcome.”
All of the stylists at the Bloom Space own their own business, Leiato says. Each stylist controls her pricing, her schedule and her clientele. Leiato offers monthly classes on things like marketing, branding and social media, which she calls the basic tools of getting a business “up and going.”
“The biggest thing on my résumé is that I can teach two women who are in their 40s and 50s to make (Instagram) reels,” Leiato says. “That shows I can do anything.”
Leiato says the salon offers both clients and stylists a “peaceful, calm and efficient” salon experience. While the clientele is made up of both men and women, she describes the space as a “feminine haven.”
“I love making sure that they have everything they need to come in here and just do what they love,” Leiato says.
For Rodriguez, her time at the Bloom Space has been unlike any other work environment she has been in. The difference, she says, is Leiato.
“With everything, she helps us,” Rodriguez says. “She really is a different type of owner.”
