Salon gets one-on-one with clients in new style

Dalondo Moultrie, The Seguin Gazette

While other businesses closed for good amid COVID-19-related government shutdowns, a local hair salon owner refused to quit.

Yooana Sotelo, owner of Sheves Hair Salon, created a safe environment and one-on-one services for clients at her location on Jakes Colony Road Eventually, Sotelo would like to reverse the roles and take the salon to clients.

The coronavirus pandemic caused difficulties for hair stylists in the area and Gov. Greg Abbott’s order for shops to close didn’t help at all, Sotelo said. She shuttered her downtown location in March after seven years of business and wondered what was next.

“I was kind of bummed out,” Sotelo said. “I was like, what am I going to do.’”

Some friends visited California and saw mobile hair salons operating and thriving. They spoke to her about trying the same thing and it seemed like a good idea.

She thought with the right effort, the transition could work, Sotelo said.

“How innovative, how fresh, especially in a small town,” she said. “That’s something not seen around here.”

Sotelo and her boyfriend went to Austin and found a mobile home that could fit the bill. The RV was totally gutted when she bought it, Sotelo said.

The state of the mobile home gave a Sotelo and her boyfriend a false sense of ease, she said.

“It was mainly all gutted out. We were like, ‘this is gonna be easy,’” Sotelo said. “It wasn’t easy.”

They had a lot of work ahead as the couple remodeled building, and added things to make it fit the purposes she had in mind for it, Sotelo said.

Now, it fits the bill and serves as a spot where she can serve clients in a one-on-one setting that makes everyone feel safe and comfortable, the Seguin resident and Seguin High School grad said.

“I still have to sterilize everything,” Sotelo said. “We have everything there so the customers can feel safe. It’s all one-on-one.”

She serves clients by appointment only. People don’t have to worry about other people’s children roaming around or other clients sneezing in their presence, Sotelo said.

She limits exposure to others, at the same time limiting possible exposure to the virus, she said.

Avoiding crowded places and interactions with potentially infected people kept Tania Gonzalez, a client of Sotelo’s for several years, away from any hair salon. She’d been almost a year without seeking her stylist’s help before venturing to the new spot on Wednesday, Gonzalez said.

Precautions Sotelo takes puts her client’s mind at ease.

“Now I feel a lot better,” Gonzalez said. “She takes two appointments a day. I’m the only person here. I feel comfortable and safer.”

Sotelo’s mask requirement inside the shop also adds to the appeal, Gonzales. The cute aesthetics of the new spot don’t hurt any either, Gonzalez said.

The mobile shop currently is what’s best for her clientele during the pandemic, Sotelo said. However, the pandemic won’t last forever, she said.

But right now, she’s drawing inspiration from various places and using what she learns to continue her business and further her dreams, Sotelo said.

“I look up to people who are willing to think outside the box,” she said. “I look up to people that won’t let this end them.”

The salon currently is parked in one spot, but that could change in the future, Sotelo said. Once fears of the pandemic diminish and things get back to more normal, changes could come to Sheves, she said.

She might hitch the RV to a truck, drive around and deliver services in various areas, Sotelo said.

“When I feel like it’s more clear [of the virus], I think I would move it,” she said.

Then she can follow her clients who have so far followed her.

For more information, follow Sheves Hair Salon on Facebook and Instagram.

Dalondo Moultrie is the assistant managing editor of the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail him at dalondo.moultrie@seguingazette.com 

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