Latino Hair Stylist Fashions a Better Neighborhood
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- For New York City native Aggie Acevedo, her passion for styling hair not only means providing a stylish look for her patrons, but also sprucing up the neighborhood where she resides and does business.
Acevedo has renovated a two-story building and transformed it into a business that expands her working space and shows a more welcoming side to her inner-city neighborhood.
Acevedo’s business, Fantastic Image Salon, is on the corner on Shehy and Truesdale on the city’s East Side. A ribbon cutting will take place this morning; the first clients were welcomed Saturday.
Acevedo says by opening her business, she is making a difference in the neighborhood. “I always want to clean up the neighborhood,” she says.
Fantastic Image Salon is the area’s first Latino beauty and barber salon, she says, and is meant to serve those in the Latino community and the entire East Side.
“I can see the difference in kids walking down the street,” Acevedo says. People coming into the neighborhood can comfortably walk the streets. “They don’t have to fear something happening in the corner,” or “any drug-dealing going on.”
Acevedo, who is bilingual, resides a mile from Fantastic Image Salon, and found no problem in moving to the Eastside of Youngstown from New York 10 years ago.
She owns rental homes and other properties, the salon included, in the city. By opening her salon, she also is providing a service for Spanish-speaking residents.
“Most of my clientele tell me they would drive as far out as Cleveland just to get their hair done,” she says, referring to the language barrier.
Understanding the issue, she wanted to have “something right here in town to keep the Latino business in town. We want to better our neighborhood,” she emphasizes.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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