A 34-year-old hair stylist who thrives on providing the best customer service possible is celebrating just over a year in business at Estades Salon, located at 308 North Fisk.

Alicia Estades, who moved to Brownwood six years ago, wanted to establish her own unique identity in the industry, which led to the creation of Estades Salon in March 2022.

“Sometimes in a smaller town you’re treated like there’s only one place where you can go with a take it or leave it mentality,” she said. “Being from a bigger city, customer service is a must because there’s so many different places to go to do business. I came from a place where you pride yourself on customer service and I really wanted to provide that in Brownwood. When we opened the salon, we had a whole layout and plan on how to do things, and priding ourselves on customer service was our biggest goal. I had a couple of friends who struggled with where they were working so they wanted in on this, too, so we had a good group that started the salon together.”

Overall, Estades has worked as a hair stylist for 14 years.

“I went to beauty school right out of high school in Michigan,” she said. “I assisted a hair dresser for 2 ½ years before I went out on my own.”

Estades Salon offers, “Hair services, nails, massages, body waxing and we have a brow specialist,” Estades said. “We are all very well trained in what we do and knowledgeable and we still continue to take classes in what we do. We have a lot more experience to offer than most salons do.”

The idea for the salon came from her husband, Sebastian.

“It was all his idea,” she said. “I struggled finding a salon that I felt like was home here. He said I would be most happy if I had my own place. We looked at different places all throughout Brownwood and it was really hard to find something that made sense. The building I’m in now, one of my clients had actually found it and she got in contact with the owner and we followed up with him, and we signed a lease within two weeks of looking at the building.”

Alicia met Sebastian through another job during a break from the hair industry, and the romance is a unique story of its own.

“For a year and a half I got out of hair full time and just worked in it part time,” she said. “I worked at Quicken Loans, an online mortgage company in Michigan, and one day a guy from Brownwood, Texas called to refinance his mortgage and I happened to get his call. He flirted with me quite a bit and a few months later I moved here with my two boys and we’ve been here together six years now. My husband is my biggest cheerleader and if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be where I am today and wouldn’t have the salon. We have three kids – two boys and a stepdaughter – and they’ve been a part of everything the entire trip.”

Business is booming at Estades Salon and the need for growth is creeping closer.

“We’re always looking for new stylists,” she said. “We don’t have enough time to take in all the clients we have now, but we’re looking for new stylists and a lash tech. We do want to keep growing but I’m very picky. I want to make sure whoever we hire is going to be a great asset to our group of girls that we have.”

Being that neither Alicia or Sebastian are originally from Texas, any down time they have is usually spent on trips back home.

“We travel a lot,” she said. “My husband and I have family in Florida, Michigan and Kentucky.”