Brows, cuts and nails: student-run beauty businesses

The cosmetics industry can be a difficult one to break into. However, in dorm rooms and off-campus apartments across Grinnell, young entrepreneurs have been seizing the economic opportunities the field has to offer. The S&B talked to three such entrepreneurs to learn about their unique approaches to their businesses.

KBrow Studios

From left: Rama Joshi `27 laughs while getting her eyebrows done by Kelly Olson `27. (Brisa Zielina)

Kelly Olson `27 has been plucking eyebrows since childhood. Her mother, following a brief stint in modeling school, taught Olson and her sisters how to pluck and maintain eyebrows. Olson spent years plucking friends’ eyebrows for proms and graduations, until last winter break, when it occurred to her that she could make coffee money through working on eyebrows. She posted an Instagram story announcing her official entry into the business.

“I was really craving a coffee from Saint’s Rest, but I had so little money in my bank account, and I didn’t have work because it was winter break,” said Olson. “I thought the initial post was pretty silly and caught a lot of people’s eyes. I think that’s ultimately why people even remember why I do it.”

Olson’s service, which she named KBrow Studios, is based in her Younker dorm, but she works flexibly. “I usually carry my tweezers on me,” she said.

Olson’s pricing structure, she admits, is constructed with her weekly caffeine intake in mind.

The official price for an eyebrow plucking is $5 or a coffee hangout with the coffee paid for by the client; her price for plucking and shaping is $7 or a coffee hangout with a coffee — with whipped cream — paid for by the client, plus a high five and a verbal compliment.

Each session takes between 30 minutes to an hour, and her bookings have allowed Olson to make multiple new friendships on campus. 

“It’s so fun to get to gab with people as I’m doing their eyebrows and seeing how excited they get when everything’s cleaned up,” she said. 

Will’s Barbershop 

Will Reyes `25 has been cutting hair at Grinnell since his first semester on campus, meeting his customers in the barbershop in the basement of the Black Cultural Center (BCC). 

Reyes started cutting hair in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic from a barbershop setup in his garage. His first client, his father, was frequently annoyed, said Reyes, at the results of Reyes’ initial attempts. But upon coming to Grinnell, his friends learned about Reyes’ habit of cutting his own hair, and soon he began cutting hair for his football teammates, as well as athletes from other sports teams. Before the space at the BCC was set up, Reyes cut hair wherever he could, in whatever bathroom he found empty.

Will Reyes `25 cuts Gabe Garcia’s `27 hair in the Black Cultural Center Salon. (Brisa Zielina)

“No one really stays at the BCC, so it’s a space that we can use and come together in as a community,” Reyes said.

The barbershop as a space for building community is its’ most important feature to Reyes. He has always enjoyed cutting hair as a form of self-expression, rather than a business venture.

“I really enjoy the peer-to-peer interactions I get with people while cutting hair,” Reyes said. “It’s kind of like art for me, you know, transforming people.”

Indeed, it is an art that follows Reyes wherever he goes. Back home, during breaks, he cuts his friends and family’s hair. In Grinnell, while living off-campus, he cuts his non-student neighbors’ hair. During study abroad in New Zealand, he cut his friends and even professors’s hair, although he has not had the opportunity to barber a professor in Grinnell. “I have given haircuts to some FM workers, though,” he said.

Reyes intends to keep cutting hair after Grinnell as a hobby. “I’ll always have the barbershop in my garage,” he said.

Nails by Paige

Nails by Paige, the hand-painted gel nail business run by Paige Sargent `27, has become a legitimate source of income for her, regularly netting her $150 to $300 a week. Sargent does nail art on extensions and natural nails, generally working from Pinterest inspiration pictures that clients bring her. She prefers to do intricate designs, even if they’re more challenging.

“It’s a little creative outlet for me,” Sargent said. “Especially when school is stressful, and I can just focus on drawing a little fun thing on a nail.”

Sargent began doing nail art in the summer of 2023, when her best friend purchased a gel nail kit off Amazon.

“I started doing gel nails on myself and all my friends, and then I eventually got good enough that I thought I could have people pay me to do it,” Sargent said. Her first clients were her friends on the women’s tennis team, and by the end of her first year, she had an established business on her hands.

Sometimes, nail-painting gets exhausting. Balancing classes, tennis practice and her business 

has been an important challenge that Sargent has been navigating.“There are some weeks when my friends are like, ‘we have not seen you, you need to stop doing so many nails, please,’” she said.

In her busiest weeks, Sargent sees six to seven customers a week, although she prefers an easier range of three to five. Getting to talk to new people for the two or so hours that each session takes, is Sargent’s favorite part of her work.