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Meet Ceiba Winters of Beauty Guru Ceiba

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Ceiba Winters.

Ceiba, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It’s funny to look back and realize that what you do is exactly what you were meant to do. I can’t forget the fact I was born with insanely curly hair, with none that could figure out to tame the beast. I guess if you can’t play with your hair, give every single one of your Barbies and friends makeovers? I started doing theater in middle school and the beauty gene was amped way up. Although the cheers spoke to some deep personal ego stroking, the HAIR and the MAKEUP were what really did it for me!

I loved the transformation of it all. I moved to New York City pursue some vain dream of being a star when I was 18. The quick learning lesson was that I wasn’t the only looking at the same dream. Luckily the cosmopolitan streets were walking lookbooks. I started cutting hair in my dorm room for extra spending money trying to replicate the fashions I saw on the glamorous New Yorkers. I told my parents that I was now going to be a hairdresser, letting the stage lights dim. My father, a traditionalist when it came to education, had just come to accept the fact that I wasn’t going to university, so naturally, my idea was met with realism. “If you’re going to this, it should be the best school.”, he said.

At that time Vidal Sassoon was ranked the #1 academy in the nation. So, off to Los Angeles, I went. The world looked very different on this side of the country. And becoming a hairdresser was going to be much more difficult than anticipated. Beverly Hills was seen as the only option for a “successful” hairdresser and obtaining celebrity clientele, the only goal. I thought for a long time that this was what I wanted, what I needed. But it didn’t fulfill the part of me that wanted proof that there was more than one standard of beauty. Then, 15 years ago, I walked away from the movie sets, the photoshoots, and the Beverly Hills stylist area code. I moved backed to my hometown, Phoenix.

I worked odd jobs as I built my client base up. I called my mom every time I got a new client. I struggled every week to make my salon rent. I gave my clients part of me every day. I took all that learned from all the teachers I had encountered along the way, the girls who were born so far from the distorted standard of beauty and made a business. I started my first salon 9 years ago. I’ve put everything I have into each move up. But it’s not for me. It’s for the girls that have become my beauty guru crew. Who holds my hand every day. Who share my life with me. It’s for my clients that have become family. And my family that put all their dreams in me.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s interesting, I have had to move my business several times due to investors buying the corners on which my business stood. Leading to panic-stricken nights and fun meetings with lawyers. My days filled with saying the word contractor more than I could count.

Being patted on the head while searching for a new building by the older men that own them. But I honestly think something I have had the hardest time with is the dichotomy of being a part of the beauty industry. I’m selling beauty, right? But I struggle to prove that the world doesn’t just have to look one way.

I see women sit confronted with their reflection staring back at them. The squirming in the chair and disappointed faces at what they perceive to be lacking. My job isn’t to make them like the rest of the world. It’s to bring out their own beauty.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Beauty Guru Ceiba story. Tell us more about the business.
When you walk in to our salon I want to know you. I want you to feel like we’ve spent the day waiting for only you to walk in. In truth, we are. I remember what it was like walking into a salon as a customer, feeling slightly uncool and terrified someone would destroy my hair at the same time. We want our clients to walk in and feel confident that we are there for them, and it’s about them, and not our own egos.

All of my team is made up people who take continued education classes, staying ahead of the trends, and keeping their craft at the highest level. We have eyelash extension expert, Nia, that keeps lashes healthy for years of use (a near impossible feat for the industry), Courtney, who’s marathon hair transformations are udparelle, Valerie, our microblader with a hand that creates brows with insane precision, and, me, who is an untrained chair therapist, blonde maker, extension filler, and on a good day a dream maker.

And I’m just vowing to maintain a salon standard that lives up not our expectations, but our client’s. Our clients are what make us, support us, and encourage us after all.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
As more strip mall beauty studios roll in, salons will cease to exist. Promising being your own boss and having more freedom it’s a big selling point. But most stylists have never owned a salon, or even managed one. It’s jumping into the deep end. And some of the salon standards will dwindle.

The art of the industry will dwindle and the accountability will wane. I hope that by creating the salon I have, the pull of community and expertise will keep the focus on work. Not the freedom of the stylist, but the costumer.

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Ceiba Winters, Nia Huynh, Valerie Velverde, Nicky Hedayatzadeh and Ceiba Winters

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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