Today we’d like to introduce you to Lydia Lutz.
Lydia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I like to think that my story began back when I was in school overseas in Singapore. After your first year of secondary school, students are required to take an aptitude test. There, I discovered that my subject strengths are in the arts. The following school years, rather than having one session of art a week, I had it almost every day. We studied the areas of pastel and charcoal sketching, oil and watercolor painting, logo and jewelry designing, and animation. The arts and being creative came naturally to me.
Fast forward to moving to Houston, after high school I began to do makeup and hair on the side for extra pocket money. I did this all throughout college while I studied at the University of Houston. My degree in advertising prepared me for an office job, which didn’t satisfy my need for creativity. After a day of driving around Houston while pondering my next steps of adult life, I came across the free-standing MAC store in Rice Village. I walked into the store to see if they were hiring, and another woman also had the same idea as me. After a quick makeup interview on each other, she left the store without an offer. However, the manager offered me a job on the spot. That began my journey with MAC, and I worked with the company for almost six years, gaining managerial positions while polishing my makeup skills. But life working in retail is not for everybody, and being required to work every weekend is not always the most fun.
A close friend of mine took the plunge and left her job at MAC cosmetics, and went to school at the Paul Mitchell School. She had a conversation with her father, and it really made the wheels in my head turn. He told her that not everyone needs their makeup done. But everyone needs their haircut. Those words have always been in my mind and have really impacted me. I decided to leave a consistent paycheck and company benefits and go back to school to the Paul Mitchell School.
After 18 months, I graduated. My first salon job was at Blue Mambo, in the Houston Museum District. It was a rather large salon, and extremely popular in the area. There, I was an assistant during most days, and during other days of the week, I took clients. The salon owner was also very gracious and still allowed me to do weddings on the weekend as I have always done.
I learned as much as I could from anyone who is willing to share and teach me. But it was here that I realized a certain demographic was lacking. The salon had an open concept floor and offered no privacy for any women of the hijabi community, and younger generations want to have the experience of going to a salon and getting their hair done. I decided to leave Blue Mambo after two-and-a-half years. I moved out west of the city, and in the Royal Oak area, I opened Artistry by Lyd.
Artistry by Lyd is a private Salon Suite located inside Uptown salons Royal Oak. I do services both makeup and hair.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I would be lying if I said it was a smooth road! The first challenge I faced was when I decided to leave my steady paycheck and company benefits of MAC cosmetics. Luckily for me, my husband who is also a self-business owner advised me to live every day as if I will not be getting a paycheck tomorrow. It took some adjusting, but now, I tried to stretch every dollar as far as possible, and if it’s not a necessity, I don’t buy it. When I went back to school, there were many times that my meals were rice, cabbage (they keep for days!), and a fried egg. I had to juggle three sources of income with my school schedule, so planning and managing my time were very important.
When I left Blue Mambo and opened Artistry by Lyd, a major challenge I faced was that only half of my regular clientele follow me. It was expected, but now I had to work on building my clientele again. Each client that leaves my chair is walking advertising for me, so I do my best to give them 100%. I also had to begin working on my social media and online presence, which to this day is still something I work on.
Please tell us about Artistry by Lyd.
Doing makeup comes naturally to me. I feel like it’s just an extension of the artistic skills I was taught while in school in Singapore. But doing balayage highlights is very similar. Highlights are hand-painted onto the hair using a certain technique to create the look of natural, sun-kissed highlights. After the highlights are created, the client then has the option to either have more natural hair color or we can put in some fun vivid colors. Being able to paint in pinks, blues, and purples into hair really satisfy my artistic spirit.
During my time at Blue Mambo, a hair stylist there taught me many skills for cutting curly hair. I’ve always loved curly hair and I personally wish that my straight hair looks like a lion’s mane! I can say now that almost half my clientele has curly hair.
And I’m also very proud to say that I cater to the Hijabi community. Everything we need to do to their hair and makeup is done in my room, with full privacy. It’s been such a joy to work with these women!
Often it feels as if the media, by and large, is only focused on the obstacles faced by women, but we feel it’s important to also look for the opportunities. In your view, are there opportunities that you see that women are particularly well positioned for?
Probably the biggest opportunity that women are well-positioned for is the ability to understand other women. There are so many of my clients who come in and we connect on so many different levels. But from a business standpoint, with my other friends in the beauty industry, we have each other to turn to during times when we need help, or during times that we need to vent our frustrations or challenges, and also during the moments we want to share our accomplishments.
Pricing:
- Haircuts (includes wash and blow-dry), $60
- Balayage highlights, starts at $120
- Makeup application, $70
- Updo, $70
- Brazilian Blowout, starts at $250
- Keratin treatment, starts at $150
Contact Info:
- Address: 12350 Westheimer Rd, Suite H, #127
Houston, Texas 77077 - Website: www.artistrybylyd.com
- Phone: 8329286707
- Email: LydMUAH@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/artistrybylyd?utm_source=ig_profile_share&igshid=5du4abygjsl9
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artistrybylyd/
Image Credit:
The first photo is credited to my Google Pixel, Jason Talley
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