SHANTE MELHADO: Babydoll Beauty Couture Shante speaking, how can I help you?
JAMIE LOPEZ: What makes my salon different is that this is a plus-size friendly salon.
JAMIE LOPEZ: Hi, my name is Jamie Lopez. I am the CEO and owner of Babydoll Beauty Couture
Salon and I am 31 years old.
JAMIE LOPEZ: I set up this place because I was humiliated in a regular salon. I went
there to get my hair done one time and, you know, I went to sit down and greet my stylist
and the chair loudly broke and all eyes were on me. And it was a really horrible experience.
JAMIE LOPEZ: I knew I wasn’t the only one that ever had to suffer something like that.
So, what I did was I saved all my money and I had this dream and I was like, ‘ I am
going to make a salon that caters to the plus-sized woman. Because I know I am not the only one
that goes through this.’
DIANN WELMAN: I know Jamie because I go to a lot of the BBW bashes, a big fluffy girl.
So, having a place where we go and can feel comfortable. I’m really confident and I
still feel out of place sometimes. I’m from Texas. I got Texas-size assets. So, when you
come somewhere like this and feel comfortable and not feel out of place, you know. $50 taxi
ride over here, you know, it’s worth it.
JAMIE LOPEZ: Everything here is custom made and reinforced. So, there won’t be any humiliation
or anything broken. Chairs that hold up to 800 pounds, you know, pedicure benches that
hold up to 600 pounds, waxing, you know, big girls want to get waxed too. Like everything
is gold, everything is glamorous, you know, so you won’t feel like, oh you know you’re
in this special chair. No, it’s not a special chair; every chair here is the same. I want
them to feel like they are getting the royal treatment. Because they might be going through
something on the inside, you know they might not feel beautiful. So, when you come in my
salon, I serve you with cupcakes, mimosas, whatever you need to just relax and you really
get into your element. It’s really important to me to make them feel even more beautiful
when they leave than they are when they come in.
DIANN WELMAN: I didn’t go to salons until after my divorce. I had never had my hair
done. I had never had a manicure or pedicure. And after my divorce I realised that my life
was passing me by, that everything I had worked for was gone. I had to start over and I started
over on me. I think my nails are the everyday reminder.
And now you’re going to have to give me a tissue.
DIANN WELMAN: I thought house and cars and… Oh crap! I’m going to have to cut that out.
House and cars and, you know, décor was important.
DIANN WELMAN: And it’s not.
DIANN WELMAN: Places like this, they lift you up, they boost you up.
JAMIE LOPEZ: As women, we should be able to get beautiful anywhere.
LADY: What is it that you would like to do?
DIANN WELMAN: I want bling. LADY: Bling, bling, bling…Colour bling.
DIANN WELMAN: Because bling makes me happy. LADY: Okay, let’s bling-bling.
DIANN WELMAN: What I do need is my make-up done a little bit.
SHANTE MELHADO: Babydoll Beauty Couture, Shante speaking, how can I help you?
SHANTE MELHADO: Okay, what day is good for you? We’re open from Tuesday to Saturday,
10 A.M. to 8 P.M. every day.
KAMIA WILLIAMS: This is my first time in the salon.
LADY: And calm down, it will definitely not be your last.
KAMIA WILLIAMS: It will not at all. You guys already have me hooked.
KAMIA WILLIAMS: And this will be the first time someone has been in my hair since I’ve
been in Las Vegas and I can’t wait to see how my hair turns out.
KAMIA WILLIAMS: It’s more personable. I’ve been to a nail salon and been turned away
just because of my size and sitting there in one of their seats. So, I really like this.
It’s comfortable. My mother has always told me, you are going to be big, you are going
to be beautiful and who would I be not to believe my mother.
JAMIE LOPEZ: We get a lot of strippers. We get a lot of, like, dancers. We do get some
models. We get a lot of, like, women that haven’t been to a salon in so long.
Older women; we get all kind of people.
DANIELLE RAMAS: All right, are you ready for your wax?
LADY: Yeah. DANIELLE RAMAS: Are you sure you’re ready?
LADY: I will be ready. DANIELLE RAMAS: Alright.
SHANTE MELHADO: You should see some of the clients, they’re either dancing and singing
and, like, saying they are going to come back and everybody loves the Couture. It is, like,
I mean I love it. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else to be honest with you. I started
to get everything done here. I mean, I know I work here but I would be coming here if I didn’t work here.
DANIELLE RAMAS: We all could be glamorous no matter what size you are, no matter what
race you are. It doesn’t matter, you know. We all want to feel beautiful as women and
we all can. It’s, you know, it’s possible.
DIANN WELMAN: Now that I look the part, I gotta go get the part.
JAMIE LOPEZ: I love you. DIANN WELMAN: I love you too.
And I am so glad for you. I am so happy.
JAMIE LOPEZ: I have this lady, literally almost cried to me because she was so excited to
be here and to, like, have a place like this that’s size acceptance and that, you know,
makes them feel good. So, I mean, at the end of the day that’s really what it’s all
about for me. I don’t make, I am not rich from this place. So, I mean, it’s really
like from, you know, the heart.
KAMIA WILLIAMS: I love it. Thank you so much. LADY: You are welcome.
KAMIA WILLIAMS: I am going to go home a new woman.
JAMIE LOPEZ: To me to see these women feel beautiful. It means the world to me because
I was able to do that for them. So, that’s really what it’s all about for me.
All women deserve to be beautiful and pampered and they are worth it. So, I just want to get
that message across to them.