Erika Radis left her San Antonio hair salon during the pandemic to do bookkeeping for stylists, worried her bright hair and tattoos would hurt her credibility. A friend pushed her to try it anyway. She later added tattooing, now runs Tattoo Fridays at Vanidosa Studio, and helps other beauty professionals stop undervaluing their work.
Chapters
So I decided, you know, I'm done doing hair. I had a studio here in San Antonio. I was just, I was over it. I think that like most people, everyone during the pandemic, you realize that whatever it is that you were doing, that wasn't it. You know, you just thought, I know for me, I decided like, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. And one of my friends there at the studio, she was like, I didn't know you did bookkeeping. And I was like, well, yeah, but I just don't, I mean, I haven't done it in a long time. I only do it for myself. So she hired me on, and then from there she kept on wanting to pass on my information. I was like, I don't want to do this shit. Like, what if I— because in my head I was like, what if I fuck something up? You know, like, yeah, I haven't done this in a while. So what if I— there's something that I don't do the right way? And it wasn't so much because, like, I thought that it had to be something more professional or that I had, you know, I was like, I don't have the look. My hair is always fun colors, I have all these tattoos, who's going to take me seriously? But I had to realize that I kept on reading her books, I saw her growth, and I was like, I want to do this for other people, and I want to do it for other people in the beauty industry because we're looked down upon and they don't take people— they don't take us seriously. They think our job is not— you don't make that much money, or it's just like a hobby or whatever. So I wanted to show different, you know. I wanted also for ourselves as hairstylists, sometimes we also don't see worth. But I think in the industry as women, we really don't see our worth, period. So I wanted girls to start seeing themselves in a different light and I wanted to help them grow. And my friend, she finally pushed me to keep on going. And then last year is when I took myself seriously and I started to grow. And then from there, now this is what I do and I love it. I freaking love it. I can't see myself doing anything else. Except for my little side hustles that I call them side hustles, but they're also like full-time jobs, like the tattooing. I also took classes for that and I was doing it, which is not legal, but I was doing it here at home and it was only on friends. It was only on friends. So they were letting me practice and I was like, all right, you let me practice, then you can't talk shit or you can't say I fucked up because you're letting me practice. Yeah. But, you know, they— I did pretty well. And now I work at Vanidosa Studio with Claudia, and I do Tattoo Fridays there, which is a lot of fun.
