Hidden Gems: Meet Jessie Santiago of The Subliminal Stylist

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessie Santiago.

Hi Jessie , so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started doing hair more than twenty years ago, before I even understood what healing work meant. I was drawn to transformation, to color and shape, to helping people see themselves differently in the mirror. Over time, I realized the real transformation wasn’t the haircut. It was the conversation. Clients would cry, laugh, grieve, and remember who they were while sitting in my chair. I didn’t know it then, but I was learning how to hold space.

As my career grew, so did the weight of it. The beauty industry can be harsh. It rewards perfection and performance, but I was craving something real. When my partner transitioned, it changed how I understood identity and expression. Beauty became less about appearance and more about authenticity. That shift inspired me to open Salon Benders, a trauma-informed, queer-centered salon in Long Beach. It was a place where people could show up fully as themselves, and it was one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever built.

Eventually, I hit burnout. I was holding a lot for other people without the tools to process it myself. That realization brought me to hypnotherapy. I started studying the subconscious, energy work, and the ways our bodies speak truth before our words do. My work evolved into what I now call The Subliminal Stylist—a practice that bridges hypnosis, ritual, and the creative process.

Now, I work with clients and teach other healers how to listen beneath the surface, how to care without losing themselves, how to restore what has been fractured. My work lives at the intersection of beauty, psychology, and spirit. It’s not about becoming someone new. It’s about remembering who you already are.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
NO- It was rough.

There were years when I didn’t know how to separate my worth from my work. I over gave, undercharged, and called it passion.

Running a queer-centered, trauma-informed salon taught me a lot about care, but it also showed me what happens when care isn’t mutual. I learned the hard way that holding space for others without boundaries slowly wears you down. Burnout didn’t arrive all at once. It crept in quietly through body pain, anxiety, and disconnection. By the time I noticed, I was already emptied out.

The hardest part was learning to take care of myself. To rebuild as a human learning to heal. Hypnotherapy gave me language for what I had been doing intuitively for years. It helped me see that transformation has to include the body and the nervous system, not just the surface.

I’ve had to unlearn a lot: people-pleasing, perfectionism, the urge to fix everyone but myself. The work now is more honest. I still love beauty, but I approach it with reverence. What I offer isn’t about changing how someone looks. It’s about helping them feel safe inside their own skin.

As you know, we’re big fans of The Subliminal Stylist. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My business is called The Subliminal Stylist. It’s where hypnosis, healing, and creative ritual come together. I work with people who are ready to stop running on empty and start living from a place of self-trust and calm. Some come to me for help with stress or self-worth. Others are therapists, artists, or healers who give a lot to others and need space to restore themselves. My work sits somewhere between clinical and mystical. It’s grounded in psychology but it also honors intuition and creative expression. I don’t separate science from spirit. They belong to the same language of healing.

What makes my business different is how personal it is. I bring all parts of myself to it, the stylist, the teacher, the healing artist and a healing human. Every session, workshop, or podcast episode is rooted in the same belief: beauty and healing are both ways of remembering who you are.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Risk has shaped almost everything meaningful in my life. I don’t see it as gambling with the unknown. I see it as trusting what I know deep down, even when I can’t explain it yet. Every big shift I’ve made, like closing a successful salon or walking away from financial stability, looked risky from the outside. But staying in something that no longer fit felt like the greater danger.

When I left the beauty industry as I knew it, I had no map for what came next. I only knew I couldn’t keep pretending that overworking myself was love, or that burnout was the price of care. Choosing rest, study, and deeper healing was a risk. So was naming my business The Subliminal Stylist and letting it be something that could evolve with me instead of containing me.

I don’t take risks for the thrill of it. I move toward what feels true, even when it’s uncomfortable. For me, risk is sacred. It’s the space between the life you’ve outgrown and the one that begins the moment you’re willing to let go.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thesubliminalstylist.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.subliminalstylist