Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian & Lauren Pitre.
Hi Christian & Lauren, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
The Pitre Nest LLC. started with two sisters doing hair under different business names in the same space offering the same services. LOL, yea we knew it sounded silly too. Given that our clients knew we offered the same services, we decided to merge Lauren Pitre Styles and ChristianJavaun to form The Pitre Nest. We actually worked at a salon side by side for about two years until one day, the salon owner started getting greedy asking for commission from a self-made hair product from my Christian Javaun Line. Because I (Christian) denied her, she decided to raise both my sister and I’s weekly booth rent effective immediately. We were sick of being treated like the scrubs of the salon and stepped out on a leap of faith to open our own salon suite space. We were so nervous because we didn’t have a strong clientele and were like “How are we going to afford $350 a week?”. But God is good and he never failed us. Our clients talked more about us to their friends and family, we stayed patient and consistent. After a few years of upgrading to new suite spaces, we had finally hit our ceiling in that environment. Not to mention COVID-19 had hit and made it difficult for us to continue working. During this idle time, it gave us an opportunity to see what other options we had. Walking in my neighborhood, I stumbled across a few storefronts and inquired and before we knew it, we were yet again praising God for the opportunity to open up our first brick and mortar six chair salon in the heart of LA on the historic Pico Blvd.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We definitely did not have things easy. Anybody knows getting started in any industry it’s very hard. You have to sacrifice a lot of your time, energy, sleep and conform to things you’re not always comfortable with for the sake of making ends meet. For us, building a consistent clientele was hard. We had to weed through quite a few crazies and pocket pinchers in order to decipher the kind of clientele we wished to service and what type of services we wanted to provide. A lot of people didn’t understand it nor agree because we no longer were able to serve their needs. Along the way, we’ve always been the youngest stylist in the salon and with that comes older/seasoned hairstylists that assume you know nothing and will be OK with anything including environment, conversation and pay. Unfortunately, they appear to be supportive but don’t want to see you grow. We’ve had clients skip out on paying us before, we’ve had team members steal products/tools from us, ex-bosses/salon owners steal pay from our paychecks, write negative posts about us on Facebook because we chose to move on. It gets crazy.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our salon specializes in luxury extension installs and organic hair care treatments. We are known for our salon ambience, professionalism, timely appointments and amazing hairstyles. Our team is very knowledgeable and my sister Lauren and I pride ourselves on offering a luxury/relaxing hair experience for black women. We are often told our salon home feels like a spa and such a pleasant place to retreat to. What sets us apart from others is we educate our clients about their hair. All of our hair treatments are made fresh in-house daily and include a variety of organic essential ingredients that help promote healthy hair and hair growth.
What are your plans for the future?
Currently, we are working on building our amazing team setting them up for success with full hair education and hands-on training to become the best stylist in town. If all goes well (fingers crossed), we will open another location perhaps in another part of California or even out of state.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.thepitrenest.com
- Instagram: @thepitrenest
