SUNDAY, MAY 8 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE G3
Businesses like the Carmonas’ sit
at the forefront, thriving off an
eagerness to focus on appearanc-
es after up to two years in
seclusion.
Mannie recalled a client who
visited months into the pandem-
ic and said her Botox treatment
was the first time she had even
set foot outside the house since
the shutdown.
“So many people did what they
needed to do to get through this
pandemic,” said Glenn MacDon-
ald, an economics professor at
Washington University at St.
Louis. “That’s really fueled this
self-care thing. A lot of people
are saying, ‘I’ve got to do a lot of
things to take care of myself,
improve my diet, and not be so
isolated.’ It’s played into an al-
ready existing trend of wellness.”
The pandemic was catastroph-
ic in so many ways, and especial-
ly for small businesses. Accord-
ing to the U.S. Small Business
Administration, the sector lost
9.1 million jobs in the first two
quarters of 2020. It was difficult
to retain employees for safety
reasons, and that gave way to the
challenge of hiring staff in a
labor shortage.
But in 2021, there were 5.4 mil-
lion applications to start compa-
nies, according to data supplied
by the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce — a record amount, and a
53 percent jump from 2019. For
some entrepreneurs, the chances
they took are beginning to pay
off. And for small businesses like
the Carmonas’ that benefit from
the return of in-person interac-
tions, the conditions have al-
lowed them to soar past their
pre-pandemic levels.
“There’s an incredible pent-up
demand to get out and be near
people,” MacDonald said. “We
were really wondering how that
was going to go. Were we afraid
of people now? It seems like the
opposite.”
Not far from the Carmonas’
spa, Destiny Fulbright ditched
her pre-pandemic bartending
job to do lashes full-time. These
days, her clients are so happy to
see her and talk to her that she’s
considered getting a T-shirt that
says “Lash Therapist.”
“I had a lot of women who
wanted to do something for
themselves,” Fulbright said.
“They come in and say, ‘I haven’t
done anything in a year.’ ”
Business has grown so much
that Fulbright now sells lash
supplies to other artists. A local
shortage turned into an idea,
which turned into supplemental
income.
“I’m as busy as I want to be,”
she said.
The Carmonas’ business fol-
lowed a similar arc. At first, their
tiny start-up featured just Jamie
as the injector and Mannie as
everything else — “the reception-
ist, the trash-taker-outer, the
cash-out guy,” he said. During the
pandemic, a couple of clients a
week felt like a triumph. When
society opened up, so did the
floodgates.
“It was like 10 clients every
single day, every time we were
open,” Mannie said.
He fondly remembers the
emotional rush when a customer
rang up a bill of $3,800 last
spring for a “full face rejuvena-
tion.” Now, in the post-pandemic
world, that’s a slow day of in-
come. The couple recently
moved to a four-room, second-
floor loft. They had to upgrade
from a file cabinet for client
information to electronic soft-
ware management. There’s now
a staff of 10 employees.
“We started asking clients,
‘Why now?’ ” Mannie said. “They
said the same thing: ‘I see myself
now on the camera in my meet-
ing and I don’t like how I look. I
want to look refreshed.’ ”
It didn’t all happen in a
straight line. The delta wave of
the coronavirus caused a lull that
dropped monthly income from
around $40,000 to less than
$10,000. But even that turned
out to be a speed bump rather
than a roadblock. When delta
began to ebb, the desire to come
back into the salon revved right
back up.
“People delayed a lot of
things,” MacDonald said. “If you
think of people delaying furni-
ture, cars, vacation. When that
ends, there’s an explosion. We
weren’t in a business cycle at all.”
The new normal had another
engine: social media. Before the
pandemic, a spa like the Carmo-
nas’ would rely on foot traffic.
Now their customer base is large-
ly driven by Web traffic. They
have a robust Instagram account
and happily encourage clients to
take selfies on the balcony, and
they spent just $3,000 on adver-
tising in 2021, according to Man-
nie. He estimates only about 30
percent of his clients live down-
town. One drives from Miami.
“Honestly, we’re still in the
SELF CARE FROM G1
For self-care businesses, it’s been a rejuvenationPHOTOS BY ZACK WITTMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTTOP: Ne Ganzy injects Ashley
Woodall with lip filler at Luxe
Med Spa in Orlando.
ABOVE: Jamie Carmona, left,
and Mannie Carmona, owners
of Luxe Med Spa, are
experiencing happier times
during a waning pandemic.
Business has been so good that
they moved to a new location
and have transitioned from a
file cabinet to an electronic
software program to keep track
of clients.
LEFT: Vera Perez undergoes
red light therapy treatment at
Luxe Med Spa.domino effect of people seeing
what their friends got done
here,” Mannie said.
A couple of blocks from the
Carmonas’ spa, Kobina Amoo is
seeing stronger business for a
doughnut shop called Pattie
Lou’s he opened during the pan-
demic. He noticed right away
that customers wanted comfort
as they churned through the
worst days of the shutdown.
“Here’s an opportunity to
brighten someone’s day even
though they’ve been at home for
two months,” said Amoo, who
played college football at Okla-
homa State.
Now the need has shifted from
adjusting to remote work to
adjusting to back-to-work. This
month, Amoo got a call from a
company moving to Orlando,
asking if he can “handle bigorders” for an office setting. A
recent walk-in seemed stunned
that he hadn’t noticed the shop
before. He asked how long it had
been there. “Ten months.” Amoo
replied.
“How long have I been stuck at
home?” the man said, almost to
himself.
Is it all one big sugar rush?
Possibly. MacDonald said he
wonders if the post-shutdown
boom will get “celebrated out of
our system.” Plus, with opportu-
nity comes competition, and
there is plenty of that even in an
economic environment that is
being clouded by concerns over
inflation and a potential reces-
sion.
“There’s med spas on every
corner now,” Carmona said. “I see
people trying to open up in
garages.”
The Carmonas are considering
expanding their services to other
parts of the body. There is a
seven-day wait for appointments
now. They don’t quite have to
break open the decorative case
on the wall, but the post-pan-
demic “emergency” is not abat-
ing.“I had a lot of womenwho wanted to dosomething forthemselves. They comein and say, ‘I haven’tdone anything in ayear.’ ”
Destiny Fulbright, former bartender
turned “lash therapist”