The Hair Shoppe Celebrates 30 Years

Del Carmen – “I Love my Work and my Customers”

Your hair defines your image probably more than any other feature of your appearance according to Del Carmen Cadena, La Feria professional hair stylist and entrepreneur.

“There are so many new ways and techniques now to give you the look you want,” she said, adding that “ I have to continually attend classes and seminars just to keep up with what is the latest in family hair care, and to be able to deliver what my customers ask for.”

Del Carmen is the owner and operator of the Hair Shoppe beauty salon located at 220 East Oleander in La Feria. She spoke with LA FERIA NEWS about her successful business and her plans for the future.

“I just love to make people feel beautiful,” she said. “They walk in feeling down, but they walk out feeling awesome and ready for anything—I like that, and, that is why I like what I do and have no plans to retire after 30 years in the beauty business.”

“I have always believed that if you like what you do, it’s not work,” she added.

She related that making people and things more beautiful with her hands is something she has done since she was a child. Bearing this out, she said when she was six years old, she was crocheting pretty little gift designs and giving them to her friends and family members. I learned this from my mother.”

As she grew up, Carmen got into her hair styling career professionally when she was 16-years-old taking a High School Cosmetology Course at Edinburg High School “I practiced on my fellow classmates, all my friends and family. “And then I knew I had found my life’s career, she said.”

“But styles and the beauty business itself has really changed since those years,” she continued. “That is why I have to go to classes and seminars in Houston and elsewhere to keep up with the latest styles and .trends. Also, today we are getting more and more men of all ages in our salons, because they are becoming more conscious about their hair style and what it says about you.”

Always the educator, Carmen added a word of caution about some of the new trends in hair styling and the new color changes people ask for. “There are some health dangers in ALL chemical hair services—be it: hair coloring, permanents or straighteners, unless it is applied by a professional, licensed and trained stylist who understands the risks. That applies to men and women alike.

“Right now,” she says, “my interest is making The Hair Shoppe continue to be known as a family hair care center and do all I can to help this beautiful city grow and prosper.”