May 15, 2017

Meet Luiz Soares of LUVA Hair and Day Spa

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Luiz Soares.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
LUVA Hair Day Spa started over 20 years ago with a friendship between myself and my business partner Valquiria Comin. We met working at a Beauty Salon in Cambridge MA, then both of us moved to the Financial District in Boston and till today we still work together. About 5 years ago, during an informal conversation, Valquiria and I decided that was time to open our own place.

Our concept was to have one place where our guests would get all their beauty needs done under one roof. Hair, nails, skin care, massage, hair removal, special occasions, art galleries and more. Downton Malden was chosen for been an upcoming and diverse neighborhood missing our business model. 379 Main St was a perfect, specious venue, close to public transportation, easy parking where our vision came to reality.

Fun fact about how the name LUVA came about. First I wrote names of items that we do use daily at the salon, words in English and Portuguese. After selecting a few I showed Valquiria and we both agree that LUVA (glove in Portuguese) would be the one. It took us a little while to realize that was both of our names mixed together LU for Luiz and Va for Valquiria.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It was not easy at the beginning with the renovations necessary to open the space. The location used to be a Hair Salon and Dance Studios in the past and was closed for over 5 years. Bringing up to date took longer than we expected. Also building up an awareness about the Spa to the community took some time and still a work in progress. But we believe in our tag line One Place a Better YOU and that makes all obstacles and challenges to be easy ones.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the LUVA Hair and Day Spa story. Tell us more about the business.
LUVA is a full service Day Spa and Art Gallery. We are specialized in hair, massage, facial, body hair removal, manicure and pedicure. The Spa is a certified PCA skin care. Improving people’s lives by providing results-oriented skin care solutions that are backed by science for the health of your unique skin. Tuesdays through Fridays from 1pm to 4pm the Spa offers a $1 per minute massages and also we offer a $59.99 Wellness Program memberships. Since the beginning LUVA hosts local artists’ gallery shows. Every 6 months there is a new opening. 100% of art sales goes back to the artists.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck played a role on bringing good vibes to us because little by little the community has been able to embrace and understand our vision of been not only a Spa but a destination where you can relax, be pampered and get your beauty needs done. Working with locals we here at LUVA were able to bring here all kinds of beauty, hair, makeup, wellness, art, music and more.

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