By: Juliana Ramirez, Staff Writer
During quarantine in April 2021, Junior Maritza Pimentel started learning how to do “lash extensions”. At first it was very hard and stressful for her because of the time it required but also the patience. She would practice after school for at least 8 hours a day and it took her about 4 months to fully master it, and later started taking clients.
As soon as girls from the city found out about her service she immediately gained followers on her Instagram Lash Page (@lashed.bymaritza) and started getting booked every week; mentioning that 10% of her clients are girls that attend Galileo. She explains that working on her first client was “nerve wracking” because she was scared to mess up and she didn’t know how to start a conversation. But client after client she started getting the “hang of it” and didn’t feel shy to talk to them and put some music in the background to set the mood.
Maritza is home based and works in her room, so after she’s done with all her clients she will do her homework and try to finish more homework in advance so it doesn’t accumulate and she then will continue with her night routine but she’ll have days where she doesn’t work just to focus on her school work and afterwards spend time with her family. She says “It’s hard balancing my job and school because I usually get 5 or 6 clients a week which adds up to more than 20 clients a month, but I try my best to manage them and do good in both. I also remind myself constantly that I am human and I can’t overwork myself so I take time to rest and do self care stuff.”
Something she wished she would have known before starting this journey were that, it takes time and she says “I would’ve not stressed myself out like I did for the first time, I tried to seek perfection in a very short amount of time, but I learned that perfection takes time, and you have to be patient with yourself and I feel like I would’ve handled myself better but I’m glad I experienced it because I learned from it”
She also mentioned how she’s learned to set boundaries with people (clients) because she works at home so she has to be aware of who steps foot in her house and she doesn’t want something bad to happen and also learning how to communicate well with all of her clients because everyone is different and they all have different budgets, ideas and preferences. And at the end of the day all she wants is for her clients to be satisfied and happy.
