Manuela Ramirez had been working in the beauty industry for four years when she opened her first brow and lash business.
Manuela Ramirez Lash & Brow Design opened Monday on South Avenue. Credit: Michael Dinan
That was in 2017, three years before the onset of COVID-19, and the Mount Kisco, N.Y.-based location thrived.
Despite the pandemic, when a hair stylist in New Canaan recently advised Ramirez that she should consider launching a location here in town because residents likely wouldn’t want to travel to Westchester County, the esthetician was open to the idea.
“Nothing is going to last forever,” Ramirez told NewCanaanite.com on Sunday afternoon, hours before opening Manuela Ramirez Lash & Brow Design at 17 South Ave.
Inside the newly opened Manuela Ramirez Lash & Brow Design on South Avenue. Credit: Michael Dinan
“I feel like people need to understand that even though we are going through this crazy time, we can’t forget about doing things that make you feel good. You are still alive. The fact that you cannot see people and not be around family doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep doing things that make you feel good, things you used to do.”
Opened by Ramirez and her mother, Lina, the business is taking bookings online for a wide range of lash and brow services, such as lash tints, treatments and extension removals, and brow lamination, microblading and men’s grooming, as well as waxing, training and bundled packages.
Asked for her thoughts on the new business, New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Laura Budd said, “I just took a tour of Manuela’s new location on South Avenue and it is a beautiful clean and relaxing space. We are so happy that she chose New Canaan to open up her second salon and we look forward to working with her to grow her customer base.”
Manuela Ramirez. Contributed
The commercial space, located between Press Burger and Colonial Barber Shop, had been vacant for about 18 months, after South Avenue Butcher closed.
A Colombia native who moved to the United States when she was seven and grew up in Chappaqua, N.Y., Ramirez said she chose New Canaan because it’s “a great town, very cute, and it’s the ideal client that I’m looking for.”
Asked for her thoughts on opening the location amid a pandemic, when many businesses are slowing down or closing, Ramirez said, “This craziness will not last forever.”
“We will get to the point that it will stop and then after, we humans will see everything differently from how we do now. We have lost control of everything—and for me, I am that crazy control freak. I wanted to control everything, every little second of my time. And after this happened, I was home for four months with no work to do or anything. So for us, this was a great chance to open a new location because people are being very nice to businesses. They want to help. Mount Kisco has been very successful, with a lot of clients, and if we can do it once, we will do it twice. It’s scary, I’m not gonna lie. But if you don’t take risks, you won’t get anywhere.”
A former nutritionist, Ramirez said she was both “excited” and “a little nervous” about the launch.
“But I know we have great things to bring to the community,” she said. “We actually, before this craziness, we used to go around the world to take training—we’ve been to Russia, Kazakstan, Brazil and a bunch of places in Latin America to take training. My mom and I also will offering training—that is our other business, an academy where we train how to do lashes and brows.”