OWNER & FOUNDER
Who is Coral Lahiani
A Hyde Park, Chicago native, Coral Lahiani is a hair stylist, educator, beauty entrepreneur, and business coach, with nearly 40 years of professional experience. In her own words, “I guess you could say I was a child prodigy, I cut my first bang at age 4, gained my first weekly client by age 9, started my professional career as a shampoo assistant by age 14. By 16, I was Bernard Johnson’s of the famed Ultra Sheen Dynasty’s assistant, and by 18, I was licensed and working at the beautiful Nieman Marcus salon at North Michigan Avenue, Chicago.”
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After 10 years of working retail and private salons, Coral Lahiani felt she had learned enough to give salon ownership a try for herself and has done so for nearly 30 years. Coral has been performing next level hair color, cuts, organic extensions, and hair styling in Chicago ever since.
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Coral Lahiani has hosted beauty and fashion events, performed platform work at tradeshows as well as taught advanced hair color classes to licensed professionals working with renowned companies like; Joico, Pivot Point, Premier Beauty, Jordan’s Beauty Distributors, and Cosmetologists Chicago, and Salon Lofts.
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While serving on the Board of Directors for Cosmetologists Chicago, owners of "The America's Beauty Show" Coral worked hard to promote equity and inclusion for the Black Hair Industry. Creating campaigns that promote growth and development for diversity in the beauty space.
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Today Coral is the proprietress of The Coral Lahiani Institute for Advanced Cosmetology; an institute devoted to delivering continuing education for licensed cosmetologists through a well-curated curriculum, focusing on proven science, classic and modern techniques, and career success through entrepreneurship.
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Coral also hosts the Coral Lahiani Master Class series; an in-salon one on one specialized masterclass experience for licensed hair stylists where she shares her inside secrets, techniques, and knowledge.
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Meet Our Professionals
Beauty Professionals Dedicated to Top-Quality Service
Beauty Culture is an incubator for beauty professionals to realize and actualize their full potential. Meet our current team of talented hairstylists and creators.
What We Do
“The Beauty Entrepreneur Incubator”
Beauty Culture has designed an innovative and scalable business model which combines three growth driven industries: the beauty salon industry, the advanced vocational training industry, and the business coaching industry to create, “The Beauty Entrepreneur Incubator”. This incubator is designed to educate, train and coach licensed cosmetologists and beauty professionals who will become highly skilled practitioners and successful business owners who are revenue generators, tax payers and job creators.
Our investment provides economic opportunities and advancement to assist the licensed cosmetologists and beauty professionals who wish to become business owners and are in the under-served and moderately - served communities of Chicago, IL.
By creating our incubator, we have proven that these professionals can and will acquire the necessary educational, technical and business skills required to build long-term financial independence and job security.
We have partnered with local agencies and seasoned subject matter experts to facilitate our classes and workshops, with the intent to increase our new business owner's viability and revenue for the development of sustainable thriving businesses.
The Problem
Licensed cosmetologists and salon professionals today are very aware of their value. Social media, YouTube, and word of mouth has made it evident that if you possess the necessary skills or can acquire the necessary skills to create today’s in-demand cuts, colors and styles, you can become quite successful in the beauty industry (a 46-billion-dollar industry). This notion is very empowering yet, the professional quickly learns that it takes much more than talent and skills to open a salon business. After spending countless hours researching, creating a business plan, securing financing, choosing a business entity, complying with municipal and state licensing regulations, creating goals, financing equipment and supply acquisition, etc., it’s no wonder most professionals opt out of the notion of salon ownership all together and settle for a “chair” in someone else’s establishment; therefore, never having the satisfaction of realizing their dream of salon ownership.
Our Solution
To solve this problem, we have simplified the process by doing all of the grunge work for the salon professionals. We provide an affordable salon space where the professional can own and operate their business while learning the key principals of the salon business ownership and salon operations.
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Each professional works as an independent salon owner while gaining experience and training. Owners have a unique webpage on our digital platform and a salon suite or station.
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In addition to a complete salon set-up, each owner receives the following training from our comprehensive curriculum:
• Technical training to increase skill sets and valuation of service offerings
• Business coaching to help acquire proficiency in the key principles of salon business such as: account reconciliation (salon accounting), account management (sales), inventory/supply, debt management, credit, lease negotiations, social media marketing, SWOT analysis
• Customer service training for client retention and attraction
• Digital platform, digital marketing and website development
• Brand Development
• Compliance, licensure and tax reporting
Where We Are
History
We are nestled in the center of Chicago’s historic “Motor Row” where several entrepreneurial pioneers created a corridor of wealth and excellence as early as 1905. Pioneers and champions to the people such as Robert Sengstacke Abbott, founded the Chicago Defender newspaper (headquartered one block south of us), which was founded to give account and voice the then severely underserved population. Later, John H. Johnson in 1942 founded the Johnson Publishing Company, which published JET and Ebony magazines.
Getting Here
- The salon is easily accessible via CTA:
Green Line (Cermack/McCormick)
Bus #3 (Michigan and Cermack)
Bus #4 (Michigan and 23rd)
Bus #X4 (Michigan and Cermack)
- Metered street parking is available. There is also parking available in the lot behind the building (enter on Indiana in-between Cermack and 23rd).
- Instructions for building access will be posted on the entry door.
- The salon is on the third floor which is accessible via the elevator which is directly down the hallway, or via the stairwell through the door directly across from the entryway.
