— FACES OF SILVER SPRING —

Norma Galvez
Perseverance pays off for owner of N.Lo Hair Salon

by John Landis

In the short stretch of Georgia Avenue from the District Line to the Beltway, I counted no less than fifteen hair salons and/or barber shops. This doesn't include braiding shops, nail salons, day spas or wig shops; our beauty needs are certainly well attended to in Silver Spring. With so many options it takes something special to stand out. For N.Lo's Hair Salon at 8029 Georgia Avenue, that something is someone, and she is Norma Galvez.

Photo: Julie Wiatt

Norma met me with her bright and seemingly ever-present smile at the door to her store. Inside the bright and cheerful space, you are greeted first by a comfortable area with a couch and soft chairs as contemporary music fills the air. Videos play on the screens overhead. "I had this area in mind already when I was planning the salon; I wanted a lounge and not 'regular' chairs." It is a comfortable and friendly space, often filled with family and friends.

Norma's story begins in San Salvador, El Salvador, where she was born to a comfortable middle-class life. Her parents provided for her and her sister well. Her mother was a manager for a baseball glove manufacturer and her father a long-time employee of Firestone tires. Life for the close family was in her words, "beautiful." She and her sister attended Catholic school and, even at an early age, Norma studied the craft of hair cutting. She attended a trade school after regular school and graduated with her certification at 16. She and her sister were kept busy and "out of trouble and off the streets" as Norma put it by being kept in classes and activities. She earned a brown belt in Tae Kwan Do as a result. Their "beautiful life" came to an end in 1989 as the civil war escalated. Her father spent time arranging transportation for U.S. expats seeking to escape the intensifying aggressions. Finally the family fled to the United States. They arrived in the Washington, D.C. area in October of 1989 and two months later joined other family members in the San Francisco.

At 18, Norma was in a strange place and very frightened. She spoke no English and all of her training in El Salvador was for naught, as her certification was not recognized here. "I used to cry all the time because I thought I would never learn English" She took ESL classes at a community college in San Francisco but mostly learned from hanging around Americans. While in California she attended a trade school to learn about computers and Forceman College in San Francisco where she studied Journalism.

Photo: Julie Wiatt

She returned to the Washington area in 1996, separated and with a four-year-old daughter., she chose to return to her passion- cutting and styling hair. She took a job as a shampoo girl at what was then Hair Pro Salon in Wheaton and enrolled at the Montgomery Beauty School on Flower Avenue. It was a difficult choice for someone already certified in her home country. Upon her graduation she was offered a position at Hair Pro by her mentor Teresa and went to take her state licensing exam in 2000. She failed in her first attempt because "I dropped my comb--one point killed me." Two weeks later she resubmitted and passed. She stayed with Teresa and Hair Pro until Teresa retired. It was then that she pursued the dream of owning her own salon.

She researched areas she was interested in and settled on Silver Spring because she wanted to be part o the revitalization efforts. Passsing by the ACECO building, she spoke with owner Lou Citren several times and was about to take her second choice when the opportunity to lease the space came about.

Norma herself is responsible for the design of the salon. She said she would sit in the empty space and wonder "What can I do different?" It was around this time that she met her significant other, Galen, who has proven to be a valuable support and friend. He can often be found at the salon when not busy with his own business endeavors.

She came up with the colors right away. There are "too many white walls in salons." When she started it was just her, and for two years it was difficult to find stylists. She now has three other stylists working with her and a manicurist on call. Melanie Johnson who joined her first, Angela Miles and her newest, Gina, who is currently splitting time between Washington and Los Angeles. They are all busy seemingly all the time. Norma herself is nearly always booked and if not in the store, is "out there" promoting the salon.

Photo: Julie Wiatt

Melanie and Angela had a common observation of Norma- "very professional," and both love being associated with her. Norma is also a dedicated mother to her now teenage daughter, and is still on good terms with her ex. Her daughter summers with Dad in California.

She has been somewhat successful with advertising, but has had loyal customers from the start and 80 percent of her business is from referrals. Norma has ambitious plans for the future of the salon and South Silver Spring in general. She would like to expand the salon to a day spa and offer a more full service facility with specialized areas for children and "of course unisex".

"Nothing is impossible" she told me, "Just because you're a single mother doesn't mean you have limits".

Well, Norma is certainly an example of the "American Dream" come true and the story of a woman who indeed has no limits.

She is one of the "Faces of Silver Spring" that do our community proud.

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