By Lisa Cisneros –

It’s a rainy Saturday morning and Lourdes Borjas is cutting 13-year-old Claire Tanaka’s hair while her mother looks on from the plushy red couch at Bianca’s Hair Designs.

Borjas is busier today than she has been recently because her business like so many others has been in decline due to the recession.

The Latina unemployment rate reached 6.1 percent this March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

How Latina-owned businesses will be impacted long-term has yet to be seen but they had been on the rise. Between 1997 and 2004, the number of Latina firms increased by 64% and sales grew by 62%, according to the National Women’s Business Council.

Bianca’s, 5916 26th St. in Cicero, Ill., is owned by Borjas, who goes by the nickname Lulu, and is the shop’s sole employee. Up until 10 years ago she was the only salon on 26th Street. Now there is a salon on every block and they are all Latino owned, she said.  There are almost 80 hair salons advertising in Cicero today.

Borjas has regulars and doesn’t feel her business is in trouble. But she said she certainly worries about the bills and sometime wishes she worked for someone rather than owning and operating her own salon because of the financial responsibility. Her husband’s hours have been significantly cut at his job recently. She said is lucky to be a business owner.

“People are coming in for a color with two inches of root now instead of one, but they’re still coming in,” said Borjas with a face that borders on girlish and looks much younger than her 49 years.

Business reports everywhere say that while beauty service businesses have seen a decline, people still need to get their hair done and are just waiting longer to make appointments.

The salon has two chairs for hair styling, two hair dryers and one sink. It is of modest size and sparsely decorated. There are mirrors around most of the room and tall plants.  The red couch stands out on the black and white tile floors.

Jean Tanaka, 38, who was referred by a friend, has been coming to Borjas for four years to have her hair done. Her three children come here as well and she said the atmosphere, prices and Borjas’ talent for cutting and coloring are what keep her coming back.  She said Borjas creates a family- friendly atmosphere and always gives her what she wants.

Tanaka prefers to use the services of small business owners because she feels they are more considerate. She said Borjas always asks about her family and that they’ve established a nice relationship.  Her daughter Claire said she loves to get her hair done by Borjas.

“It always looks nice,” Claire said.

Tanaka, who is a teacher at a junior high school, said that her beauty regimens and hair care costs have not been affected by the economy because she and her husband, a police officer, have steady income and job security.

She said that some of her friends are definitely hurting from the economy and have made significant changes in how they spend their money on beauty treatments by cutting back, doing it themselves and choosing cheaper products and services to use.

Borjas’ cousin, Maria Bradley-Farias, 58, also is a customer. She said she doesn’t feel obligated to use her cousin’s services and quite the contrary actually avoided it because she didn’t want to burden her with her “hair dilemmas” of which she has had many.  She said she once had a perm that left her in tears and looking like Queen Elizabeth.

“I come to her because she’s the nicest person in the family and has saved me (her hair) many times,” she said.

Borjas came to the U.S. with her family from Michoacán, Mexico when she was 4 years old. She said she has wanted to do hair since she was a little girl and watched her grandfather run a barber business from his new home in the United States.  She loved “to watch all the young men coming into the house for a haircut.”

She graduated from Capri Beauty School in Chicago in 1977 and has been doing hair since.  In 1980 she married her high school sweetheart Jose.  Three children and one grandchild followed and they are still married today.  It was Jose’s idea to open the business in 1985.

Her youngest daughter, Amanda, also has a passion for hair and is a junior stylist at Mario Tricoci in Oak Brook, Ill. Borjas said with a laugh that Amanda comes home and complains about standing all day and that her back and her feet hurt.  “Tell me something that I don’t know,” Borjas said.

Borjas hopes to one day sell the business and open in another location with her daughter. “After she gets more experience we may open a salon together,” she said. “There’s a dream about that.”