Whereas working at a furnishings retailer, Vucetaj noticed a job itemizing in {a magazine} for eyebrow waxing at Eliza Eyes, the primary devoted eyebrow-shaping salon. “I used to be like, Wait, this can be a factor?” she says. “I didn’t even understand it was a factor. I referred to as them up and stated, ‘The place do I get my license?’”
Vucetaj attended 10 months of aesthetics faculty whereas balancing work and being a mom. She shared her dream of in the future proudly owning her personal forehead salon, and her academics have been incredulous. “They instructed me for the entire 10 months, ‘You’ll by no means make it simply tweezing. There’s no such factor as forehead salons,’” she says.
It didn’t take lengthy for Vucetaj to show her academics fallacious. Shortly after commencement she got here throughout one other job itemizing in The New York Occasions—this time for a “forehead specialist—tweezing solely.”
After sending in her résumé, Vucetaj realized it was for the salon at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxurious division retailer on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Unaware of its elite standing, she obtained the job. Throughout her time at Bergdorf within the early ’00s, she encountered New York’s higher echelon. Most had by no means gotten their eyebrows achieved earlier than and definitely hadn’t seen Vucetaj’s grooming model: tweezers solely, with full brows and natural-looking hairs.
“Folks would ask, ‘Why fuller?’” she says. “However the development was by no means skinny. That’s the place individuals misunderstand. There was no cause or rhyme behind brows. They might simply get them waxed.”
As a substitute, Vucetaj pointed to worldwide magnificence pageants and the brows of Jap European and South American ladies. “Magnificence pageants have been large then,” she says. “I’d say, ’Look, Jap European ladies and South American ladies are recognized to be so attractive and glamorous. It’s the brows!’ The American ladies had these skinny brows and so they wouldn’t stand out.”
Since Vucetaj was the shop’s first forehead specialist, she had no house to work with shoppers. As a substitute she was instructed to stroll across the ground and provide her providers to individuals getting manicures and pedicures. “Typically I’d get a chunk,” she says. “I had Michael Bloomberg strolling by. Kathie Lee Gifford would stroll by. They might say, ‘Wait, what is that this?’ And so they’d watch the outcomes out within the open.”
Quickly magazines began calling Vucetaj for interviews. She developed nice relationships with editors corresponding to Attract founding editor Linda Wells; Cosmopolitan editor in chief Kate White; O, The Oprah Journal magnificence director Val Monroe; and Fortunate editor in chief Eva Chen.
Two and a half years into the job at Bergdorf, Vucetaj was thriving. Manufacturers have been pushing merchandise at her in hopes she would use them on shoppers. Regardless of her success, she consistently discovered herself in a Goldilocks state of affairs when it got here to merchandise.
“I’d strive all the pieces they’d, and I didn’t like something,” she says. “Pencils would define the brows, however you couldn’t fill the within. I must use a powder, however it wouldn’t define. Then the pencil coloration was one other situation, as a result of shades can be too pink, too brown, too black.”
Most individuals on the peak of success would favor to sit down tight and reap the advantages. However Vucetaj was a founder at coronary heart. She knew she needed to go away to create the product she wanted.