Meet Bianca Heasley of Roots Salon & Wellness Spa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bianca Heasley.

Hi Bianca, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
I started in the beauty industry at an all-natural Aveda school in 2011 after my time in the Ohio Army National Guard. My parents were very persuasive and wanted me to get a college degree, so I attended Youngstown State University for one semester while in the army. 

I ended up getting pregnant with my first child and giving birth in 2010. One of the perks of being in the National Guard is that you were still able to have a civilian job, so while juggling multiple jobs, I headed to cosmetology school instead of the traditional degree route. 

Fast forward to working in two salons and gaining knowledge from each chapter of my life. 

I opened my very own salon + spa in 2017 in the heart of Boardman, Ohio. 

The salon is known as Roots Salon & Wellness Spa. My husband and I prided ourselves in our little mom-and-pop set up with our area’s absolute best artists and personalities. 

While running this shop, I was at the tail end of my career with Benefit cosmetics, traveling around doing freelance makeup for the company. I became more in tune with cruelty-free standards and ended up leaving the company a few months after we opened our salon. 

In 2020, COVID hit our area pretty hard, and we ended up closing down our first location with minimal hope of reopening. 

I had been working with a realtor for about a year and a half prior to Covid and was just at a loss of finding my own space or even a larger space… about a month after we closed our doors, a realtor came through, and we were able to move right into a new location located about a mile down the road from where we started. 

It was a family effort between my husband, brother dad, and cousin, and they built out the new location most of it from the ground up, tearing down walls, adding walls, and literally making our own within a month’s time of Ohio being open to the public during the pandemic. 

We built onto our team, brought back all of the original Roots members within the last couple years, and had our new goal set to become an Eco-sustainable one-stop shop. 

We have since partnered with Green Circle Salons as of re-opening in 2020. 

Our mission is very similar to theirs. We want to teach our own artists, outside artists, as well as our clientele that the way of sustainability is so important and so easy if you give your mind to it. 

We thoroughly pride ourselves in maintaining quality services while making a positive impact on our planet. Roots is a full-service eco-sustainable salon and spa specializing in everything from hair colors, body waxing, permanent cosmetics, and of course bridal. 

My teams are on location just shy of 52 weekends out of the year making memories, bridal art with hair and make-up as well as lifetime connections. 

We enjoy laughter, chaos, and absolute nonsense in our free time! 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I definitely don’t think owning a business in general is smooth sailing or for the faint of heart. There are so many things that a human being has to figure out themselves, especially with the lack of a business degree. 

Jumping into an LLC without even basic knowledge has been a learning experience well before we opened our doors. I am lucky to have an amazing accountant/business, mentor, (and amazing mother-in-law at that) who helps me through the toughest parts. 

We’ve had rockiness between landlords, color lines, sustainability efforts, COVID-19, as well as your traditional struggles, owning an operating anything within the public eye but especially a full-service bridal salon and spa. We are so fortunate that our clientele are direct representation of who we are as people… They are kind, they are good, and they are absolutely worth getting out of bed and making memories with every day… 

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Roots Salon & Wellness Spa specializes in bridal hair and make-up services both in our eco-Victorian quirky salon and on location. In addition to making sure that your wedding day is absolutely perfect we do so with cruelty-free and sustainable practices both in and outside of the salon. 

When Roots is not on location doing a magnificent wedding day, we are a traditional salon, offering everything from haircuts /coloring, facials, extensions, body waxing, massage, permanent cosmetics and so much more! Our staff is so friendly and personable. 

The phrase. “Stay rooted.” Can be heard or read on some of our Roots gear as we want you guys to take a piece of us and yourselves everywhere you go… StayRooted to who you are what you believe in, but we’re here to help you continue to grow within that. 

I think the thing that sets us apart from other shops in our area is our true artistic passion, as well as the compassion and willingness to preserve the earth! 

Everything from your hair clippings on the floor to the excess hair color in our color balls, we recycle 98% of beauty waste and we love talking about it! We are a cruelty-free animal, loving shop, and I believe that’s the best part about us! 

We want the world to know how many options there are out there for cruelty, free, and sustainability practices in everyday life! 

Who else deserves credit in your story?
I love giving credit where credit is due! I’d like to start off with someone so fresh on my mind: my very first mentor and very first cosmetology teachers Maryann Deluca. She has recently passed, but she set the standards of how I wanted to maintain my shop, my practices, and my personality within this career field. She believed in me so strongly out the gate and reassured me who I was with absolutely enough and it absolutely will carry me through the rest of my life. 

Another very strong figure for me is the original owner of my very first salon, Traci Blasko. She is a woman, so freaking strong and fearless, and she believed in my abilities tenfold & she pushed me and taught me so much…to be honest, I would still be a commission-based stylist fearful of ”making it” if I hadn’t met her all those years ago. 

My amazing mother-in-law, who is the BEST behind-the-scenes gal but also the realist inspiration of a woman building her empire from the ground up. I aspire to be just like her one day and remain as absolutely humble as she is while doing it. 

My family, all of them. Not only for continuing to support me but for letting me to complain to them and all the hardships and for helping us build Roots to be what it is now. AWESOME! 

My husband Jason who has been with me from the very beginning of this business journey (high school sweetheart action) and is the behind-the-scenes worker and co-owner at Roots. 

All that he does for me, and Roots does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. He is literally the muscle AND mind behind all the crazy ideas that I have… all while executing it with a smile on his face. 

My last (but absolutely not least) sources of inspiration are the artists that I work with every day. 

These girls range from lead artistic educators, cosmetologists, interior designers, musicians, aestheticians, and just plain good freaking people! 

Without all these girls showing up for me and with me every day, there would be no Roots and life would just be plain boring! I’m grateful for their individual personalities and artistic abilities more than words could ever say. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rootssalonandwellnessspa.com
• Instagram: @rootssalonandwellnessspa

Image Credits
@maebphoto