“ Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack on the concrete? Proving nature’s law wrong. It learned to walk without having feel. Funny it seems but by keeping it’s dreams it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete, when no one else even cared.”
-Tupac Shakur
Concrete Rose Salon opened its doors on August 27th, 2014.
I believe people are just meant to be in our lives for a reason, to help each other grow. Noelle is one of those people for me. I first met Noelle when we started working at the same salon back in 2008, I instantly connected with her. We both built pretty similar skills and work ethic. She always talked about how one day she wanted to open up her own shop. I was always on board because the way she described how she wanted her shop to be was similar to where I wanted to be. I am so glad I found a place to call home where I am comfortable and actually heard, instead of just being called “the peanut gallery” like I was in other salons I’ve worked in.
The road to Concrete Rose Salon was a tough one. I was going through so many changes in my personal life as well as my career and Noelle has always been there to support me in both my personal and career growth. “Find your tribe stay with your tribe.” We are all going to need help at some point in our lives and I just have so much love and respect for Noelle. At Concrete Rose Salon, we are focused on uniting our community through the power of showing our inner beauty. We have a couple programs to help unify the community; Treat Yourself and Someone Else is a program where our existing clients can upgrade their service to adding an in-salon deep conditioning or scalp treatment to help someone in transition get a complimentary hair service. The Product Exchange program is when anyone can come in and trade any product from any line (must be 50% or more full) for a discount on new, recommended hair products. All the unwanted products are donated to the Rebele Family Shelter here in Santa Cruz.
Priscila Soriano (left), Noelle Weatherwax (right)
There is a lot of meaning behind the name "Concrete Rose". Everyone's perspective is different, and I’d like to share mine. The poem itself talks about a rose that managed to grow from a crack on the concrete. How can something so beautiful grow from such a hard place? What are the odds of there even being a crack in the concrete? A rose itself very beautiful. They smell amazing, but be careful if you get too close to the thorns. Are the thorns a symbolism for walls? Why is the rose guarded by these thorns? Was it because the rose had to go through a lot of obstacles to grow out of that crack in the concrete? Where did that crack come from? Did the rose make that crack? Did the rose find that crack? However it is that it got there, the rose managed to grow through it to show its true beauty. Even in the ugliest places, there is beauty. Beauty is subjective. The rose was so focused on growing through that it paid no mind to what others had to say - even when they said you would never be anything. By staying true to itself, it managed to shine and breathe fresh air… proving everyone wrong. †
