Wed. October 2, 2013
Chicago, IL -
The walls of Julio Mendez' new Wax Man Spa are painted a shade of blue called "serene" and the Chicago native playfully chose a grey titled "anonymous" to adorn the walls of the intimate rooms where his new boutique spa will offer full body massages as well as full waxing treatments, with Mendez being lauded as the king of the male Brazilian.
After 14 years in the beauty industry that span esthetics (that's waxing, skin treatments and the like for those lower-maintenance readers), hair and a career doing makeup for celebrities that took him from Chicago to Los Angeles and even to Puerto Rico, Mendez is opening his first small business at 1744 W Lawrence this October.
He estimates that it took him two years to open his own business -- a year of ideas and a year of making it happen. In that time he's learned a lot, facing all the usual construction delays (including a broken shampoo bowl) and dealing with the City's complicated licensing and zoning processes. Now, construction on the two rooms he added is done, the paint is all retouched and the window stenciling has gone in at his Ravenswood storefront -- Wax Man Spa is almost ready to open its doors.
"My clients have been waiting and waiting and waiting and I've been getting evil text messages -- 'I need my hair removed, it's getting a little wild,'" he joked with ChicagoPride.com during our sneak peek at his new space last week.
Mendez brings with him a host of loyal clientele, haircuts and waxers alike, but in searching for a space he wanted to ensure good foot traffic as well. After lots of looking he came to this storefront on Lawrence Avenue during rush hour to find that the nearby Ravenswood Metra Station, the largest Metra stop outside of downtown, brought hosts of potential customers right past his door.
That same station is slated to get a total makeover as part of the city's recent renovation of the Metra tracks. In addition, the Damen Brown Line station is just around the corner and the shell of a huge construction project at Ravenswood and Lawrence will soon be home to a new upscale Mariano's grocery store as well as a Lifetime Fitness, further increasing the area's traffic and development.
Growing up near Marquette Park in the southwest of Chicago ("we were the first Latinos in the neighborhood," he laughs), Mendez has been witness to the development and growth of several of the city's neighborhoods, including nearby Andersonville and Lincoln Square. He's been a resident of Ravenswood for the last two years (and is happy to remain one, as he'll be moving into the space above Wax Man Spa) and sees tremendous upcoming growth and potential in the neighborhood.
"I think Ravenswood is one of the last neighborhoods in the North Side that's actually -- as far as shopping and stores and all that stuff goes -- is underdeveloped," he said, going on to predict that Andersonville and Lincoln Square will soon be connected by Lawrence Ave, creating a sort of Far North Side community. "You have these great neighborhoods in here with these big Victorian houses...mixed with apartment buildings and it's very eclectic. You have gay, you have straight and families and young couples and it's just very diverse."
"Theres every race in this area, which is very nice, where Chicago was very segregated growing up," he added.
With a father who worked as a hairdresser, a beauty maven for a mother and three aunts who did hair as well, it seems genetically preordained that Mendez would end up in the beauty industry. A self-proclaimed "nerd," Mendez graduated at the age of 16 from William J. Bogan Computer Technical High School with a full ride to Robert Morris University. He graduated with his Associate's Degree as a Computer Systems Specialist a year later.
The degree-holding 17-year-old was burnt out on books and none too excited about a future in technology, so he decided to make a change and enrolled in the original Pivot Point International Academy in Chicago for their esthetician program. There, Mendez was taught by Miss Sylvia, a woman trained in Paris who he describes as practically blind, doing waxes and facials by feel.
"She was absolutely amazing. I never wanted to do waxing and she made me do every wax that came in the door," Mendez remembers. "She made me wax bodybuilders that would come in, women, plus in those days whatever service you performed on somebody you had to have it done on yourself -- so I've had everything waxed. I completely understand how it feels, I know what a person is going through."
Upon graduating (five months early), Mendez became the first ever male esthetician in the city of Chicago. He found his first position at the Tiffani Kim Institute, a high-end, four story salon, spa, bridal boutique and medical facility all in one. Mendez enjoyed his job, but when he was told he lacked the experience to get hired doing makeup, the then 19-year-old left to work at Kiva Spa across from the Ritz Carlton in the Gold Coast.
Mendez worked with Smashbox Cosmetics, making over brides and trying to get his foot in the door of the spa, when his makeup career started to take-off. Six years with LVMH (LVMH Moët Hennessy), a luxury goods division of the Louis Vuitton house of fashion, and their Make Up Forever brand took him to Los Angeles and later to Puerto Rico.
Mendez' position gave him the opportunity to work with Cirque du Soleil and do makeup for a variety of celebrity clients. He fondly remembers working with Jenni Rivera of m2's "I Love Jenni" reality show before her tragic death in a plane crash this past December and continues to do contract work with Telemundo to this day.
"Gwyneth Paltrow was horrible," Mendez confided, laughing, when ChicagoPride.com inquired after some juicy celebrity gossip. "She's gonna read that and be like 'that bitch.' Sharon Osbourne was probably my favorite person I did makeup on."
The recession in 2008 saw a decline in the makeup industry, which Mendez took as an opportunity to reinvent himself once again. He was living in Moca, Puerto Rico in his family's small hometown and decided to get back into the salon/spa industry. Mendez enrolled in the local beauty school to finish his hair license, but soon realized the environment lacked something -- a certain urban glamour, perhaps -- that he desired in his education. After six months of classes conducted in Spanish, Mendez moved back to Chicago, finally graduating from the Steven Papageorge Hair Academy.
While in hair school, Mendez got a job as the resident esthetician in Boystown's Chicago Male Salon, where he specialized in waxing, especially the male Brazilian. Mendez was featured in a RedEye article titled "Extreme Malescaping" that goaded him as one of the best Brazilian waxers in Chicago. He also appeared on an episode of Down and Dirty Radio with Frank Fontana where he performed a back waxing live on the air -- the episode is the radio program's highest rated of all time.
"We also recorded another video, because when we looked at Youtube most of the videos of men getting waxed were like college kids pranking each other...or it was like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and they were all just silly, so we did something professional," he said.
The resulting video is an honest three-and-a-half minute look into male waxing, showing the process and overall experience for a new waxer, that still gets Mendez recognized at beauty shows as "that guy in the waxing video."
After graduating from hair school, Mendez decided on another change of pace, wanting to practice hair (which he couldn't at Chicago Male) and get back into a more spa-focused atmosphere. So, after two years at Chicago Male Salon, Mendez took over for the resident male esthetician at Sir Spa in Andersonville. The mega-spa on Clark Street didn't offer hair services when he arrived, but after his interview Mendez was allowed to create a salon as well as redo their menu in addition to performing his esthetic services in their spa. The experience was a great test-run for opening his own place.
Mendez' decision to go from beauty employee to business owner was an easy one. Working at large facilities has many benefits, but a percentage of each employee's profit must be given to the company to keep it running and Mendez' experience and clientele had made working for someone else no longer a necessity. While he had learned much from his time at Chicago Male Salon and Sir Spa, Mendez felt he could create an experience more tailored to his customers' needs and desires on his own and in a smaller setting.
"I took all the things that clients ask for and that the other owners didn't visualize in their own businesses and I made those possible for Wax Man Spa," Mendez said. "So things that men wanted like more privacy, more focus on their actual service, not being rushed out the door, not having it feel like a totally gay experience..."
"I wanted to have a feeling where guys can come to a setting where they don't have to feel embarrassed, they don't have to get their eyebrows done in front of a lot of girls at a salon," he continued. "They don't hafta walk out from their waxing service and there are eight gay men doing hair who turn around and stare at them at the same time -- I just wanted to have a relaxing environment."
Mendez estimates that about 80% of his waxing clientele are straight men and a majority of that business is made up by male Brazilians, with back waxing coming in at number two. He says that, a lot of the time, the motivation comes from his client's significant others, with girlfriends frequently calling in to schedule their man's monthly wax and showing up to hold his hand the day of. Other waxers site cleanliness, beauty and body building competitions, impending pool-side vacations and more as their motivation for going hairless.
As to what makes sets his waxing apart, Mendez breaks it down to a combination of the different waxes and techniques he uses as well as his practice of taking his time and really knowing his business.
"I was a big science geek so I love anatomy and how the body functions," he said. "It's really helped me to learn why people break out or why the hair goes a certain way -- a lot of what people come to me for is to ask questions."
Robert Prouty, a waxing client going on two years, agrees that Mendez knows his stuff, especially applauding the numbing solution he employs, something still not available at many other spas. More than anything though, Prouty praises Mendez himself.
"Julio's going to be the one who to sell it," he told ChicagoPride.com. "He's detail oriented and never sloppy, so you always know it's getting done right, but more than that he's comfortable and fun to be around. For me he's become a friend."
In addition to Mendez' esthetician and hair services, Wax Man Spa also employs an additional hairstylist, who brings 20 years experience to the table, and two rotating masseuses providing full body massages ("we do everything but nails," Mendez jokes.) While Wax Man Spa does cater to male clientele, Mendez always accepts, and is bringing with him, women customers as well.
The setting is smaller than Chicago Male Salon or SirSpa, but Mendez is going for a boutique feel, something he plans to carry over if he decides to expand his business.
"Even if we grow in the future, I want to expand into smaller spaces and keep it intimate and keep that feeling where you feel that you're really getting all of our attention," he said.
Between the increasing traffic on Lawrence Avenue and the incredible growth Mendez has seen in the male beauty industry over the last five years, that if might be more of a when. The demand for manscaping is high, something Mendez traces back to the hairlessness of men in movies and on TV and the nationwide obsession with the waxing, shaving, grooming men of shows like Queer Eye and Jersey Shore. Whatever the cause, Mendez says he sees the future -- "and the future is hairless!"
"It's a huge industry right now. Men are grooming themselves, they're taking care of themselves, they're buying skin care, hair care," he concluded. "They want to look good, they want to feel good and they're not ashamed to do it anymore."
For more about Mendez and Wax Man Spa, like their Facebook page and visit their website at www.waxmanspa.com.
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