Susan Soares

29/12/2025

To the Stylist Who Is "Busy" But Still Broke.

You just survived the Holiday Rush.
You did more blowouts in three weeks than most people do in a lifetime. You saw the revenue come in.
But now you are looking at your end-of-year numbers for 2025. And if you are in Year 3-5 of your career, you are realizing a scary truth:
You are working harder, but your bank account looks exactly the same.
This is the "Year 5 Trap."
In a commission salon, you give away 50% of your labor forever.
In a rental salon, you pay rent for a chair you will never own.
You have hit the ceiling. You can't work faster. You can't add more hours to the day.
If you stay in this model, 2026 will look exactly like 2025.
I don't want you to make a resolution to "hustle harder." You are already hustling.
I want you to make a resolution to change the math.
What if, in 2026, you stopped paying for walls?
What if you stopped giving 50% of your energy to a landlord?
The Mobile Resolution:
Mobile hairdressing is an arbitrage of your time.
In the salon: You do 8 clients to make $600. (Exhausted).
Mobile: You do 3 clients to make $750. (Home by 2 PM).
You are not stuck. You are just in a business model designed to keep you broke.
Let 2025 be the last year you worked for someone else’s dream.
Let 2026 be the year you bet on your own hands.
I wrote a full breakdown on how to audit your career and plan your exit strategy for 2026.
Read the full "Exit Strategy" here

22/12/2025

The Naked Husband, The Sketchy House, and The Truth About Safety.

Whenever I tell people I’m a mobile hairdresser, the first question is always about money.

The second question is always: "But… aren't you scared?"

I get it. We are women going into strangers' homes.

But after three years and hundreds of appointments, I have had exactly two "incidents."

One involved a house in a neighborhood so sketchy I almost didn't get out of the car. (Spoiler: The client was a lovely gentleman who became a regular).

The other involved an $8 Million mansion in a gated community... and a husband who decided to walk in and take a shower right next to us while I was doing a blowout.

The Lesson: Money doesn't buy manners. And fear is often just bias in disguise.

Here is the truth: I feel safer entering a vetted client's home than I do walking through a dark salon parking lot at 9 PM.

High prices are the best security system in the world. Predators aren't paying a $300 booking fee.

I wrote a full breakdown on how to vet clients, how to stay safe, and why the "fear" shouldn't stop you from going mobile.

Read the full story here https://open.substack.com/pub/hairhousecalls/p/is-it-safe-to-be-a-mobile-hairdresser?r=616n06&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

16/12/2025

Last Saturday wasn't a glamour booking. It was a welfare check with shears.

I visited a client who was clearly homebound and isolated.
She was camped out on her balcony under a makeshift tarp fortress. The table next to her wasn't holding a latte—it was holding medicine bottles, a pile of cigarette butts, and a very large bottle of Jack Daniels.

She was struggling. And her hair was a disaster—matted into a nest of knots that hadn’t been touched by a brush in months.
In a high-end salon, this client wouldn't have made it past the receptionist's desk.

But I wasn't in a salon. I was in her sanctuary. And looking at the state of her hair, I knew that if I walked away, no one else was coming to help her.

So I made a choice. I sat down.

For 90 minutes, I worked through the mats. It was tedious, difficult work.
To break the tension, I used humor. Every time she yelled “OUCH!”, I teased her loudly enough for the neighbors to hear:
“You’re paying for this abuse!”
She laughed. It was probably the first time she had laughed in a long time.

If you are thinking about going mobile, you need to know that you will see real life. You will see people at their most vulnerable.
Sometimes, you are there to make someone look hot for a gala.
But sometimes, you are there just to make someone feel human again.

Read the full story on how this appointment changed my perspective on the business:
https://open.substack.com/pub/hairhousecalls/p/it-wasnt-just-a-haircut-it-was-a?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

15/12/2025

Why Your "Six Figure" Salon Job Might Actually Pay Minimum Wage.

We obsess over "ticket prices" in this industry.

"I charge $300 for a cut!"

"I had a $2,000 day!"

That number is vanity. The only number that matters is Take-Home Profit.

When you actually break down the math of the four main business models, the results are shocking.

1. The Commission Salon: You give up 50% immediately. You are paying $5,000/month for "safety."

2. The Chair Rental: You pay rent to work in a room where other stylists can poach your clients.

3. The Salon Suite: You think you're independent, until you realize you're spending $3,000/month on rent + laundry + supplies before you make a dollar.

4. The Mobile Model:

Rent: $0.

Commission: $0.

Overhead: Minimal.

I ran the numbers on a stylist generating $10,000 in revenue.

In a Salon: She takes home ~$5,000.

Mobile: She takes home ~$10,500.

Stop paying for walls. Start getting paid for your skill.

I broke down the full financial comparison (including the hidden costs of suites vs. mobile) in this week’s newsletter.

Read the full "Salon Math vs. Mobile Math" breakdown here:

https://hairhousecalls.substack.com/p/the-math-doesnt-lie-salon-vs-suite?r=616n06

12/12/2025

A Future Proof Career. Providing an in home luxury salon experience!

Redefining the “kitchen beautician” into a luxury concierge service—and navigating the red tape.

05/12/2025

I Found This Video from 3 Years Ago. The Message Is Even More True Today.

Why the “Room Service Lifestyle” wasn’t a phase—it was a prediction.

I was digging through my archives recently and found a video I shot three years ago.

I was driving down the 405 on a Saturday morning, heading to a client in Newport Beach. My kit was messier back then. My pricing was lower. I was still figuring out the logistics of working off the apps.

But listening to what I said in that car, I realized something:
Everything I predicted about this industry has come true.

Watching this footage was a reminder of why I left the salon in the first place, and why the mobile model is the only one I’ll ever bet on.

Here are the 3 timeless truths from that drive that still define my business today.

1. The “Room Service Lifestyle” is Non-Negotiable
In the video, I’m stuck in traffic, and I say:

“The room service lifestyle is not going away... People want the room service lifestyle. They are busy. They are successful. They want you to come to them.”

Three years later, this is even more accurate.

Back then, people thought mobile services were a pandemic anomaly. They weren’t.

We live in an Amazon Prime, Uber Eats, Peloton world. The “Haves” are paying for time. They don’t want to drive to a salon, find parking, and sit in a chair for three hours. They want the salon to appear in their living room.

If you are still waiting for clients to come to you, you are fighting against the current of the entire economy.

2. The Salon “Waiting Game” is Soul-Crushing
I talked about why I prefer being in my car, even in LA traffic, over being in a salon:

“I can’t stand sitting in a salon waiting for a client... watching me sit there bored out of my mind.”

This is the hidden cost of the salon life that nobody talks about. The boredom. The performative busyness.

In my car, I am the CEO. I listen to my podcasts. I eat my snacks. I have my own space.

Yes, traffic is a bitch. But the freedom of being alone in your “office” between clients? That is a pro that outweighs everything else.

3. The Need for a Collective

At the end of the video, I said something that gave me chills, because it is exactly what I am building right now with the Hair House Calls Academy:

“My hope is that a bunch of us get together and we collaborate... build each other up... We need to lead this new way of beauty.”

I knew back then that we couldn’t do this alone.

The apps want to commoditize us. The salons want to keep us on commission.

The only way we win is if we—the mobile artists—band together, refer clients to each other, and set the standard for the industry.

The Evolution

I’ve learned a lot since that car ride.

I’ve optimized my kit so I’m not hauling unnecessary junk. I’ve raised my prices so I’m not just “covering gas,” but making a premium profit. I’ve stopped relying on apps to fill my schedule.

But the core mission hasn’t changed.

Look good, feel good, do good.

If you are thinking about going mobile, don’t wait until you have it all figured out. I didn’t have it all figured out in that video. I just had a license, a car, and a belief that there was a better way to work.

And I was right.

Watch the full “Vintage” Vlog here:

https://youtu.be/pqYsCG1qmhk?si=hLzznrg1szjB6hMJ

Ready to join the movement I talked about 3 years ago?

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1176905340529298

Academy Application: https://forms.gle/z7J9AEiL1YEebgCj7

Connect on Instagram:

I had a smaller kit and cheaper prices, but the hustle was real.https://hairhousecalls.substack.com/p/how-it-started-my-first-year-as-a?utm_source=youtube

03/12/2025

Hi everyone. It’s been a while.

As many of you know, I spent a decade running this page to fight for patients' rights and cannabis awareness. My heart has always been in activism—fighting for people to have freedom and control over their lives.

Life evolves. I am taking that same activist spirit into a new industry: The Beauty Industry.

I am now fighting for workers' rights in the gig economy, teaching hairstylists how to build independent businesses so they don't get exploited by corporations.

I’m rebranding this page to share my new journey as a mobile hairdresser and educator.

If you were here for the cannabis content: I love you, and I understand if you unfollow. Thank you for the decade of support.

If you are here for me: Welcome to the next chapter.
Let’s get to work!

02/11/2022

I am soooo excited about this category! It's a great day for this announcement on your birthday ! I can't wait to hang out with you at the Cup Harvest Ball ‘22 . Who's going?

21/08/2022

This is for those of you with teenagers in your life.

Ma*****na use is on the rise, and while it’s completely harmless and fun for you to consume, to a child with a still developing mind, it can have devastating consequences. You know, like it did for you.

19/08/2022

I’m going through some photos and videos to create contact for my new website and I came across this one. It hit me like a wall and the tears started streaming down my face. I’m in a parking lot waiting for my best friend to come to this dive bar in Hermosa Beach. had just rescued Ziggy. The cops dog napped him when they raided my house. They said that I needed to turn myself in because they had my dog. They had Ziggy for three days. He was never the same. Neither was I.