Meet Tess de la Riva | Salon Owner & Stylist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tess de la Riva and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tess, what do you attribute your success to?
Fairness. Our business IS our amazing team, therefore every decision is made with fairness as a priority. It’s a give and take for everyone, from salon apprentices to senior stylists, everyone is held to the same expectations and standards. My team is aware that I won’t ever ask anyone to do anything that I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.

I’m completely open and honest with them, give them the why/how behind every decision made. There is no “because I said so” mentality behind how I lead.

What should our readers know about your business?
Both my business partner and I will have the same answer, and that is our salon team culture. We protect it more than anything.

As leaders, we work really hard to make sure that our salon is a place where professionals get treated with respect and are nurtured to grow and develop in their career. We have never, nor will we ever cheat our team out of anything. But most importantly, is the relationship we have with each other as a whole. We hold everyone accountable for treating each other with respect.

No one is above anyone else in our company. We have open and honest conversations about culture and how important it is to maintain in a healthy working relationship with each other. Issues and misunderstandings get handled and cleared up immediately, and we are not shy about parting ways with team members that don’t align with our values as a team.

A testament to that, is that we don’t have a high staff turn-over at our salon, which for salons is extremely unusual. The average amount of time a stylist will stay in a salon company is three to four years, yet most of our stylist are going on seven+ years.

We play a long game with our team.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
In my opinion, Houston has some of the best food in the country. We are very fortunate to live in such a diverse city, with a melting pot of cultures.

I’d probably start with our salon’s neighborhood of Montrose. Coffee at one of our many coffee shops, but of course Southside Espresso is my favorite. Thrift-store shopping on Westheimer, then over to Bistro Menil followed by a visit to The Menil Collection art museum.

High end shopping in River Oaks is so fun, and we’d have to go to my favorite Houston authentic Mexican restaurant, Hugo’s.

The Eastern Glades is a beautiful park hidden in the craziness of the city. and the art galleries in Sawyer Yards are beautiful and inspiring to walk through, specially if a pop-up market is going on. I love Houston.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My amazing business partner, Alan Conover.

I started as his salon apprentice in 2015, and over the next three years I grew to became his business partner in 2018.

Three years is an incredibly ambitious amount of time to develop into a business partner, but that ambitious progression says just as much about him than it does about me. Never once did he make me feel inferior. He made my voice matter, always. As a man older and more established in the industry than me, he never treated me like my opinion didn’t matter as much as his just because I’m younger and a woman. Behavior I have unfortunately been so accustomed to my entire life coming from men.

He always makes me feel heard and respected. He saw something in me early on before I saw it in myself. We help each other grow and learn constantly. We are complete opposites in the best possible way. He makes me a better person.

Instagram: @itsthetess