Still can’t get over last week’s celebrations!

Video: Iva Fehr, 07.04.2025

In such dark times, celebrating the good brings warmth and tranquility to the heart. Last week, we gathered to celebrate the birth of the initiative that keeps us hopeful during moments like these — the launch of Stories from the Beauty Parlor’s podcast.

Salons have been a part of women’s lives forever. We've shared these spaces with other women — spaces that feel safe without needing a banner that says so. They hold the stories of generations: of shared trauma, experience, love, sadness, power, and vulnerability. For many, they’re a second home. For others, a space of empowerment. For some, they’re a place of work. For others, they’re a form of therapy. Beauty parlors hold the proof of women’s lives unfolding: they witness her growth, her choices, her returns, her reflections.

These spaces are full of care, beauty, and love; and that is what we stand for.

Photo: Kabir Kaul Dutta, 29.03.2025

In preparation for Eid, after the last day of fasting, a diverse and empathetic community, from all walks of life came together to share something profound and heartfelt. In the face of global despair and growing oppression, we came together in the name of hope: hope to make the world a better and safer place for all.

We danced the night away thanks to BB Ray (DJ) and Shadi (salon owner and DJ!), feasted on delicious Georgian recipes, sipped homegrown wine (Gio’s), and shared intimate conversations while getting pampered by our beautiful active artists (Effy Nails, Mariam, Eavan).

Our podcast tells stories born under the roof of a beauty parlor. Stories that speak to the world we live in today.

Photo: Iva Fehr, 29.03.2025

At Studio14, we brought together a community striving for equal spaces for women and for the LGBTQ+ community — to share our stories, and to hear theirs. The love in everyone’s eyes, the admiration, the solidarity meant the world to us.

As a couple of our guests had their henna painted while speaking about their passions, others shared personal stories from their favorite beauty salons, passing on women’s cultural legacies to one another. Some went for eye-catching nail designs to match their outfits and wondrous personalities; others adorned themselves with dreamy eye makeup to express their inner worlds. We listened to poetry, celebrated cultural diversity, and affirmed our shared commitment to amplifying women’s causes and nurturing a united, flourishing community.

Through these small beauty gestures and dreamy treatments, our mini simulation of a beauty parlor, we raised 500 euros for women’s projects in Syria and Georgia (Women Now for Development and the Women’s Fund in Georgia). This fundraiser is one of many we will organize, and we will continue to hold in our ongoing mission: to leverage the $650 billion beauty industry and reinvest it back into the communities that sustain it, that is, women and the queer community.

Previously, our funds have supported Gaza, Iranian Women Life Freedom activists, and refugee initiatives in Libya.

Photo: Kabir Kaul Dutta, 29.03.2025

We started as a dream, and we’ll continue to strive to make that dream a reality. We will keep rising, finding solidarity and goodness even in times of repression and the rise of right-wing politics. We will continue to call for safety and freedom for all and for local beauty parlors to keep being powerful, communal, and as vibrant as they’ve always been.

Post Launch Party Bliss

Still can’t get over last week’s celebrations!

“Stories from the Beauty Parlor” Podcast: Fact Sheet

Stories from the Beauty Parlor