This dissertation is a microanalytic investigation of professional communication in beauty salons in the United States and Japan. In particular, it centers on the analysis of a common, yet very important occurrence found in cosmetology sessions: what I call the "service-assessment sequence", in which service-provider and client determine whether or not the completed work in a given session is adequate. This is a crucial moment in the haircutting activity (and in other fields of the service industry) in order to bring a satisfactory closure to the session, as well as maintain a healthy relationship for future sessions, retain clients in general, and ensure client satisfaction overall. Using the methodological frameworks of microethnography and conversation analysis, I examine the moment-by-moment unfolding of interaction, focusing on how participants smoothly conduct the service-assessment sequence and how they achieve the successful completion of a service encounter through a number of tactics. The findings include: the participants' systematic coordination of talk and physical inspection through multiple second pair parts; the participants' coordination of talk and action to negotiate sequence closure; the participants' professional use of head nods in the middle of physical inspection and at sequence completion during service encounters in Japan; and the participants' employment of a unique combination of verbal and embodied actions to transform the event of revision into a mutual decision. These findings suggest several important aspects of professionalization in beauty salons. Notably, the professionals' ability to harmonize talk and action is a special trait. Also, despite the fundamental regularities, the service-assessment sequence is frequently adapted to specific circumstances of each beauty salon that may vary across different services and cultures. Finally, the production of professional assessments and agreements are achieved by the participants' constant work on dramatization through the use of various communicative resources. The study is applicable not only to the field of cosmetology, but to a range of professional-client interactions where people evaluate the quality of service with their subjective perspectives, enhancing our understanding of negotiation-in-interaction in the workplace and what it means to professionalize communication in such situations. / text

El presente trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo principal la investigación, validación de nuestro modelo de negocio, para luego ser implementado en el mercado real del Perú. Dicha aplicación está basada en nuestro Business Model Canvas y las estrategias aplicadas en alianzas, recursos claves, actividades clave, canales de llegada, costos, entre otros. Barber & Beauty es una aplicación para smartphones, la cual sirve para hacer reservas en los distintos salones de belleza y barberías que se afilien a nuestra plataforma desde la comodidad de tu celular. Esta app está dirigida hacia jóvenes (hombres y mujeres) de 18 a 35 años de los niveles socioeconómicos A, B y C de la ciudad de Lima. Para pode llegar a nuestros clientes se utilizaron los canales electrónicos como Facebook, Instagram y pagina web. En base a dichos canales se elaboraron estrategias y experimentos para poder llegar a nuestros clientes y hacer nuestra validación de descargas y ventas de nuestra aplicación. Para el análisis de factibilidad de nuestro proyecto se realizaron encuestas a los usuarios (clientes) que utilizarían la plataforma, también se desarrollaron entrevistas a expertos (dueños de salones/barberías) para validar si estarían dispuestos a entrar a nuestra plataforma. A través de dichos experimentos se pudo confirmar que nuestro público objetivo anteriormente mencionado, si estaría dispuesto a descargar y utilizar nuestra aplicación Barber & Beauty. Por otro lado, nuestro otro segmente de clientes salones y barberías, también mostraron gran interés en formar parte de nuestra plataforma. Por lo que podemos concluir, que nuestra idea de negocio es rentable y tiene altos niveles de escalabilidad. / The main objective of this research work is research, validation of our business model, and then the implementation of the project into the Peruvian market. This application is based on our Business Model Canvas and the strategies applied in alliances, key resources, key activities, channels, costs, among others. Barber & Beauty is an application for smartphones, which is used to make reservations in the different beauty salons and barber shops that join our platform from the comfort of your cell phone. This app is aimed at users (men and women) between 18 and 35 years of age from socioeconomic levels A, B and C from the city of Lima. In order to reach our clients, electronic channels such as Facebook, Instagram and website were used. Based on these channels, strategies and experiments were developed to reach our customers and validate the number of downloads and sales of our application. For the viability analysis of our project, surveys were carried out with users (clients) who would use the platform, and interviews to experts (salon/barber shops owners) were also carried out to validate whether they would be willing to enter our platform. Through these experiments, it was possible to confirm that our previously mentioned target audience would be willing to download and use our Barber & Beauty application. On the other hand, our other segment of client’s salons and barbershops, also showed great interest in being part of our platform. From what we can conclude, that our business idea is profitable and has high levels of scalability. / Trabajo de investigación

Small firms struggle to survive competition with limited resources, and about 50% of start-up organizations fail after 5 years. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies some beauty salon owners in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States use to access financial resources to support growth for longer than 5 years. The conceptual framework for the study was the resource-based view theory of the firm. Data were collected from 6 beauty salon owners who had succeeded for longer than 5 years. Semistructured face-to-face interviews and review of archival and transcript data yielded data saturation in combination with member checking. Data analysis was conducted using methodological triangulation with keyword-in-context analysis, comparison analysis, and content analysis. The 4 emergent themes from the study were personal savings, formal education and professional training as keys to funding, funding strategies, and small business challenges in acquiring funding. Findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing best practices and funding strategies that leaders of small- to mid-sized enterprises may use to access funding to ensure business survival for longer than 5 years. In addition, the findings in this study may reduce small business failure rate, increase sales revenue for the government, and increase employment in the region.

“If This Shop Could Talk: A Discursive Analysis of The Liberatory Function and Development of African American Beauty Salons and Culture” explores the intersection of political consciousness, aesthetics, and community development engendered in quintessential and atypical locales of African American beauty culture with an emphasis on the African American beauty salon as a discursive space. As it seeks to expand limited understandings of African American beauty culture, this analysis employs Afrocentric, Black Feminist, and Womanist theoretical perspectives as it traverses temporal and geographic boundaries. As proclamations of Black pride and beauty are juxtaposed in present day society against a multitude of headlines that detail stories of discrimination based upon hair, this work addresses matters of how and why Africana women assert such prideful proclamations amidst injustice. How do African American women know that there is power in beauty? Why do African American women believe such a thing? Why do African American women engage in beauty culture and beauty salons? This work focuses on 20th through 21st century America, by exploring Black beauty culture concepts and byproducts including trends, styles, community activism, and consciousness as connected to African history in Kemet, African history in West Africa prior to the Transatlantic slave trade, and African history in America between the 16th and 21st centuries. This work employs discourse analysis and Afronography to reveal and assert the existence of a unique epistemology within Africana women’s beauty culture that has been employed in the subversion of oppression and the assertion of Black female identity in America. An Afronographic research study accompanies this analysis and represents qualitative findings from interviews conducted with women who identify as persons of African descent and members of intergenerational family beauty practice, where women in their families preceded them in beauty service provision. The researcher’s perspective is also included throughout the work as she is a licensed cosmetologist and member of an intergenerational family of beauty practice. Ultimately, this work suggests that there is a unique, significant, and sacred agency that exists in the phenomena, traditions, history, and locations of African American beauty culture which has generated aesthetic creations in hair, skin and nails that rhetorically shift paradigms, in addition to words, actions, and feelings that foster an epistemology that can aid in the liberation of Africans in the United States and abroad. / African American Studies