Local business spotlight, Nails By Jenny

When Nancy Ha opened her salon ‘Nails By Jenny’ at 50 Leland Avenue in 1993, she was the only beautician specializing in nails in Visitacion Valley. A recent graduate of Marinello School of Beauty, she succeeded in opening her own salon (a dream of hers since she was young) where she could make people feel beautiful, “everybody likes beauty,” she says. 17 years later Nancy still takes pleasure in updating a client’s personal style; whether it be an updated hair style or unique acrylic design, clients always leave feeling better about themselves. This helps explain why she has so many loyal customers, many of whom have been coming to the salon for over 15years.

Currently, Nancy has two part-time beauticians who also service customer’s hair, skincare and waxing needs. The most popular service at the salon are acrylic nails. The entire salon staff is skilled at creating unique acrylic designs by hand that can really make nails stand out. The design is completely up to the customer, as the salon creates both traditional designs for older clients and newer more unique designs for their younger customer base. The first thing that jumps out at you standing inside Nails By Jenny is how clean and comfortable the salon is. There are oversized leather chairs in front of each of the four stations and a large leather couch that sits in front of large windows overlooking downtown Visitacion Valley, which is exactly where Nancy likes doing business. She cites the abundant conveniences on Leland Avenue including the close proximity of the library, bank, post office, dry cleaners and produce markets along with the small neighborhood feel and familiar faces as her favorite aspects of owning a business in downtown Visitacion Valley. Nancy also believes the neighborhood is headed in the right direction; becoming much safer and feels there is a lot more support for local small businesses than there has been in the past. While she admits the recent streetscape construction has slowed things down at the salon, she maintains the finished product will look great and compared to 1993, Leland Avenue is a much stronger business district.