Business spotlight: Sergio’s Hair Salon

Annandale Today has a new feature, “Business Spotlight,” offering brief posts about local businesses in the Annandale/Mason District area. If you would like to have your business highlighted, contact us at [email protected].

Sergio’s Hair Salon serves men, women, and children in a former single-family house at 6535 Little River Turnpike, Lincolnia.

Services include haircuts, color, blowouts, barber services, hair extensions, hair relaxing, and facials.

Sergio Cornejo opened the shop on Aug. 1, 2020, after he closed his previous salon on Duke Street in Alexandria. He currently has another salon, Amarige’s in Leesburg.

There are just two employees at Sergio’s Hair Salon, Wallmer and Brenda. A separate business, the All Kinds Insurance Agency, has an office in the basement.

Sergio graduated from cosmetology school in Bolivia. He left because “the political situation in my country was terrible,” and as a single father, he wanted a better life for his daughter, who was 9 years old at the time.

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When he first came to the United States, he worked at Target and a casino in West Virginia, among other jobs. After earning a cosmetology license, he worked in a variety of salons in Northern Virginia.

Sergio eventually opened a salon in Leesburg but had to close it during the Covid pandemic. “The pandemic was a disaster,” he says. His employees left, and there were no customers. To make ends meet, he got a license as a caregiver.

In his spare time, Sergio dances with the Morenda Bolivian folklore group, performing at Festival Boliviano in Centreville, Fiesta DC, and other events.

Throughout his moves to different salons, Sergio has had loyal customers who’ve followed him for 20 years. He’s cut the hair of children who came back as adults.

“I’m so happy to maintain these clients for so many years,” he says.