Empowering all bodies one wax at a time

With every strip, Levia Love is waxing the way to confidence and inclusivity. As owner of Bling Brow Bar in Eureka, her vibrant space welcomes all body types, in hopes of being someone anyone can rely on. 

“I decided to build out the thing that I wish that I had,” Love said.

Love’s approach to waxing services is to find a way to serve anyone and everyone. No matter your gender, race, sexuality or physical mobility, Love wants to meet you where you are.

“I really love what I do, and I think part of it is that there’s just this opportunity to have 15 minutes with your clients, have a good kiki, have a good cry. It could be anything in the waxroom,” Love said. “I just enjoy spending time with people in this micro way that gives you such a big output.” 

Stripping stereotypes

At 15, Love knew she wanted to be involved in the beauty world. 

“I think my younger self would look at me and be like, wow, that girl is living her best life and doing the work of her dreams,” Love said.

Love graduated beauty school and immediately stepped into the corporate beauty scene. Around eight years ago, Love decided to build her own brand, adding elements that she saw lacking in average beauty services. 

“I talk openly about things that are matters of the body right, and so it can be overwhelming for a lot of places and spaces that are traditional beauty spaces,” Love said. “It was very easy for me to like want to learn melanated skin care, want to learn how to support folks who may be going through different things with their bodies.”

One of Love’s favorite accomplishments is using money she received from a grant to purchase a disability friendly mechanical bed that lowers all the way to the ground, making it easier for people to access services. 

Love hones in on the appreciation of all bodies, especially ensuring that at any size, you will have a space to comfortably wax without worry. Love has waxing beds that hold up to 600-800 pounds, a must have she was determined to include.

“I am queer, I am black, and I own a body right,” Love said. “I own a fluffy body too. It was very easy to like, configure the shop in a way that wasn’t, it’s not necessarily like I’m trying to be different. I’m just trying to be a shop that accommodates whoever may come through my door,” Love said.

One space, endless connections

If there is an uncomfortable conversation to have about bodies, Love is not afraid to jump right in. As a teen, Love channeled her curiosity  through Spare Change, a program through Planned Parenthood where youth learn how to educate peers about sexual health. 

“It was very easy to bring that over here and be like, I don’t mind, let’s have the conversation,” Love said.

Bling Brow Bar is more than Love’s personal business. From braiding a client’s hair for a few hours or hosting events, Love welcomes in other small businesses to make it possible. By leaning on the community, Love is able to tackle the pressure of running a business. 

“There’s always going to be challenges that you can face and get through and then there’s going to be challenges that have nothing to do with you, that are going to be challenging in a way that may be hard and that’s where we all have to band together and help each other out,” Love said. 

High risk high reward

Marli Bishop, Love’s daughter and College of the Redwoods student, stood by her at events and vending. Bishop reflects on Love’s beaming energy from watching her since she was a kid. 

“She’s always a unicorn on a cloud. That’s always been what it is,” Bishop said.

Love’s partner, Aoife Moloney, creates social media and marketing content for Bling Brow Bar and finds joy in supporting an inclusive business she truly believes in. 

“But I think it’s like high risk, high reward for Levia and I’ve watched her receive every reward from every risk,” Moloney said. 

“Levia is going to make you feel safe, she’s going to you feel held, she’s going to make you feel like you wanna come back again,” Moloney said. “I couldn’t tell anybody enough to like go visit and just experience her shop and what she offers to our community is so much more than just an esthetician.”  

Love finds beauty in supporting local businesses as a full circle stream of support, hoping what she has to offer can be that one thing someone else may need. 

“You coming to our businesses could be like our kid getting football gear or like our ability to do something smaller or cool in the community or maybe it’s like just the space to be able to breathe for a second and like impact the community in a different way,” Love said. “So that’s kind of my thing is like pour into us so we can pour it to everybody else.”