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Salon tiff is not pretty

Owners of a hair salon say a former employee is hiring away their people for her own salon.

By NICOLE HUTCHESON
Published March 31, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Joseph Garnett JR.] La Mirage owner Olga Boudreau gives client Leslie Cucinotta a haircut. Boudreau is suing a former employee who left to open Salon Metro in Oldsmar.

PALM HARBOR - It's the sort of thing that happens a lot in the hair salon industry.

Fresh-faced stylist comes into salon under the wing of well-known owner. Cuts her teeth while learning from the best. Amasses a following. Same fresh-faced stylist now has it-factor and branches out on her own.

Owner is left somewhere between proud teacher and betrayed friend.

Enter Olga Boudreau and Lulieta Zeqiri.

Boudreau and her husband, Dan, own the well-known La Mirage Salon in Palm Harbor. The couple hired Zeqiri about eight years ago and she quickly became a Boudreau protegee. In June, Zeqiri left La Mirage to open Salon Metro in Oldsmar.

Two months before leaving, Zeqiri signed a contract that, among other things, stipulated that if she left La Mirage, she wouldn't hire any of Boudreau's stylists for at least a year.

Four former La Mirage employees are now working at Salon Metro, with a fifth on the way.

Boudreau isn't happy.

She and her husband recently filed a lawsuit in Pinellas Circuit Court against Zeqiri and the employees who joined her at Salon Metro. The suit asks for $15,000 in damages. Former La Mirage employees, Annie Marichal, Krista Aguiar, Shannon Buckingham, Lisa Preiner and Adela Cabreros, are also named in the suit.

"I made all these people," said Olga Boudreau. "I don't just teach cutting hair, I teach them how to stand, how to consult ... even self-esteem."

Zeqiri and the other former LaMirage employees declined to comment for this story on advice from their attorney. Salon Metro co-owner Benny Dalip spoke on their behalf.

"Nobody owns anyone in this business," said Dalip, who is Zeqiri's brother-in-law. Dalip, 38, claims he actually did the hiring of the former LaMirage employees, not Zeqiri. He handles the business, she does hair, said Dalip, who is married to Zeqiri's sister.

The Boudreaus' attorney, Richard Heiden, calls it splitting hairs. "Whether he's an agent or she is," Heiden said. "She's an owner of Salon Metro."

A judge is set to hear the case in May. The legal wrangling is the rarely public, ugly side of a business that specializes in doing just the opposite - making things pretty.

In 1994, the Boudreaus opened LaMirage, a 10,000 square foot full service salon on Tampa Road. Soon, the salon garnered an affluent following, drawing a sizeable clientele from the Westin at Innisbrook neighborhood. The mammoth full-service salon also includes a secluded spa with multiple massage rooms, a blinged-out chandelier and a Vichy shower - a multi-head shower which pours water on a client while laying on a wet table.

Much of Boudreau's business philosophy hinges on selling clients the La Mirage experience rather than a particular stylist. Each stylist receives ongoing training so that everyone is on equal footing to serve clients, she said.

"When people come here I don't want them to worry about who they will get," said Boudreau, whose salon includes more than 40 stylists and caters to men, women and children. "Because every stylist is going to be great."

Boudreau had Zeqiri and the others employees sign the agreements in April after losing several stylists in a short period of time who all went to open their own shops.

The one-page contract outlined that employees not "solicit, interfere with or endeavor to entice away or hire any employee of the Employer."

"You come to a point where you've worked so hard that you want to open your own salon," Boudreau said. "But you're not going to start your own business with my people."

Boudreau knew Zeqiri planned to open her own shop. In fact, Zeqiri added an addendum to her employee agreement stating just that. She left the salon in June. The other four employees left La Mirage in January.

Salon Metro opened in early February.

Dalip, who worked in the restaurant business for 30 years, said the employees who left La Mirage came to Salon Metro because they wanted a change - not because they were recruited.

"People are going to work where they want to work," he said. "They applied, I hired them."

If La Mirage is lavish indulgence, Salon Metro is modern ethereal.

The 1,500-square-foot salon is painted in earth tones with a stone floor. Flat screen televisions are attached to the walls.

On Friday, a basket of fresh flowers and a balloon sit on one of the stylist stations welcoming a former La Mirage nail technician who is slated to start working at Salon Metro.

"What we are is a nice small salon that does good work," said Dalip, who does not require stylists to sign employee agreements.

"If any of my employees wanted to leave tomorrow," he said. "I'd help them start their salon."

Nicole Hutcheson can be reached at nhutcheson@sptimes.com or 727 445-4162.

[Last modified March 31, 2007, 00:40:31]