“It’s about you. It’s about us. It’s about life.” –Janete Chris

            If the people of Astoria are the heart of Janete’s Hair Studio and Spa, then life in Astoria is the soul of it. As Astoria has become a sophisticated extension of Manhattan, so has Janete’s Hair Studio. Now in a bigger location, offering spa treatments and boutique shopping, Janete’s philosophy is simple:

“You don’t need to go to Manhattan, when right here you can get the best. Astoria is trendy, it’s like a little Soho, it has everything- and so do we.”

Janete's Hair Studio celebrates and embraces all cultures that inhabit this humble, yet eclectic neighborhood of Queens. Once just a hair salon, and now an oasis for those who wish to rejuvenate or reinvent, Janete says she owes all her success to the local support she has received. “I’m grateful. Business is just business, but when there’s a heartbeat…that’s the difference.”

The heart beat to which she is referring is the personal experience she has with her clients; people are not simply clients to Janete, but neighbors as well. “We all share one community. And when they [local clients] come in, they bring a part of their culture into my world. I learn about them, and help them project who they are in a reimagined way, while maintaining the integrity of themselves and who they are.” She equates her experience living and thriving in Astoria to being a sidewalk in a very old neighborhood. The sidewalk carries a load of people bringing memories of hope, sadness and joy, but inevitably those people move on and the sidewalk remains, only to inherit new people who bring the same array of emotions as those who came before them.
“You inherit each one of them,” she says, referring to her clients and the lives they share with her.

To say the client experience at Janete’s is personal would be a drastic understatement; the pride and love poured into every guest is her love song to Astoria and its’ people. The other small business owners in the area deserve credit as well says Janete. Why? They too, maintain personal relationships with their clients.

Small business owners in Astoria make getting to know their neighbors an uncompromising priority, because knowing this neighborhood is their only chance for success. According to Janete, the real wealth of success is produced when you’ve established real relationships with local people, when you’ve built a relationship with Astoria.
Janete is celebrating twelve years of owning her own studio in Astoria.

“I’ve belonged here since day one,” she explained. “To watch it grow gives me a sense of gratitude because I’m so fortunate to be invited into Astorian’s lives.” Janete is grateful for the warmth, and the small town feeling open to all who immigrate to Astoria.  Astoria provides all her inhabitants with a feeling of belonging, of family, of the old time values lost over the years.