When Paolo Hilario and his sister Fiona first considered opening a waxing salon, they weren’t armed with industry expertise or a big investor network. What they did have was an open ear to customer feedback—and a chance encounter with a salon owner who didn’t shy away from the truth.
Fiona had discovered a waxing technique that worked for her at a small parlor. But as she continued going back, she noticed major issues. “The place was unhygienic, madaming tao, it was sort of congested, and the service that the parlor was selling hindi naka-focus dun sa experience,” Paolo recalled. Still, the core technique worked—and that gave them an idea.
Fiona approached Paolo to float the concept of starting their own waxing-focused salon. While Paolo had no experience in the beauty business, he had a hustler’s mindset and was curious enough to dig deeper. “I told her there’s nothing that I know about salon operations and hair removal in general, but let’s take a look at what you’re seeing,” he said.
So they went back to the salon together, not just as customers but as future entrepreneurs in research mode. That’s when they had an eye-opening conversation with the salon owner—one that would shape the foundation of Lay Bare. “Even the owner was saying, ‘Ang laki ng demand dito, but we don’t have the capacity to scale,’” Paolo recounted.
That moment was key. While many would see an overcrowded parlor as a red flag, Paolo and Fiona saw market validation. There was demand—lots of it—and yet no one was positioning themselves as experts or scaling operations to serve more customers. “We could teach you some of the technology and send it to you and then maybe you want to do your own,” the owner even offered.
That honest admission from someone inside the industry confirmed what the Hilarios were sensing: there was a wide-open space in the market for a cleaner, more professional, and more scalable waxing service.
With this insight in hand, the siblings pooled their savings and launched the first Lay Bare branch in a small commercial space in Makati. Their budget? Just P200,000. “We couldn’t afford a mall location. In fact, the malls weren’t interested in us,” Paolo said.
Seventeen years later, Lay Bare is a national brand.
By listening to what the market—and even competitors—were saying, the Hilarios found a way to scale a service that had been hiding in plain sight.
This article includes quotes from an interview originally published by Esquire Philippines, authored by Henry Ong.
