Beauty, Resilience, and Belonging: Tetiana’s American Dream

Tetiana Saeed, Owner of Tati Studio in Broadview Heights, OH

Tetiana Saeed didn’t expect to start over — not at this stage in her life, and not in a country where she barely spoke the language. But when war came to Ukraine, she and her family had no choice. Her husband was already out of the country when the invasion began. Saeed, her son, and her 72-year-old mother spent three weeks trapped, unable to leave their city.

“We left with two bags. I packed for my son, for my mother — but nothing for myself,” she said. “I didn’t think we’d be gone for long.”

When a volunteer group finally got them out, they crossed into Poland before landing in Ohio.

“I had to start from zero,” she said. As a graduate of Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design, she had spent decades building her career as a hairdresser—first in Ukraine, then in Dubai, running her own salon. Her salons had always been more than just a place for beauty — they were places for connection, for conversation. But in Ohio, none of that mattered. To work legally, she needed an American license. Beauty school would take years. Saeed didn’t have that kind of time. She started looking for another way — some path that would let her keep doing what she loved without starting over entirely.

The Ohio State Board of Cosmetology reviewed her credentials, and after eight long months, she was finally approved. “I couldn’t work. I just had to wait,” she said. “When I finally got my license, I felt like I could breathe again,” she said. “I had been waiting so long, doing nothing. Just waiting.” When the license finally came through, she took a job at Ulta Beauty as a stylist. It was a start, but she missed working for herself.

That’s when she found Boris at ECDI — someone she’d heard about again and again in the Ukrainian community. “Everybody knows Boris,” she said.

“I didn’t think it would be possible. But it was simple. No stress.”

She wasn’t sure what to expect, but once they connected, everything moved fast. “I didn’t think it would be possible,” she said. “But it was simple. No stress.” Boris didn’t just help with the loan — he walked her through the entire process of starting a business in the U.S., step by step. They went over her business plan, talked through pricing and projections, and made sure every detail was in place.

English wasn’t her first language, and the business system here was completely different from what she was used to. But Boris explained everything, answering questions, breaking down paperwork, and making sure she felt confident in every decision.

With a $10,000 loan from ECDI, she secured a chair at Infusion Salon in Broadview Heights — joining an all-Ukrainian team and serving a growing community of refugee clients. For the first time since arriving, she felt like herself again.

After about six months at Infusion, building her clientele and reconnecting with the kind of work she loved, she officially launched her own business in June 2023: Tati Studio.  Her clients come looking for something familiar — a stylist who understands their culture, their standards of beauty, and their language. Many have left everything behind, and her chair becomes a place where they don’t have to explain themselves. “Sometimes I feel like I’m still in Ukraine,” she said. “Everyone around me is Ukrainian. We help each other.”

Saeed brings a different approach to color than many American stylists that her clients are looking for. “While I respect the American style, European color techniques go deeper, take more time — sometimes eight hours on a single client,” she says. But the results speak for themselves.

Word spread fast. Clients brought their sisters, mothers, and friends. Sometimes, strangers stop people on the street to ask where they got their hair done, and the answer leads back to Saeed. One woman sat in her chair for an air-touch treatment, a long, intricate coloring process. After hours of work, Saeed turned the chair toward the mirror, and the woman started crying. “She couldn’t believe how beautiful she looked,” Saeed said. “That’s what I love most.”

She sees something bigger ahead — an academy where she can train stylists in European techniques, help others get licensed, and build the kind of career she had back home. But for now, she’s working, growing, and learning the language in the way she always has — through conversation.

“I think I have more friends here than in Ukraine,” she said. “There, I was always busy with work. But here, we all had to start over together, and that brings people closer, but the most important thing,” she said, “is that I feel free.”