Shelley Luther, owner of Salon A La Mode on Belt Line Road in North Dallas, made national news for her refusal to follow the orders regarding the opening of hair and nail salons in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. Now, the owners of a Plano-based salon that bears a similar name is feeling the heat.

Luther was arrested after opening her salon about two weeks earlier than allowed for in orders issued by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. When served with a cease and desist order from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, Luther publicly tore up the notice at a rally in Frisco. She then ignored a temporary restraining order issued by a state judge that mandated that her salon remain closed. That led to a seven-day sentence in jail, for criminal and civil contempt.

The salon owner picked up a large conservative following, with support from Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, President Trump, and Gov. Abbott, who revised his executive orders. The Texas Supreme Court ordered her to go free. Luther also raised about $500,000 from a GoFundMe campaign, launched the day before reopening her salon.

But she and her Salon Á La Mode were also met with loud opposition. All this adds up to a social media nightmare for A La Mode Hair Studio in Plano and its owners, Homa Rezaei and Maya Faramchi.

The Plano salon is active on Instagram and Facebook; Luther’s business doesn’t have social media pages—so A La Mode Hair Studio has been taking the heat.

She's built a mini empire on Mermaid hair extensions. And spray tans. And lip injections. Meet the new millennial businesswoman.

When I last spoke with Regina Merson, the one-time bankruptcy lawyer who loves a bold lip, she was working around the clock to get her makeup line Reina Rebelde off the ground. She told us—and I can’t remember if this was on our BraBurner podcast (RIP) or when we got tequila tipsy after the mics went dead—that running a start-up was so hectic, some days she only had time to eat a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos.

But Merson is proof that hard work pays off, especially when you have a product that fills an empty niche, which in Reina Rebelde’s case is makeup geared toward Latinas (my fave lipstick is an electric red called “Brava,” which translates as “bitch be angry.”). Last week, Target announced that it was picking up eight new brands, totaling 150 new products, available in select stores. The internet went wild. Not only are the eight brands made for darker skin tones (inclusivity!) but they’re also indie lines run by women (hey ladies!).

Supermodel Erin Wasson, the first ever winner, flew in for the announcement.

After a little bit of a hiatus, BraBurner is back this week at El Bolero restaurant on Oak Lawn to chat with Regina Merson, founder of the Reina Rebelde makeup line. Before she got into makeup, Merson was a bankruptcy attorney with Weil Gotshal & Manges in Dallas. Before that, she was escaping kidnappers in Bangkok. Before that, she was developing her obsession with the power of beauty while watching her mom get dressed for the disco. We talked with Merson about her taste for tequila, heading into the jungles of Mexico for eyeliner inspiration, and how to know when the time is right for a new Plan A, no matter what your friends say.

As always, you can listen through the player below or you can download the episode with your favorite podcatcher. On with the show notes: