Laycee Gwyther: Offering a helping hand to women in need

This is one of 12 finalists for The Herald Business Journal’s annual Emerging Leaders awards for 2022. The winner will be named at an event on April 27.

Laycee Gwyther, 32

Owner, Executive Beauty Suites

Laycee Gwyther hopes to extend a helping hand to more women in need.

Gwyther is the founder of Executive Beauty Suites, an Everett salon and teaching facility, and Beauty and the Boss Consulting, a business consulting firm.

She recently partnered with Dignity for Divas, a Seattle-based group whose mission is helping women escape the hopelessness and helplessness of life on the streets.

The group is planning a day of pampering. Gwyther and other volunteers have stepped up to provide free beauty services for women in the program.

“They receive a meal, new clothing, a new look and connections to resources to help end their homelessness,” Gwyther said.

“The beauty professionals donate their time and skills to these women as an act of love and service to other women in our community,” Gwyther said.

Gwyther hopes to offer more such services to women experiencing homelessness in Snohomish County.

“We would love to host more events for women that are in shelters or experiencing homelessness, and get together with other organizations and be able to show women that there is a possibility that they can change their life — be a business owner, live the life you want,” Gwyther said.

In March 2020, Gwyther was forced to close Executive Beauty Suites due to statewide pandemic restrictions on non-essential businesses. The Everett facility houses more than a dozen independent businesses.

“I knew nothing about what was to come, just like the rest of us,” Gwyther said. Determined to help her tenants weather the temporary shutdown, “we forgave all of our tenants’ rent during those three months,” Gwyther said. “We didn’t focus on the money, we focused on the people.”

She helped them apply for rent and utility assistance and the federal Paycheck Protection Program. To prepare for their reopening that summer, she created a comprehensive safety, sanitation, mitigation and recovery plan “to ensure the safest environment for Executive Beauty Suites business owners and customers when the state reopened. All the beauty professionals were able to keep their businesses open and afloat during the 12-week shutdown,” Gwyther said.

In 2021, Executive Beauty Suites was named to The Daily Herald’s Reader’s Choice list of the best in Snohomish County in three categories: Best Hair Salon, Best Waxing Salon and Best Barber.

Gwyther has partnered with the U.S. Marines’ Toys for Tots program, which collects new, unwrapped toys for children. The annual food drive she organizes has donated an average of 300 pounds of food to the Everett Gospel Mission.

Janice Podsada; jpodsada@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3097; Twitter: @JanicePods.

The annual Emerging Leaders award by The Herald Business Journal seeks to highlight and celebrate people who are doing good work in Snohomish County. This year’s partners in the award are HeraldMedia, Leadership Snohomish County, Leadership Launch and Economic Alliance Snohomish County. Co-sponsors are Gaffney Construction, Inflection Wealth Management and the Port of Everett.