Every time Heather Heller needs to get her hair styled, she has to drive 20 miles from her home in West Indianapolis to Plainfield.
“There’s not a lot of options here, and the ones nearby just don’t seem to know how I want things done,” she said.
West Indy has struggled to keep or attract small businesses since the last of the area’s major manufacturers closed in the early 2000s. It’s been ages since anyone remembers a salon operating there.
But city investments in the neighborhood, like the West Morris Street Revitalization, the Henry Street Bridge and the taxpayer-subsidized Elanco Animal Health headquarters are beginning to attract the attention of small business owners like Diana Matzinger, owner of the Belisimoda Beauty Salon.
The salon opened March 3 at 1929 W. Morris St. Matzinger said the $10 million project to improve and beautify West Morris Street helped her decide to place her salon in the neighborhood. She also plans to offer career training.
Photos show how locations along West Morris Street looked decades ago versus today. Credit: Indiana Historical Society; Enrique Saenz/Mirror Indy
“I knew the neighborhood was experiencing a resurgence, and I liked that fact, because every time a new business opens in a community like this, it obviously helps the neighborhood grow,” Matzinger said in an interview conducted in Spanish.
Residents like Heller are excited about having a beauty shop nearby and hope this is the start of a larger trend of businesses taking a chance on West Indianapolis. Heller likes her hairdresser in Plainfield but may give the new beauty shop a chance.
“I’d like it if the atmosphere is friendly, there’s someone who knows what they’re doing and you can talk to them and get them to understand what you want,” she said.
Belisimoda Beauty Salon
The Belisimoda Beauty Salon offers hair styling for adults and children and other services like hair treatments, manicures and waxing.
The salon’s owner, Diana Matzinger, is a Colombian immigrant with 25 years of experience in the hair styling industry.
She became a hair stylist in her native country before transitioning to beauty supply sales. When Matzinger, 40, came to the U.S. with her two children seven years ago, she continued selling beauty products for a small distribution company before buying the business from the owner.
Matzinger changed her business model and wanted to move from distributing beauty supplies to becoming more involved in actual hair styling.
She approached the West Indianapolis Development Corp., which sells properties for development and low-cost homes in the neighborhood, and found the one she liked — a former dentist’s office across the street from the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center.
“I loved the building, and the parking lot is huge,” she said.
But Matzinger loves the small-neighborhood feel even more than the perks of the building’s location. She said it reminds her of the communal feel of her native Colombia.
“In my country, we don’t go to the chain stores. We go to the neighbor that has a little store to support them. I feel like that’s how a community grows,” she said.
Heller said she doesn’t know if she’d stop going to her hairdresser in Plainfield right away, but she’s willing to give the new beauty shop a chance.
Matzinger is convinced she can win Heller and other residents over, because she said that, for her, helping a woman feel good about herself is the first step to improving the community.
“If you help a woman, chances are you’re helping an entire family,” she said.
Beyond beautification
Matzinger also is talking with officials at the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center for a cosmetology training program.
According to local cosmetology school websites, yearly tuition and supply fees in Indianapolis range from about $14,000 to about $24,000. To receive a license, cosmetology students must also clock 1,500 hours of education and training.
Matzinger said the details haven’t been finalized. But the program would be free and would help stay-at-home moms and victims of domestic abuse who are training to become cosmetologists reach their training-hour quota while earning a paycheck and learning how to help run a salon. Mothers will be able to place their children in Head Start and other child care programs at Mary Rigg.
Matzinger at the recently opened salon on March 6, 2025. Credit: Jennifer Wilson Bibbs for Mirror Indy 
The salon on March 6, 2025. Credit: Jennifer Wilson Bibbs for Mirror Indy 
The salon is set up on Feb. 19 2025, days before its grand opening. Credit: Enrique Saenz/Mirror Indy 
Hair washing stations at the salon. Credit: Jennifer Wilson Bibbs for Mirror Indy
“Getting a cosmetology license is extremely expensive,” Matzinger said. “Imagine how difficult it is for a mother who’s a head of household and doesn’t have the resources to pay for that education.”
On the Mary Rigg side, the center hopes to incorporate the beauty salon into its LEADERS program, which gives kids ages 11 to 14 a chance to explore potential career options.
“We’re very excited,” said Mary Rigg President Heather Pease. “We’re happy to be supportive in any way that we can with the broad spectrum of Mary Rigg services.”
Booking an appointment
Belisimoda Beauty Salon, 1929 W. Morris St., is open for appointments 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.
Make an appointment online or by phone by calling 317-951-6683.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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