Working Life is a monthly column in which Texans talk about their jobs.

Savanna Boda, who is 28, is an aesthetician with nearly 400,000 Instagram followers and the founder of Savanna Boda Aesthetics, in Southlake.

While I was getting ready to go to nursing school, I struggled with the worst cystic acne of my life. I spent every dollar I made waiting tables on products to fix my skin. None of them worked. Eventually I decided to go to a med spa. I thought I’d be seeing a nurse or a doctor, but the specialist was like, “Oh, I’m an aesthetician. I went to school for six months.” Right then I decided to pivot to aesthetician school, and I busted my butt.

After graduating, with $50 and a dream, I opened a salon suite. I was charging for facials but also offering some for free—anything I could do to get before-and-after photos to advertise with. I was 21, but I wasn’t partying or drinking, and I cut off pretty much every friend I had and just focused. Seven days a week, fourteen-hour days, working at the suite and promoting it on social media. I had to be a machine for years to build the brand I have today.

These days, I get into the clinic around nine. I have a whole team of employees now, but I’m usually there until about four or five, sometimes later if I’m working on social media stuff. I see thirteen to sixteen clients a day, doing microneedling, lasering, chemical peels, dermaplaning.

There are so many things that can cause acne—lifestyle, stress, cortisol levels, poor sleep, too much screen time—so I take a holistic approach. A lot of aestheticians will just say, “Yeah, do this and that.” The acne always ends up coming back because they’re not educating their clients. We’re big on education here.

Dallas is a very “athleisure” city. People get dressed up at night, but everyone’s in yoga sweats and stuff during the day—that “clean girl” look is something a lot of my clients are trying to achieve.

Boda personally sees between thirteen and sixteen clients each day. Photograph by Chad Wadsworth She started her business with $50 and a dream. Photograph by Chad Wadsworth

When it comes to vanity and beauty, the industry attracts a lot of the wrong people, a lot of mean girls, right? It’s filled with very self-serving types—because it’s fun or it looks cool or they might get free lip filler if they work at a plastic surgeon’s office.

Being able to give clients freedom is something I don’t take lightly. One time a woman came in with her fiancé. They had pushed and rescheduled their wedding multiple times because she didn’t want to go down the aisle with acne. They were engaged for seven years, and that was the one thing holding them back. To be able to give her back her confidence was huge for me. People don’t understand how hard it is to go through the skin issues that we fix. It’s not only physically painful, it’s emotionally painful.  

This article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of Texas Monthly with the headline “Savanna Boda, Beautifier.” Subscribe today.

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