With one simple tweet, Moses Castellano hoped to bring his mom, Lilia Castellano, a few new customers. Instead, his sweet message went viral, and their incredible mother-son relationship won many hearts.
After switching salons, Lilia, a self-employed cosmetologist in San Antonio, saw a slowdown in business. So when Lilia asked her son to share her flier, Moses turned to Twitter. “Hey y’all, my mom moved salons recently and because of that she isn’t getting the same amount of customers as she’s used to,” he wrote. “She’s a self-employed cosmetologist and has loved doing hair professionally for the last 30 years. Please rt so she can gain some customers. Tysm!!”
He attached a series of pictures, including one where he looks on at his mom, visibly proud. His replies further illustrate how much he admires her. The tweet currently has more than 50,000 retweets and 60,000 likes, which completely took the Mexican American by surprise. “Honestly, it surprised me how much traction this tweet gained,” he tells me in a message. “I shared it thinking I would get around 50 retweets between my friends and some of their friends.”
Since publishing the message on Monday, Lilia has seen a couple new faces, according to Moses. But she has received more calls from people interested in booking an appointment and learning more about her work.
Though this tweet put Lilia’s business in the spotlight like never before, she made sure to use her internet virality to help out her coworkers, who also made the switch and struggled to find new clients.
“Her and her two coworkers moved from another salon to their current one,” he adds, explaining that they rent chairs at the salon, but don’t own it, as some erroneously believed. “And with the move, it’s been a little hard getting walk ins, which is a big source of their income. That’s the main reason I tweeted the tweet, so they could gain more walk ins and continue to maintain a functioning career.”
If you feel inclined to help, check out Moses’ original tweet to get more information.