LeBrina Jackson

When LeBrina Johnson was little she liked to play house with her friends and family. But there was one caveat: she always insisted on playing the role of mom. “I’ve always just wanted to be the caregiver. The person who takes care of others. The one who makes them feel okay,” she says. 

Now grown up and a mother herself, the seriously big-hearted entrepreneur sits at the helm of her inspirational Houston-area spa, Escape. Not just a haven for beauty and relieving stress, her spa’s mission centers around recovery and wellness, incorporating mind, body and spirit into every treatment and offering. 

Ever an entrepreneur, LeBrina sowed her first business seeds as a summer seller of cool cups. Taking advantage of hot days, wanting to help people cool down and relieve their discomfort, she filled Styrofoam cups with juice, froze them and sold them for fifty cents. Later, her businesswoman’s instincts served her well, when she worked in her mother’s hair salon, becoming part of her family’s five generations of hair stylists. Though she’d gone to university to become a dentist and was good at science, she left school and explains it just made sense to join her family’s salon business.  

“I was good at it. Our family is good at hair—it’s been part of our upbringing,” she says. She also knew she could make fast money, which meant she could care for her child as a single mom and begin to plan the rest of her life. At the beauty shop, she went beyond what customers expected (and what they were getting in other chairs) to elevate the experience. 

“I wanted them to be happy, to have fun,” she says. She began offering extras… mimosas, cupcakes…, but mostly people came for LeBrina. “I found that long after I finished someone’s hair, they lingered, wanting to continue talking as friends.” Adept at turning a service into a social occasion, LeBrina knew she had other dreams to follow. Committed to lifelong learning and study, she also was keen on exploring and embracing wellness trends. Just about the time she realized that she was ready to apply her entrepreneurial skills to other self-care and wellness realms, she experienced a transformative massage.  It was an epiphany. This would be where all her passions could meet. She could support others on their wellness journey by opening her own healing retreat. 

Always gifted athletically, LeBrina began her fitness journey as a child. Her father, a known ranch hand and horse whisperer, taught her to ride at age 4, and by age 5 she had her first horse. Weekends with her dad meant long horseback rides through Houston, often logging ten or more miles. Perhaps it’s part of her own journey as a caring person, an empath, but LeBrina still relies on horses to ground her, regularly riding and showing her 12 purebreds.  She applies what she has learned from communicating with them to her interactions with clients in her spa.  

“A horse reflects your mood and attitude back to you and helps make you more self-aware, a better leader,” LeBrina explains.  “I realized on one of my meditative rides that I do care about everyone. I just want everyone to feel and be okay.” At her high school LeBrina was a cheerleader and won the title of “Miss Forestbrook,” which helped her set an example for others to strive to be confident, positive and goal oriented. 

“To me, beauty starts from the inside out. It’s what you eat, how you think. What you do. How you help others,” she says. “And Pilates doesn’t hurt,” she adds, noting she’s an absolute true believer in the practice. 

“Look, my grandmother is my superhero,” she says. “She is fit, kind, beautiful — and has all her teeth. It is possible to embrace wellness at every age.” In terms of what she offers at Escape, LeBrina says that her first goal is to make sure that clients feel better when they leave than when they came in. Handpicking and carefully curating her staff, she has made sure, as well, that everybody at Escape has the capabilities—both the training and the personality—to carry the torch of LeBrina’s mission. 

“We go through an extensive interview process,” she says. “Including a practical. But beyond than that, we look for therapists who understand that not only is attention to detail a key to success but also that taking a genuine interest in our clients and each other is all part of striving for a soul connection in the work we do.”

And what does LeBrina need to feel healthy? “I try to practice what I preach, making time for self-reflection, deep tissue massage, contrast bathing, IV therapy and salt therapy,” she says.