Tag: hairstylist

Hair Units For Men, Is It The New Trend?

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Men Wearing Hair Units

As I scroll Instagram, I’m seeing more and more men wearing hair units. One day I decided to read the comments under one barbers post. I couldn’t believe how many black women were bashing the men for wearing a unit! Am I crazy to think that the women bashing the men who wear hair units are hypocrites? How can the same group of women who spend thousands of dollars on hair extensions, fake eyelashes, fake nails, fake teeth, fake breast and fake butts dare to bash a man who is experiencing premature hair loss and finally found something that has boosted his ego? Isn’t that why women alter their bodies? Isn’t that why women wear hair extensions?

Men experience low self esteem just like women do. Men love their hair just like women do. The difference in many cases of male pattern baldness, is that most men who are experiencing hair loss it is because of hereditary. Most women who are experiencing hair loss, it is due to wearing tight braids, bad chemicals, improperly installs and stress. Hmmm….all of these reasons are preventable!


I’m happy that there is something made for men that will boost self esteem and make them feel like themselves again. Can you imagine having hair your entire life and all of a sudden you look in the mirror one day and it’s gone? Hair loss is a stressful experience and just because it’s a man who is experiencing it, doesn’t mean that it’s not stressful for him. If it makes someone feel better, I’m all for it!

One of the best things about the man units is the joy that it gives to the boys who are suffering from alopecia. To see a young man or little boy who has been teased receive a unit and the smile that they have after looking in the mirror is amazing!

There are some barbers out here changing lives! Go ahead and follow the barbers that are in this post, you will be absolutely amazed.

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The Hairstylist Who’s Concern About A Client With A Past Due Appointment Raised Eyebrows

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Having a great hairstylist who truly cares about their clients hair and their well being is a blessing! Below is a story that I’ve been following on CBS News. It’s about a missing woman named Marsha Brantley from Cleveland, Tenn. Being a regular at the salon has more than just looking good benefits, it could save your life!

Reference of story below: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marsha-brantley-was-missing-tennessee-woman-murdered-or-did-she-willingly-disappear/

When Marsha Brantley, 50, of Cleveland, Tenn., suddenly vanished in 2009, her husband Donnie eventually became a suspect in her murder. But was Marsha even dead?

The case was unusual from the start because for months after Marsha disappeared, nobody reported her missing – not her friends, her family or even her husband.  No one took much notice until her hairdresser, Kelly DeLude, worried about a missed appointment and started asking questions.

“I felt compelled to find out what happened to her,” DeLude tells “48 Hours correspondent Peter Van Sant. “I wasn’t trying to be a detective. I was trying to be a concerned friend.”

DeLude eventually called police, and investigators later picked up the case.

The investigation was full of seeming contradictions from the start. Donnie Brantley claimed he hadn’t reported Marsha missing because she had left him. Then, police say he lied repeatedly about where she had gone and what she’d taken with her. Still, there was almost no physical evidence of a crime – no blood, no fingerprints, no crime scene at all. And with no body to prove there even was a murder, the investigators’ biggest hurdle in solving the disappearance of Marsha Brantley may have been Marsha herself.

When Donnie Brantley was deposed in a 2013 civil suit, he didn’t seem to want to talk much about his feelings for Marsha. In answering questions on video, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment or said he couldn’t recall more than 100 times.

Brantley was arrested in 2013, but prosecutors dropped the charges after deciding they didn’t have enough to get a conviction. Two years after his 2014 election, District Attorney General Stephen Crump charged Brantley again with essentially the same evidence.

Lee Davis, Brantley’s attorney, says his client is 100 percent innocent.

“What proof is there that she’s in fact dead – as opposed to gone missing or living someplace else?” says Davis.

It’s a case “48 Hours” has been working on for five years, and it raises questions about the challenges prosecutors often face when someone vanishes without a trace. It also includes a stunning ending that nobody – including prosecutors – saw coming.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/missing-marsha/

Det. Zach Pike | Bradley County Sheriff’s Office:  I’m raisin’ my family here. My parents raised their family here and their parents raised their family here! It’s a place that I like to call home and hopefully this is where I’ll remain.

Kelly DeLude | Marsha’s hairdresser:   Cleveland, Tennessee is beautiful. …known as the “City with Spirit” … You can’t swing a ball bat without hittin’ a church.

Kelly DeLude: A lotta people know one another … and we do have a lot of older homes and a lot of history here … I’m very proud of our town.

Kelly DeLude: I’ve been a hair dresser for over 30 years … You have certain clients that you kinda click with and you’re closer to – and for me, Marsha was one of those clients.

Jana Wills | Marsha’s cousin: She was fun. She was outgoing … she was one of my favorite cousins.

Kelly DeLude: She did confide in me and I confided in her.

Jana Wills: She was beautiful … She was always kind.

Kelly DeLude: She loved her husband … She mentioned him every time.

Elise Brantley | Donnie Brantley’s daughter:  …when I think of her, my first few words would not be giving, loving. I didn’t see a lot of that from her, even as her stepdaughter.

Peter Van Sant: How would you describe her?

Elise Brantley: Loner. …I believe that she was very depressed.

Client & Beauty Professional Relationships

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Should a beauty professional who provides services to the public have a friendship with their clients?

This is a conversation that I had a little while ago with two well-known beauty industry professionals. They both stated that a hairstylist shouldn’t develop a friendship with their clients and clients shouldn’t have their hairstylist personal cell phone number. I disagreed with them both!

When I owned my own salon and stood behind the chair on a daily basis, I did develop a friendship with “SOME” of my clients that went beyond my chair. It wasn’t intentional to develop a friendship, it just sort of happened. If you believe in a higher being then you would understand that people don’t cross paths by accident. There is always a reason for people meeting whether you are aware of the reason or not.

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Understanding Your Roll

I understood that some of the women who sat in my chair didn’t have anyone to vent to. Or ask advice about something personal going on in their lives and they just needed someone to talk to. I understood that what they discussed with me shouldn’t go beyond my chair. As far as my clients getting comfortable thinking that our relationship outside of the chair having anything to do with what I charged them was never an issue for me. The clients that I became close to (and still close to this day) understood that I was running a business and they respected my business. Trust me my clients knew not to ask me for a discount and they also knew when I gave them one just because.

It’s totally up to the professional on how to handle client relationships. I’m glad that I was born with the gift of BSB (BullShit Blocker) which means if you want to get over on me you will have to bring your A game! In order to build long term business relationships you must first build trust as well as making the client feel relaxed when you are servicing them. Sometimes a relationship develops because not only are you giving words of advice, the client may inform you on things that you weren’t aware of. A conversation could turn into a full therapy session for both of you!

Just Let Go And Live

Things happen in life all the time and I had to learn to just let things happen. If a friendship develops with a client just go with it because it could possibly be the best thing that could happen in your life! Being a robot behind the chair isn’t cool but if it works for you then continue on that way but don’t try to tell other hairstylist not to befriend their client because to each it’s own.

Please share your opinion on this topic!

 

The First Millionaire African-American Hairstylist and Barber

Annie Turnbo Malone

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You have heard of Oprah Winfrey? Sure, who hasn’t? How about Madam C.J. Walker? No brainer. I can see heads nodding up and down all over the place.

   How about Annie Malone? Blank stares. Silence. Crickets chirping. Never heard of her…

   Yet, before Madam Walker, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, Oprah Winfrey or Cathy Hughes there was Annie Turnbo Malone (aka Annie Minerva Turnbo Pope Malone and Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone), a remarkable woman who made her mark during the early 20th century.

Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone (August 9, 1869—May 10, 1957) was an African-American  businesswoman, educator,  inventor and philanthropist. Annie was two years younger than Madam C. J. Walker. She had launched her hair care business four years before Sarah Breedlove (later known as Madam C. J. Walker). In the early 1900s Madam Walker worked as a “Poro Agent” for Annie for about one year. (http://www.freemaninstitute.com/poro.htm)

While in Peoria, Malone took an early interest in hair textures. In the 1890s — being a lover of styling hair — Annie began to envision a way of straightening hair without having to use the methods of old which included using soap, goose fat, heavy oils, butter and bacon grease or the carding combs of sheep.  She’d also witnessed method of hair straightening which employed lye sometimes mixed with potatoes, but was turned off by the procedure because it often resulted in damaged scalps and broken hair follicles. Annie-minkcoat

While she was coming of age, the popular style among Black women was that of a “straight hair” look.  Black women were starting to turn their backs on the braided cornrow styles they’d associated with the fields of slavery and began to embrace a look which, for them meant, freedom and progression toward equality in America.  Malone believed that if African American women improved their physical appearance, they would gain greater self-respect and achieve success in other areas of their lives.

Alonzo Herndon

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In 1878, Herndon left Social Circle on foot with only 11 dollars of saving and only had approximately one year of schooling and eventually went to Senoia, Georgia, to work as a farmhand and learned the barbering trade. Later, Herndon opened up his first barbershop in Jonesboro, Georgia. His barbering business thrived and expanded over the years. He later became the owner of three barbershops in Atlanta. Those barbershops had elite customers such as presidents, judges, business men and lawyers, who frequented the barbershop. He went on to invest in real estate, and then entered insurance. He began by buying a failing mutual aid association in 1905, which he incorporated as the Atlanta Mutual Insurance Association. By 1916, the Association was reorganized as a stock company capitalized at $25,000. In 1922, the company was reorganized as Atlanta Life Insurance Company, and became one of five African American insurance companies at the time to achieve legal reserve status. Atlanta Life’s business thrived,and expanded their business into Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.

Through his enterprises Herndon became Atlanta‘s first black millionaire. Herndon was featured in The Crisis Magazine’s “Men of the Month” in March 1921. The article emphasizes his competence and success as a businessman. Read more here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonzo_Herndon)

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The Devaluation Of The African-American Hairstylist And Salons

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Professional Hairstylist And Salons Are Being Devalued….

God blessed Annie Turnbo Malone and Madame C.J. Walker with the gift of paving the way for black women to make a living for themselves with a trade that not only helped them take care of their family but also helped black women look and feel good about themselves.

Annie Turnbo Malone

Annie Malone and Madam C.J. Walker had vividly shown nearly every black community across the country, hairdressing was a vital means to economic independence.

Madame C.J. Walker Photo Courtesy of biography.com

  Frederick Douglass, the former slave and abolitionist, had noted the significance of the occupations to blacks when he wrote an editorial in 1853 titled “Learn Trades or Starve,” arguing that blacks could gain greater economic independence if they were given the opportunity to perfect useful skills.

One historian stated, “Barbershops, and beauty parlors, were independent businesses with a steady clientele and, as such, were important expressions of black entrepreneurial activity.” Cutting hair and cosmetology was recession-proof. It was, simply, another extension of Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of economic independence, and as such would have been a tremendously attractive occupation. Reference: (http://www.freemaninstitute.com/poro.htm)

The days of social media has devalued the professional hairstylist. YouTube is killing our industry and it’s a shame that the professionals are doing it to the industry themselves! Why teach non-professionals how to do what you do to make a living so they can turn around and charge less than what you’re charging in their kitchen? Why teach future clients how to do their own hair? The hairstylist that are posting the videos are looking for social media fame not realizing that they are helping bring down our industry. Women today are looking for who’s the cheapest, not caring about the health of their hair and all they want is that style they saw on social media. If you paid to go to school, why are you giving it away for free? The YouTube videos are also causing black women to lose their hair because they are letting kitchenticians (non-licensed hairstylist who do hair in their kitchen) style their hair. If you are a professional and you are spending money furthering your education, going to trade shows and buying the best products and tools to use on your clients, why would you give it to someone who isn’t willing to obtain a professional license, or spend money on the best products or tools for free on YouTube? They are mocking the professionals who post videos and they have NO knowledge on how to keep the hair healthy. There are over 30 million women suffering from hair loss and 70% of them are African-American women. Ladies there is a hair loss epidemic in the black communities and it’s sad to say that a lot of supposed to be industry professionals are aiding to this epidemic. Hair loss is a bigger problem than women are willing to admit at loud. It is a situation that causes low self-esteem and shame. It causes young ladies and little girls to be bullied at school. It causes an addiction to hair extensions which causes more hair damage and so on.

There used to be a time when the African-American salon was the place to be on the weekends! Black women knew that they were headed to a place where good conversations flourished and they were going to walk out looking fabulous and full of the latest news. Hairstylist were respected and the advice that was given by the professional was well respected because the clients knew that their hairstylist cared about them and the overall health of their hair. Ladies when a woman decides to choose a CAREER and yes I said CAREER most of the time it’s because she has a passion for making women look and feel beautiful. She gets a joy when she turns a client around to the mirror and the client is over joyed about how she looks. Professional hairstylist work long hours on their feet and they have to deal with different personalities on a daily basis and that alone can become stressful. Professional hairstylist are trained to care for their clients hair, their job is to keep the hair healthy and on the head. Why do some women feel that they can go in a professional salon and talk a hairstylist down on her prices? Why is the black professional hairstylist devalued? Hairstylist are being categorized by the groups of bad hairstylist and the unlicensed hairstylist. Some bad experiences that some women have experienced with the bad hairstylist has caused them to group all hairstylist in the same category and this is why the professional hairstylist is becoming more and more devalued. Women are accepting the unprofessional behaviors of salons and hairstylist and this is why professional hairstylist are devalued. As professionals we have to also value our profession first before anyone else does.