The Hair Days Before Social Media
By the grace of God, I can say with confidence I have over 20 strong years in the beauty industry. I can remember when sew-ins became popular and when our African sisters were the only ones braiding. I remember when Sebastian Wet was the hot product or when the girls started getting cellophanes and getting streaks. I remember when you could go to the shop to get a hairstyle, a tattoo, a soul food dinner, and a coach purse. You might even give the barber your phone number if he was cute.
I began my career as an assistant in a salon that served the corporate woman. In my opinion, these women had no real style. They wore blazers, blouses, pants suits, and news anchor hairstyles. I wanted to be in the shops where they were doing 3 styles in 1. I wanted to see someone get crimps, a blond streak, and a French roll in the back. Instead, I was prepping clients for chemical services and analyzing scalps for dandruff. There were no cute barbers either. The only man there was a strong metrosexual. Boring!!! Where are the hot boys at?
I wanted to see the hairstyles of Lil Kim, Missy Elliot, and don’t forget Mary! I wanted to see a stylist do the style in the music videos and magazines. All I was seeing was roller sets, blow-dries, and a piece of Anita Baker and Oprah Winfrey. When they did get color it was done well but plain. Nobody did weave and when they did it was for an occasion. I felt like I was missing out because there was nothing there for me to learn. All I was doing was shampooing, making appointments, placing orders for products, and making sure the shampoo area was always clean and sanitized. Unbeknownst to me I was developing my skills in customer service, business structure, product knowledge, organization, and consistency.
When I finally was able to hit these beauty streets I was excited. I was able to see some “real hairstyles” being done. In this new environment, the stylists didn’t take appointments and It was barbers everywhere. They just showed up and people would come from anywhere and pick any current style out of a hair magazine. These hairstylists would definitely deliver. I was in shock!!! It was like being around magicians where brown gel and a bucket of relaxers were their wands. It was always crowded and the days were long. Nobody cared if the shampoo area was clean and no one made orders for products. Some man would just randomly show up and they would get their stuff from him. This is where I became aware that I couldn’t do hair as good as I thought and that I was better just shampooing. I wasn’t ready for this side of the beauty streets. I started to appreciate my old boring environment and realized I needed to go to hair school and get more knowledge.
I am so happy social media was not out when I started my beauty career. I was free to make mistakes without being blasted. I was able to flow from shop to shop based on who let me in, instead of what Google ratings they had. I had opportunities to learn from stylists based on our professional interactions not based on how many followers we had. It was a time when egos didn’t exist and being authentic had more value. But most importantly there is no photographic proof or expressed evidence of how jacked up my hairstyles used to be, cause Baby!!!!!!!!!!!!