How To Make Money Braiding Hair - Storytime + Knotless Box Braids Tutorial

So a second home and you've been telling yourself that you want to learn a new skill, something that you can monetize something that can just improve the quality of you when you come out of this lockdown right well, this is your video, hey y'all! What'S up, it's me: miss Ruby, welcome back to my channel and welcome to the first installment of my new video series, it's kind of like a collab between self-care, Sunday and storytime. We'Re gon na be doing them both together, so that we can care for our temples and our minds. One video at a time make sure you tap that about to be notified right after you subscribe. So you don't miss out on any of the tea you filming by the way I felt e link in description below okay. So, as you guys can see, I am wearing some medium sized box braids right now and in this video I am gon na show you a beginner friendly tutorial on how I achieved this look and the inspiration for this video is the story about how learning how To braid hair changed my life, I do braids hair and I've actually been waiting here for money for over 17 years now I learned at a really young age, and shortly after that, I learned how to monetize it, and eventually I was able to walk away from My full-time job because of my ability to braid hair, not to mention help pay for cars, a wedding, a honeymoon, a house, a baby, so many things, okay and I wan na - really walk you guys through what that look like for me. Okay, let's get started. I have using a few packs of this easy braids, pre-stretch, hair from innocence, luxury premium hair, which is such a blessing because back in the day when I started braiding here, we didn't have all this pre-stretch stuff. Okay, so the whole game has changed and things have gotten a lot easier. This one a little set up now saying I got this rack right here, there's actually a thread rack that you can get from Walmart. If you don't already know all these items will be listed in the description below during disperse piece, I'm just gon na talk to you guys a little bit while I prep my hair. I am putting a little bit of this wild growth hair oil. In my hair, the next thing that we're gon na do to prep the hair is actually part it. I usually like to start braiding my hair in the back one of the things that helped me. A lot was learning how to do hair on myself, almost every style that I know how to do right now for other people, I taught myself how to do on my own head that way. I could make as many of the mistakes you know as I could before getting to someone else's head. I highly recommend that you use both mirrors in the bathroom, and so what I would typically do is literally just like scoop this open and then just start from one side to the other, but depending on where I'm at in the head, then it's super helpful to Just have a handheld mirror on deck, something like this any type of mirror where you can just go like this, and you can literally see what's going on behind you. The challenge with this is that it limits you, because you only have one hand left to work with, so I would just kind of like section the hair that I think needs to get out of the way and just clip it up kind of loosely. That way. If I need to pull from it, I can hold with one hand you know and then just stand here and just try to get that part. As straight as I can put the mirror down, move it out. The way. Look, you know that's pretty much. The section of hair that I want in the back so then I will go through same thing and then just section out the little section that I want. So I'm actually gon na do this and do quite a few like sections and then I will be back. You, okay, so we're gon na grab the hair and we're gon na hold the hair in between our fingers like this, and the whole objective is to wrap this hair around this strand of hair. That'S right here, I'm gon na show you two different ways you can achieve this me personally. I prefer the second method for different parts of my hair and the first method for other parts of my hair, so you're gon na take the strand of hair and the goal is to wrap it around this middle piece. So, as you can see just naturally the hair kind of fell between these two fingers right here so that I could free up my index and my thumb, because my index and my thumb are gon na - be what go into grab my hair right and so now I want to wrap it around and so then I'm taking the pointer finger on my right hand, going up underneath this middle section and then using the pointer and the thumb simultaneously as they're holding this piece all the way to the right, I'm also grabbing the piece. That'S all the way to the left and then I'm using my ring finger to just kind of like press down right there, so we can hold it in place and it does not move. While I really quick, let go and grab now we're gon na. Do the same exact thing except we're: taking the pointer and the thumb from the left hand and we're using the pointer finger to go up underneath this middle piece and, on top of the piece all the way to the right, using the pointer and thumb simultaneously. Well, while this hand is gripped on tight to this piece of hair, these two need to be somewhat free so that they can grab that piece right there and again, you know, holding on tight so that I can just grab this ROI real, quick and now, I'm Just gon na continue that process, but here's where it shifts as you can see this piece of hair is much thinner than the other two pieces right. So you want to grab this like you were already doing, but now you want to borrow hair you're, going to borrow hair from both sections at different times, so this first section as you can see like I have this, the skinny piece. This is my natural hair. I have that grip tight between my pointer and my thumb. You don't want to take half you want to take about 1/3 from this piece and you're gon na take 1/3 from the other piece, and then it's going to create an even amount distributed between all three strands. Okay, so I'm taking about 1/3 from here and then I'm just pushing it down, so I can slide it between the grip that I already have. You don't want to be doing too much letting go and grabbing again. That'S where you mess up. You got to keep a strong grip, keep it up against the head. You can, without it being too much tension. So now we're going to continue on with the process going up underneath and on top and I'm going to keep on braiding until we get into a similar situation, one more time, one more time, one more time and now we're over here again all the way to The left and then I can take my left hand and just grab about a third from this section. I can feel you're going to be able to feel the difference. I can feel that this is the piece that hasn't been borrowed from yet by the way. So you don't even have to like keep count or keep track. You should be able to feel it. So now I'm grabbing that and then I'm adding about a third of that to that piece and then I'm just going to continue braiding. So now we want to start the breakdown process. Unfortunately, you can't just continue to hold the hair like this and braid it down, because you're like you'll, run out like your arms. Just can't do that if your arms can't do that limb, you know cuz. My arms can't do that. So some point: you have to bring it over your shoulder and you have to continue braiding it down, and this is where it kind of gets a little tricky, because you got to be able to braid in a different direction right, because you want to keep a Strong grip on it, you don't want to be turning it around and doing too much different stuff to it. So I'm going to show you how I do this right here, as you can see I'm holding on to it. With my dominant hand, my right hand, everything is in place, it's all separated right. I can feel based on where we're at that it's time for this piece to come over this piece, so I'm grabbing them in between my index and I'm just gon na turn. It around and when I turn it around, I need to grab that middle piece and then just grip this back in so I'm just holding onto it tightly and then now, with these two I'm now going to shift places and then use my middle finger on this Hand to just grab that middle piece, so in a sense we're just trading places everybody's hands. Do this a little bit differently. You just have to figure out your groove, but you're just trading places. So now that it's long enough, I can actually flip it over and try to like use my thumb and index on this hand to just hold tight to it, so it doesn't unravel too much when I flip it over, then I'm going to resituated pieces grab them And now, in order for me to continue on in a way that this is going to stay together, I have to braid like this now and so again, I'm just trading places with the strands, but now I'm doing like the overhand method. I guess you would say the last method was the underhand method. So for me the overhand method of braiding is much easier. This is where I can begin to move really really quickly and just go down and down and down. You know, and the only variation to this that you will need to make is, as you can see, the lower we get the more we start to realize the difference in size. You see how these two pieces are a little bit smaller than this piece. That will happen. Sometimes it won't make a great big difference when you're up here, as you can see that it looks like pretty even but down here, it is gon na begin to make a difference. So when I can begin to feel this in between my fingers, then I'll just borrow again taking a little bit of hair from the piece that has more and just bring it it into that center piece, moving it over over and then holding on, and I'm still Gon na take a little bit from that bigger piece and move it all the way over to the leftmost piece and then we're just continuing to braid and so borrowing hair is so essential. Borrowing, hair a lot of times makes the difference. You know between meat brains and lumpy braids, because a lot of times people will forget to borrow hair and even things out and that's when the braids look lumpy now granted. This braid might look a little bit lumpy, but that's because I'm doing it on myself as well as trying to do it on camera instructionally, but I'll show you guys pictures of other times that I've done my hair and you'll see by the end of this style That, for the most part, is going to be really neat and flat. That is the goal, and if you're trying to do this in a way where you can get really good yourself, you can build your Instagram page. I have all type of cute pictures doing your own hair as well as learn to do other people's hair. Then you want to go for neatness over everything quality over quantity. I promise you, it will pay you big so now, once I get to the end of the braid put it in between my lips. So this is the end of that braid. I can feel that it's not like super perfect, but we are gon na go again. So I'm gon na do the second method on a piece of hair: that's a little bit higher up just so that you can have a better visual. So it's very similar, except I'm, going to split the hair at the root and I actually have a whole video talking about this when you want to learn how to do this on someone else's head, but as you're learning to do it on your own head, then Follow along with these instructions so very similar to the first way, we're grabbing this piece in between both hands with a firm grip and then we're gon na go ahead and grab the center piece, but rather than dipping this index finger from my right hand, all the Way up underneath so that I can grab it like this, I'm actually going to go in and I'm gon na do what I call splitting at the root. So I'm taking this same situation and instead, I'm gon na take this index finger and I'm going to split it right in between the center of that piece of hair, and so now what just happened was I split my hair in the middle. I split it in half off top and now I'm gon na go in with the hair that has been added to the left side, I'm going to go ahead and grab some of that hair about a third of it just as before, and I'm going to attach It to the piece with my hair and then we're just going to begin braiding. In my opinion, this creates for a more strong connection of the braid at the root and once I get back around to the left side and now I'm dealing with this piece of hair that has not been split yet now, I'm just gon na borrow a little Bit of this hair and add it to the centermost piece, which is currently the piece that has my hair attached to it, and now I'm just going to continue to braid. Now I can feel in this particular scenario that I must not have done and even split with my hair in the beginning. So I'm just gon na take a little bit of my hair from this left side and just dip it into, and this is what it's all about you guys is understanding when and where to borrow hair when adding extensions to your head. So, as you can see, this braid looks a little bit different than this braid, not to mention this braid I was connecting a large amount of hair to a very small amount of my own hair, and sometimes that creates a little funkiness at the root. It'S a little bit easier to do it on someone else than your own head. But in this situation I feel like it's a smoother transition and I believe that that's because I separated at the root okay. So now I'm gon na continue adding braids to my head and I'm just going to like break them down halfway and so then, on one side of the screen. You'Re gon na see me adding the extensions to my hair on the other side. You'Re gon na see me braiding it down and while I'm braiding it down, then I will proceed with the conversation. So I can tell you guys all about how I got started: braiding hair, how it changed my life and how it can change your life. If you take it serious alright, so, basically, when I was 8 years old, I started to braid hair. Like I said out of a need, I actually grew up really poor. My family was really probably really understand the meaning of poverty back then, but I did know that I didn't have money and I wanted to have money in my pocket and my sister and my mom was making money braiding people's hair. So I was like man whoever they want to learn and they wouldn't let me help ever or earn any type of money, because I didn't know what I was doing so like, like I said one day after school, I just stood in the mirror in the bathroom For a long time, however long it took until I figured out how to complete a French braid in my hair, now I had already known how to put like a braids in a doll's head right. You know I'm saying but learning how to French braid was a big deal for me, because what they were doing was French braiding people's hair, but I think that was back in the 90s. You know a lot of people were getting like French, braids and stuff. You know saying in dookie braids, and so I learned how to do that and then shortly after one of my aunts started letting me braid her hair and when I talk about braiding, her hair, she started letting me braid her hair and adding hair to the French Braid, I remember the first time I did her hair. She had me I'd like some blonde hair to her head and I remember it was like Center part down the middle like cornrows going this way, cornrows going that way, and I don't really know where they ended, but I just remember it was effed up like I Remember looking at that style back then, and thinking like oh my gosh, this is so ugly. I was so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed. I almost wanted to cry because I was trying so hard to get it right and you know how like now, we do feat in cornrows, but if you from there back in the day, you know we just added the hair like like instead of doing the feet In braids, I'm just adding in the hair, and so you can see the knot, so that's how it was so my knots was all sloppy. One was big, one was small, it was horrible y'all, but my aunt she just gave me all the praise. These are beautiful. Thank you so much for doing my hair. She actually wore their hairstyle for like a week, y'all shout out to Heidi away. You know cuz she used to look out. So when I was like 12 years old is the first time I was ever paid to do. Someone'S hair now I think my aunt might have given me like five dollars or something, but that wasn't like a paid client. You know I was like family looking out for family, so yeah it wasn't until then it was my friend Nico. His mom was like I'll pay you to braid his hair and y'all. She paid me $ 30.00. Her name is Rita, Rita shout-out to you. If you watching this video, I still I love you good. Looking out on all the support. Rena hooked me up y'all. Not only did she pay me $ 30, which was like bawling status for me at the time I was like 12 like I said, but I also felt like he dignified me like as a brazier like okay, I know what I'm doing it and and mind you. The whole purpose of me learning how to braid at like eight years old was cuz. I wanted to start making money so making a couple dollars here and there from the family. That was cool, but I wanted to get to the coin. You know understand so at this time I was already working as well. I was selling candy and I'm gon na do a whole other video on that, like how I started my first job at age 12 and started being able to make like a hundred dollars in a day there's a whole nother video but yeah. I was already selling candy after school and on the weekends sometimes, but it just didn't always like there were good days and bad days, and so doing here was a great scientist for me because, like I said, my family was poor, so we kind of had to All figure out how to like bring a little bit of money in and so Reena not only paid me that $ 30.00. But she told one of really good friends about me who owned a salon in the neighboring city and Rita, knew my struggle like, because the reason why I was at her house all the time is because, during that time period in my life, my mom was going Through a lot of stuff - and so she kind of like lost us like we were all my mom got: seven kids, we was all living like in different places with different people and so Rita knew my struggle. She knew I needed some money, so she told her salon friend and just asked her if I could just come and just help out as a braider, and so that's what I was going to tell you guys. It'S like I mean they're, starting to crack down a little bit more nowadays, because, technically speaking, if you're not licensed, you're not supposed to ever even touch a head in a in a salon. But a lot of salons will allow braiders like if you're, not working with chemicals or heat and all you're doing is just braiding someone's hair. A lot of salons will allow traders to work in their salon with that license, especially if the salon owner is there and they have their license. So just keep that in mind, so this salon odor she met with me and at that time I used to ride the bus everywhere. So by the way I want to point this out. My hair is coming out of this brace I'm gon na go ahead and start adding product. Now I didn't mention that before, but you know add products wherever you see fit so this salon owner. If I remember correctly, her name was Brenda and she had a salon. Like I said in the neighboring city, she let me come and meet with her and at the time I was riding the bus everywhere cuz. You know everything that was going on in my life and I kind of knew the city bus schedule by like the back of my hand. Okay, so even though it was a whole city away, which is like that's a mission for a bus rider, I figured out the route and I took my little butt down to her salon met with her, and I my sister had come with me too, and we Both met with her and she loved us, and she said, like you know, you guys, can come work here. I think I may have just turned 14 because it was the summer right before I started high school, and so I really needed money, because around this time I quit selling candy. I have started selling candy at 12 years old and all throughout like middle school. I was doing it, but I used to have all these ambitions and stuff, and I was like I'm gon na quit. Cuz I'm gon na go off and be a singer. I was doing all kind of stuff. We have so many videos where I can catch all of on, but I was doing all kind of stuff trying to pursue my singer-songwriter career, and so I don't like the guy who I sell, candy from like yeah one second anywhere i'ma go off and do this, But I needed money because at that same time you know during the summer of right before I started high school, my mom had like officially like relapsed on drugs and stuff, and so I was really out for the count like my friends were letting me stay with Them temporarily, and I just kind of had to figure something else I had to have money for school clothes and school supplies. My sister was in the same situation, but we were just living with different people, so we would like take the bus and meet up at the salon and just do hair. I think she was the one that was mostly doing individuals and I was doing French braids. So anyway, we had a really good team partnership on the days when we didn't have clients when we just like helped clean up the shop and stuff like that, and I was so proud of myself y'all, because I made however much money I mean, I think I Mean like 300 dollars over the summer, which is a lot of money at the time we were probably charging like $ 50 for a whole head of braids, you know, and so and then we would be like split and we start to split the money like we Couldn'T keep the whole thing as we was working in this lady's shop? So you know she had to get a cut too, but I was proud of myself because at the end of summer I had like 300 - maybe 400 dollars - I don't know, but whatever it was. It was enough for me to go school shopping and I remember my little bougie stuff went down to the carousel mall in San Bernardino, California, and I went to the little shops that had like the like. The gear, like you know like whatever was out at the time I think baby fat and I don't know I don't even think non-apple bottom. I don't think whoever was out at that time. What was that? I don't know? I was 14, I'm 31 right now. So y'all do the math whatever year that would so you know I spend my own money got my clothes and then it was a blessing took as one of the clients who was there. She knew our situation, and so she went and bought a whole bunch of school supplies from Walmart for me and my sister, and that just was like so sweet to me because I didn't have to buy school supplies. So once I started going to school again, then I just was back to just doing here on the side. Whenever I could you know, I wasn't really going to the salon much anymore, because it was like a few things that had transpired. I don't even remember, but there were a few reasons why we just couldn't go back in anymore. After a while, and I eventually started to sell candy again and this time around when I was selling candy, it was like kind of like a whole new position. It was just like that's that's for a whole nother video, but the point is because I started something candy again there were people who I was working on this candy crew with who needed to hear down boys all the time. So we kind of got this little thing going where they would pay me like $ 5 $ 10 and I'll just do like some straight backs in their hair, and that was like our system like I was living a couple different places at the time whole other Video, like I said, but during that time I was still able to have this side hustle, and so it really came through y'all. There would be times where I just needed a few dollars to go, get something to eat. We didn't really have cell phones and stuff back then I didn't have a car, I didn't mean gas money or nothing like that, pretty much. For me, it was just like school clothes and food and I took it real serious, because when I was young by the time I started getting a little bit of money in my pocket. I wanted to start by the things I never had like. I didn't want to wear payless shoes, no more. I wanted to wear Nikes. I wanted to wear a case twist and you know whatever was out at the time. So that's what I started to do and throughout high school. I just did here on the side. I remember when I was like 16 is when I started taking clients again like actual higher paying clients like adults who would bring their children to the house that I was living at at the time, and I would just legit have clients hair like client phone numbers In my cell phone cuz, I think I got a phone by then, and that was like a little system now around this time. I started to realize like okay. This is not what I want to do with my life, but I was very grateful to have the side hustle, because I was getting really tired of selling candy, okay and so fast forward. I just never really stopped doing hair on the side of everything that I did like getting the money together to pay for our senior year. I didn't get to do everything like I didn't take senior pictures, but I really wanted to go to prom. I couldn't go to winter formal, you know, but I definitely wanted to graduate and walk across the stage I wanted to go to grad night and so but come a combination of selling Kennedy and braiding hair. I would just combine the two and I was able to make enough money to pay for, like all my senior needs, you know with the assistance of people who were in my life, who was looking out for me as well, but that was like such a blessing And then, when I graduated high school, I started to get a lot more serious about like just wanting to put a career together. So I started to work on like getting my real estate license and learning how to be an entrepreneur and going out to all these self-help and business conferences. Like I said a whole other video, because I've been involved in quite a few things and have learned a thing or two long before starting YouTube, you know about just being an entrepreneur and that's the road that I was heading down, but all the while I always Had clients whose hair I did on the side, it never really stopped. So that has a lot to do with. Why stay? You know braiding hair learning to braid hair, how it changed my life, because I could only imagine. Maybe there are other things that I could have thought to go do to make money. If I couldn't have done this, you know what I'm saying like everybody's trying to figure out a way to survive, whether it's five dollars ten dollars to get you something to eat. You know what I'm saying put a few dollars in your gas tank whatever, and so I never had to even consider doing anything illegal or putting myself in too much danger. You know them saying, because I had this skill. I always call myself taking a break from doing here, because I really started to get burnt out. My hands started to hurt all of that stuff. You know them saying, but I think it was around 2011 when I started to do hair again more regularly, and this was around the time where you know I was doing braids still. Braids is something that I got really good at. I would at this point in time I was an adult, so I would drive to my clients houses. When I could. I had a little bucket that I had bought and it was you know, putt-putting around the city, but we was like any places, and so you know I'm a little bucket into my clients, houses in the nearby cities or whatever. This is when I started getting paid more money. You know like I had already when I was like 16 17. I had already moved up into like the 60 80 dollar range of her head of like individuals. We were still doing individuals at that time, but then I remember, I had a client who wanted to get these things called tree braids and I was like what are tree braids and she had to teach me like what they were and I was able to like Look at pictures on the internet, the internet wasn't popping the way it is today. You know back in like 2010 or whenever this was you know, but I saw the pictures she explained it to me and I combined and for it I figured out how to do these tree braids, and so that was like some combination of doing like micro, individual Slash tree braid things, and I I start doing that and that's I think, was the first client that I charged like a hundred and fifty dollars. But prior to that, I had never charged anything near that much you know and so um. I started to realize my work. You know I started to realize if somebody could will pay me 150 dollars and give me gas money feed me while I'm at their house, you know the only risk I'm really taken is going to people's houses. Now I will say that is a risk if this is something that you're getting into you know, and you want to start out doing it, how I was doing it, you are taking a risk inviting people into your home and you go into their home and it Was a risk that I just had to take? We all got ta, take some sort of risk and I was like I got ta make money somehow, so I was doing it. I would do my best to you, know, sort out the clients make sure that they were referred by. Somebody who I trusted go to the house. If it looked fishy or funny, you know I would just make an excuse not to go. You know whatever you know and most of the time by the grace of God. I was fine, you know I I don't. I think I only have like two bad experiences and they weren't even that bad. So another thing that I will say is that I pray over everything. Okay, so whenever I felt scared nervous anything, I'm telling you in my car praying to God that he would protect me and that he would stop me in my tracks if it was going to be a dangerous situation, and so I guess I just never really worried Too much but yeah, so I started to get clients that were willing to pay me more money, especially you'd, be doing like the micro, individual, braids and stuff, like that. I just remember feeling like man. I just do not want to do this anymore. That she's draining me to be driving to all of these clients houses and putting my life at risk falling asleep. I was just like. I can't keep doing this. This was like my side hustle. I did have jobs. You know I was like I said I was just trying to do internships I had just graduated college. I was, you know, just trying to figure my life out and it was really still my side hustle, but it was a major part of my income in order for me to live the lifestyle that I wanted to live. So I was like. I got ta figure something else out and that's when I started to take YouTube a lot more serious and the reason why I started to do hair tutorials on YouTube. I mean there was a couple of things I'll talk about it in another video, because I did end up getting a job that was really far away from my house. It was a better paying job long story short. It burns me out to the fullest extent, and I realized that I just want to work for myself completely. I don't want to, because I was still doing here like I was driving super far to get to this job working 40 hours a week, sometimes more driving super far to get home still trying to pursue a career in the entertainment industry and doing hair on the Side I was getting like three hours of sleep at night. I was dead right and that's when I was like I, I got ta figure out a way to just like work for myself and so that's a whole. Other video is where I want to talk to you guys in detail about what that process was like, but basically it got me to the point where I was like. You know what I'm gon na go back to doing here, but I'm gon na do here on my terms: I'm not gon na be driving to a whole bunch of clients. I'M gon na create a situation where most of my clients can come to me now. I still would go to some clients, but I wasn't going as far I started to be a lot more strict with my pricing a lot more organized. This is the service that I'm offering. I taught myself how to do weaves at the time, and I just went through that whole process of learning how to cornrow into beehives and sew in weaves, and that was a whole process and it did take me a while again. I learned how to do it. On myself, first and then kind of let things unfold from there, but you know I just continue to build on that, build on that and, as I was doing it YouTube was starting to really pick up now. I had already started doing YouTube back in like 2010. That'S a whole other video that so many videos back in 2010, but at this time I had kind of taken like a little break from doing YouTube, because I was trying to figure out what I really wanted to do. And so I think it was around the 2014/15 time where I was like. I had been in the groove of my new situation. Doing most of my clients at home, I was like in the living room. Kitchen area had my little setup and I was like you know what let me do a video showing people how to do these weaves properly, because it took me a long time and it's very challenging to figure out how to do it. So I wanted to teach it and then I started to realize that people really appreciate it learning from me and that's when I realized I should start doing more hair tutorials on YouTube and by me picking up the activity of doing braids and weaves and videos like That on YouTube I was able to. I was already making money working for myself, not working a job on my own terms in my home, so you know I wasn't worried about having a license or nothing. But then I started to be able to make money on the internet and I wasn't making a whole lot of money on YouTube, but just another stream of income. It was just a blessing, it was an eye-opener for me and all in all, I've just continued along this path, even still to this day now I own a home with my husband, and we have a whole area in my garage set up to where, if I Want to take a client I can. I don't do nearly as much here today as I once did, but I do have the opportunity available to me, and I will say this one thing that I left out. This was probably actually like one of the biggest things I would say we're like the culmination of events. That really just proves to me the value of learning, a skill like this okay. I did end up going to cosmetology school, but I didn't finish while I was in school. I realized this thing. What I want to do, I'm about to like get a whole nother like certificate and pay all this money to learn this that I know I don't really want to do with my life. I had already graduated with a business degree from college and I'm like yeah. I'M not trying to like go further in debt for something that I'm not really willing to commit to, but because I had gone to cosmetology school for a little while I learned a whole lot about like sanitation and like the bookwork, you know about what they teach You in cosmetology school, and so I felt so much more empowered to actually be able to work in a salon again and I kind of needed to work in a salon. Because I was in a situation where I was like living with some friends and they wasn't sure, let me do hair at the house, so I was really blessed to meet someone who was not worried about having a brighter in her salon, because beings started to tighten Up you know around this time. I think this was like the 2016 time period. Things started to tighten up, so a lot of cosmetologist were scared to have people who were unlicensed in their salon, but this one in particular did not mind. I'M not gon na put her name out there, but she did not mind so I was actually able, while I was living with my friends, my husband and I were saving that money. So we can buy our home. It was a unique situation and we needed to make a lot of money very quickly to make the most of the situation. So when I tell y'all, I went to this salon - and this is when I got busy - I had already had an Instagram account that I started to post pictures about my work, which is why I was able to generate you know a clientele. I left that out. I'M so sorry y'all around, like the 2014-15 time when I started to do hair more regularly, I create an Instagram account, started to post a whole bunch of pictures. My price lists everything and I had a couple of viral videos and viral pictures and all kind of stuff going on I've deleted all that stuff, since then rebranded, but I had it going on. I understood enough about how to navigate those these apps, to where I was able to get clientele and if you guys want. I guess the details about that. I can give it to you real, quick, like it's so different today than it used to be, but basically like, provide value, post, really good pictures, insightful information, teaching information, videos showing people how you're doing things. That'S basically what I started to do, but like back then, and then I would. I created like a second phone number that allow people to call me. It would go to my phone, but it wasn't my actual number. So that was the phone number I put out there. I created business cards. I went around to local salons Beauty, Supplies and nail shops with a paper printout and my phone number at the bottom that you could just rip off my name and a little brief intro about like my services, and I would leave my business cards and these printouts. There - and you know if they gave me permission and I legit started, having people call me by those people calling me it led to referrals after referrals after referral, so it was a little hustle I had to you know you. You had to put your put yourself out there. You can't be scared to put yourself out there and have people tell you no, but I learned a lot of about that at a very young age, because at a very young age I had to start figuring out how to make money. So the word know was not so frightening to me so yeah. I was doing all that, like around the 2013/14 time, when I knew I wanted to like. You know go full-time with this, but anyway, so I had already had like a steady clientele and so being able to go to this salon, and work was a blessing because it was one of these salon suites that didn't get a lot of foot traffic. So the only way that I was gon na prosper was to have a clientele. So thank God I did. I had that Instagram account going and because I had a space now where I wasn't nearly as timid as I was when I was in my Hartman's having people come over, I knew I could have anybody come back to back to back. I could work from 8 a.m. to midnight if I want to and not have to worry about disturbing my husband or my friends or anybody I mean, and I was trying to get busy and get this this uh. You know mortgage down payment money up. I got busy. I made more money in that time period doing here than I had ever made before, even though I was paying booth rent. I still was taking home more money than I had ever made before I worked harder than I had ever worked before it consistently, but it worked out - and I did that for like six or seven months as I was saving up to get this house and and That'S what I mean when I say that learning had abrade changed my life. It'S always been something that I've never really been in love with, but I loved the opportunity it provided. I loved the fact that I was able to develop year after year after year, and even though I started out making a little bit of money, I was able to grow, make more money work for myself set my own terms, make friends. I have so many friends today that I met through doing their hair that are genuinely my friends today. You know be able to teach other people like you guys. You know what I'm saying and basically what I'm trying to say is learning how to do. Hair has afforded me the flexibility to always be able to make that extra money. If I want to take a trip somewhere, if I want to like, buy something nice getting married, I remember when we were paying for our wedding, my husband and I, when I tell y'all I was taking so many that I was still live. I was still doing here at my house by the way at this time, because we're at our pardon me because this is before we were buying our house. That was like the first time that I really went in on taking clients, and I remember, like my hands, was hurting because I was not. I wasn't doing as many weaves at this time. I was mostly still doing braids, and this is when box braids came about. This was the year of 2014-15, as I got married in 2015, so actually mostly 2015 box braids had gotten really popular, and so I had to start doing those all the time, and I was charging like $ 100 per head to do a full head of. Like medium sized box braids - and I remember I was taking in so many clients - remember that at the end of a long day of braiding, I would sit on my phone for an hour to two hours every day. Just responding to comment between comments on Instagram, Facebook and people texting my phone trying to organize my schedule. I had like this little tiny like little planner, you know trying to organize, and then people saying oh, can I move my appointment around? Can I do this? You know it was, it was a lot. I was dealing with a lot of anxiety, but I really wanted to have a nice wedding and you know I wanted to do my part. You know so you know it's a lot of anxiety, but I did it. I mean literally knowing how to braid hair has helped me to achieve almost every major progression in my life. Even when I was like starting little entrepreneurial ventures having the seed money where there was just a couple hundred dollars to just buy some product to get started. Selling it or whatever it was, you know it afforded me opportunities that I otherwise would have had to work a job for maybe I wouldn't have had the flexibility, or maybe I just wouldn't have even done it period a lot of times. I feel like we feel so limited because we don't have skills, and so that's why I just really want to encourage you if you're someone who's thinking about you know doing here in any capacity. If it's because you love, it, then go for it, and if it's because you just need it, go for it and just be the best that you can be. Ok, people will pay you and we can do a whole other video on that. If you want to talk about like how to actually go about charging people, what should you charge and all that stuff people will pay you when you provide value? The value you provide is not just in how their hair turns out. That'S a ninety-five percent of it. Don'T get me wrong, but a portion of it is who you are. A lot of my clients came to me and stayed with me because I was a nice person. I was genuine. I was welcoming and patient and kind when they came into my home. I will offer them snacks just good conversation. You know I wasn't ratchet in and rude like you know, some hairstylist be like rude, they could slay your hair, but you don't even really want to be in their presence. They smoking weed in the shop drinking cussing, got running in and out and it's a whole situation, and while that vibe is cool for a lot of people, it's not good for everybody. I actually realized that majority of my clients, health, ended up being like conservative women. 30S. 40S. 50S. 60S. I wasn't really attracting a lot of the young crowd because maybe just my vibe was just a little different. You know I'm saying, but everybody has their thing if I would have looked at what everyone else was hair game. Before I looked into myself and looked at my own skill set, I probably wouldn't have gone forward because I probably would accounted myself out. I probably would have thought. Oh well, you know I don't have a salon, I don't have a license. I don't know how to slay every style which way and do all these hair, color and hair treatments all the nighters do is braid. I probably would have counted myself out, but I didn't have that type of distraction back in 2011. 12. 13. You know the social media wasn't what it is today today. You guys, unfortunately, have a lot of distractions. You have a lot of discouraging things that you're looking at. You might be looking at my video and be discouraged because you don't know how to do what I'm doing not realizing I've been doing this I'm 31 years old and I have the gym: pin braiding hair for money, since I was 13, I've been figuring. This thing out so give yourself a little bit of time and a little bit of grace. Now I have talked your ears off. I am going to go ahead and fast-forward this speed it up, so you can see the finished product. I want you guys to ask me any questions that you have in the comments below we have so many videos coming up video similar to this, where we're gon na be doing a lot of conversational topics, 30 times /, tutorials or reviews or whatever you know. So let me know some of your requests. Thank you so much for listening to me, and this is the final look. I do not feel like laying my baby hair. It'S cuz I'm about to go to bed jaws, really not that deep, but I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and conversation, and I hope you learned something make sure you come back next week for another video just like this and remember in the meantime, to stay Happy stay healthy, be you love you and make it all beautiful, but you'll see me on the next video you you