Hair By: Exploring The Uk Black Hair Industry || A Guap Documentary

The UK black hair industry is worth an estimated 18 million pounds with black women spent in six times more on hair care than their white counterparts. In this documentary we explore the intersection between supply and demand in the UK hair business. It features some of the country's top female entrepreneurs within this sector. We also get the perspective of the consumers as we explore the recent uptrend in demand for wigs, as well as a heightened emphasis on natural hair and hair products, maintainable and eccentric. Yes, I do, but I found ways to like you know: I found hair styles that are easy to. I guess like easy to manage like the hair style. I have right now I just slipped my hair back and I'm ready to go. It'S definitely harder have been longer, hair, don't have any short hair cuz. When I have short hair, I literally had zero worries, but now I'm a bit old and I've got my hair longer it's hard, because I have to wear dirac every single time. I sleep. I have to like make sure that my hair is not getting wet and just little things like that. You know it's really it's kind of something. That'S a bit concerning um. I don't find my difficult to manage, because I know my hair very well, so I know what it requires, and that makes yes, I do find it hard and the reason why it is always um. I just feel that sometimes my head doesn't want to be tamed and I think something I have to put a lot of heart into like this time, but tried to put in a bun, and I have to take a break. It just takes a lot of time, washing my hair blow-dry me creamy lay they'll take off of the day for me um! No, I don't. I don't find my hair hard to manage on a day-to-day basis, because, like more or less new styles that I can just wake up and go, I don't really like doing stars that and I have to be brushing it or do not the time. It'S very rare. It'S time I have my hair out just on the interim, I'm more time within twist interface, so my name is Rita balligan and I don't know how to answer this question. Actually I guess I'm a creative, but I am also the owner of radiant London that long. I think it challenges stylists, to be honest because again, women know their hair now so before women could come into the salon and she has no idea like what to do about natural hair. She just sits down and she's. Like you know, I don't know something: it's one of my hair. Just do anything. I just need my hair to be sorted now you do have clients who do come in and they know their hair. So they're like I, don't want shampoo that has sulfate in it because that's damaging to my hair. I don't want this because they saw a video on YouTube. So there's a lot of self-education going on and it will challenge the stylist because a lot of the new gen Sylas don't really know about natural hair as much because of all the trends of wigs - and you know, there's so much more - I guess exciting things happen In that they don't really focus on the natural hair area, whereas here we really do so a lot of our stylists take a lot of time to know and understand what the natural hair is. What your natural hair is all about. I just feel like customers are more informed, you know, so the natural hair trend has caused people to obviously find out more about their hair. So when they come into the salon, it just means that stylists have to know about natural hair. They can't it can't be ignored boy, it's just it's like a mixture of things. Now one thing is understand: there's nothing new Under the Sun and right now the trend, let's say frontals, every girl wants to get a frontal, but it's not new. You know when my mum was at the salon years ago. All of them were doing for lace, wigs and it was the same thing. The difference was that the technique was damaging, so it wasn't the right way to go about it, whereas now you know we have so many talented hairstylist who know how to do it in a way that your hair underneath is still safe, and I guess another trend Now is the fact that we actually care about our hair. I thought like the generation before was just like. Oh it's, whatever I then put on this wig. I don't care what my hair's like underneath is never gon na grow. Again, I don't care about it, whereas now one more educated and we're more keen understand our hair and to love our hair, just as it is, and also not to be like defined by our hair as well. Because I know there was a time where it was like. If you have natural hair, then you're a certain type of person and if your hair is relaxed, then you don't care about your hair or you're trying to run away from being black. But I feel like our generation is just very much like no, I just like to express myself so I can wake up today and I have out my natural hair and that's completely fine or tomorrow I can just put on a wig and I'm still fine. I'M still who I am I'm not defined by my hair, but I do appreciate my hair and I understand that sometimes I need to tuck it away so that it's it grows and it's you know it's safe and stuff like that. So I think our generation is just more. We just know a lot more. We do a lot more research and we just love our hair, a lot more than a generation before us week. Specifically our good alternative for me, because they allow me to protect my natural hair underneath and I'm able to have a regular wash routine. And when I wear wigs, so I would wear our wig for maybe like a week in a bit and then wash my hair and do my long, absolutely long, hair, routine and then I'll put it back in corners and then wear my wig again and yeah. It'S just nice for me to have that great when I was growing my hair, you kind of go through that annoying phase, where it's like your hair's long to the eye, but when you're speaking to hairdressers and you're like okay, I want to do this. I wan na do that too laughs. Sorry, your heads, not your heads, not long enough and at that point I was kind of tempted to do extensions. You know I mean in my some of my friends are going for a similar thing right now. I keep telling them. You know what you should just get extensions that no were told the difference, but I guess there's a bit of a stigma with men when it comes to again extensions and stuff, like that. I don't know what is seen as like, not masculine or is seen as a kind of a feminine thing to do. I think I would have done it um yeah, I was just patient in the end and when it comes to hair transplants, you know a lot of people have done it. Man shout out to relay and shower Wayne Rooney nothing but respect because, like unfortunately, some men have to do with hair loss. You got I'm saying, like I said thing, you know just because you're young and handsome doesn't mean and you're not gon na lose your hair and once you start losing her hair, you can kind of start to become a lot more self-conscious and it can kind of You know mess of how you perceive yourself so like wigs, helped manage my hair and it is gon na sound bad, but especially of this, but I have like an interview I can just on my a week put together as no. Never I've never really grown up with the whole like wigs or weave stuff, like that, I think my sister was that all just as she was used to like flatten my hair, she was used to put it in cane, rows and stuff, like that, my mom's put My head and thread so I've just always had my natural hair. I don't know in out in some some shape or form meet my sister, it's fully Nigerian and Shire. She doesn't have it she's, never had it in weaves or wigs, either way, because I might take out one day. I'D have to deal with this process of cutting string, and you know I mean it's just a lot weaves and wigs. I could alternate for me because it helps me take my hair also help something to switch up without damaging my hair, and sometimes it is difficult if a nickname that had on I was much younger, and you know that you're, not German, so you know back in The day weren't called to be applicants in any way shape form and I lived in a white area, so I went to this youth camp and then I just got to America like every other year, so I pretended that I was American for the whole cuz. No one knew me, but now some have come for the whole thing and then the last days I ones that are Mary, like make it a little cool that let's do double dutch and then I'll go and they're like okay call come up with a beats. All that cool give me a beat. C'Mere Pete gave me a beat and I go pack the cheat sheet, but she and literally it starts yeah, and I think I was like 16 and from that day on. That'S what everyone calls me like. Some of my friends. Don'T even know my surname like Mara property to you, girl, no like yeah, it's annoying and but it's very unique like no one's ever going to have my name. I definitely think that the wig industry, the hair industry in general, was incredible like there is so much potential like, and the thing is I feel like. We are only just starting like it's only gon na get better. So I would say, like this - is the year of frontal wigs like everyone's slave in front of what frontal blueness hey like look at my hairline. It looks real by April and that kind of evolution - and you know what it's so big, that everyone saw part of it. So I've done, I teach and that's what being like. I'M known for I've said I was the first hair stylist in London to create a hair workshop, because a lot of people were coming from America teaching us on-site, listen they're, coming from America, taking our money and going back know like there needs to be someone in The UK that can actually like raise the standard and actually teach and teach well, so I decided to start teaching in 2017. I did my first class and now sold out twelve classes, but I have a next one in April: that's harmful! I don't know. That'S gon na sell out as well, so the deputy is a demand for it, and I have thirty students in each class and do the math 30 times 13 and they're still always a demand and now a lot of other stairs I'll start teaching now. So it just really just shows people are hungry that people wan na learn. Do you want to make money, and there is money to me to be made so wigs have been around since, like if people don't realize, like a lot of weeks, come to the theater and a lot of people created weeks for to change our density right? If you're an actor you wan na look different, you get short cropped week and lace waist as well. A lot of people think lace. Wigs are new. No they're not like judges, have been wearing those wigs from time and what we have done is we reinvented the wheel and we've made it look as realistic as possible. One thing I do say less. Frontals are the most popular thing at the moment, but if you look super close you're gon na see it like it's a net real talk, you're gon na see it, but you can make it look as good as you can possibly get it to look, and one Thing I do say is that I just feel like the trend is only gon na get better because all of this, like lace, frontals care, most of it, is manufactured in China and the only thing is a lot of them. Don'T really know our skin tone. So a lot of people struggle with like getting the lace to really match their skin and look realistic. Sometimes the lace is too dark, sometimes a little too light. I just it's all a matter of Education. It just takes two stylists to fly over there speechless and manufacturers. Let them know like listen we're not actually purple, because the lake you send their staff, Brown is actually Barney purple or not. We have room undertones and just educate, and now a lot of stylists are Korean tents. Like a lot of UK stylist like there's, a company called the wig gurus who's now great tents. So all we need to do is just buy transparent lace in its pure form and continuing for every skin tone. So again, that's another business that it's given us like people are now just creating sprays to tint the lace and they're making money like each job cost. Approximately forty pounds and there's four shades and people are buying it like and they won't stop buying it. So I definitely think the evolution of wigs is something that our mums used to. Where we, I remember my mum. The first time I made a wig mom laughed at me because I succuss it I'm like. Why are you letting grandma always loans? I will never. I was I soon as I'm out. I will never wear a wig and that's like. Is this not doing that? You said you're not going to wear for me. It'S just like the wigs have are different, because I remember back in the day you never tell guy that you're in a wig. What are you I pulled under there? But now like wigs and I feel like back - there are parents within look natural. They you could see from down the road that this is a week, but now, like we've, we've invested time, we've done education, we spend you, know time just reforming things just to make them look realistic and that's why I feel like wigs will always be there and Anyone can wear it from a young age to the oldest, like there's no age limit, it's not like. Okay, you know what sorry you're 15. You can't wear week like 15 years, I'm banging wigs like and if you need to think like it stays money long term, because most people keep weaves in like 4 to 6 weeks and on average you probably spend like 70 pounds in school. Now, let's say an average wig you're getting made cost you like 100 to 200 pound mark, but you can keep that for a year. Do the math yeah I mean so you're gon na get like six, because you know that okay, that's gon na last me like a long time, so I definitely do feel like wigs aren't going anywhere like they are just gon na get better like I definitely. I always say my predictions next year is that they're gon na create lace, that's called thin skin. So it's literally going to look like scalp like you, won't see those wigs, because that's the only thing that gives away like those grids honey. We could see it, but I just feel like it's just gon na create, like they'll, create a material that literally looks like scalp, and it's just gon na be flawless but wigs. At the same time, if you're kind of looking into frontals, which are the most popular things and what celebrities have been wearing, are still wearing that's what makes them look so flawless and once a Beyonce man she's got so real hair, like a woman cut around it Wednesday never wears a wig. Yes, she does it's just a good, oh, I would say in terms of like ownership, it does my span across different countries. Most popular thing is everyone. The majority people know that hair comes from India to the Indian temples. Jamelia did a documentary about it where you know they shave their heads and they sell it off, but a lot of people realize that things are coming from China and the reason why is because it's cheap, like labor, is cheap, there's a lot of them. So what a lot of Indian factories do? They send it over to China. So that's why they say it's Chinese hair, but sometimes it's Indian and it's just been processed in China because they have all the equipment. They have the tools, they have the labor and they can get it sorted very cheaply. There'S a huge website called Aliexpress that a lot of people source from if he and Miss really it's because you don't know what you're getting you're shipping from a totally different country. They'Re using other people's pictures, it's very short, you're getting reviews and unfortunately, because your laws don't cover you when you get it, that's your business like if it if the hair doesn't live up to standards. Yes, you can send it back, but then you, like all the fees that you'll have to pay some house, it's not even worth it, and so a lot of hair comes from China like a lot its source from China. Some people have been Vietnamese hair, which is war, and I feel like is one of the best qualities, so it's normally double drawn. So it's one source, oh one, one head. Basically, it's not mixed and that's like the best of the best for me is really thick. Cuticles are lying and very smooth. You can curl it straight in there and you can color it. So is that definitely long-term, but it's very expensive, so the market is very saturated. Now we have a lot of people who sell hair because they can source it so cheaply. So the man down the road is selling her and he has no idea what he's selling to you. The woman up the street is selling hair, so it is a very saturated and crowded industry, but I definitely think it'll never go bust because there's always a demand because reality is, for example, a client comes to me. She says Mary. I want to make a bob wig. Okay, I tell how you need two bundles of 12-inch Peruvian, and you need a frontals to create this style cool they go and source their. Have it come back, that's not the end of them. Two weeks later they say. Oh, my god, I just saw this picture you post on Instagram, it's like a curly blonde, like what do I need for that, I'm like to meet five bundles of 18-inch. They get it so when black women there's always a demand, so it's never gon na go bust. It'S because we always need it. We'Re never going to just do one hair. That'S not our culture! We like to change your arts, which art its kind of identity. Like they're saying I changed my shoes, I can change my wig like if I'm going out today. You may see me in a bar. Be me my neighbors, don't understand what's going on, but black women? That'S what we do is part of identity like hair like a lot of people, we get a lot of backlash as well like social video, black girls, don't wear their hair like your board, underneath like show us your edges. Like me, c'mon recently said you know, let's go dude front rolls honey, like mostly girls, you're dating oh in front. You just don't know it's just a very good one. Idk and editing is reality is like we have it. Most people have natural hair or they have hair, and the thing is people think that a lot of people had under there. Some people do it's like less, not like. I have clients that their husband or their boyfriend has never ever seen their hair and for me I was trying to encourage them. I take a break like you, need your edges to breathe as well like, I feel like it's definitely a balancing act, but a lot of us wear it to express ourselves like today. I look cute. I want to wear long-term. I might have a bob. I want to corporate jit, I mean so it's just kind of an expression, so it's definitely like there is a demand that I don't think that demands whatever start people just saw, and it's just given. People like industry, like a lot of people, become business owners just because they come by here and send it on to their friends. So I feel, like it's opened up the market that we can be owned and if you look at all of the stores that are in the UK, they're mostly owned by, like Asians, so cats, for instance, like it's owned by an Asian man who doesn't wear our Hair, so for us, it's like we've taken that power back like we don't need to come to your store to buy anything and if you go like their extensions, now very overpriced, because it's like cool one person Tempe will normally come and buy this. So you one person are gon na buy for the 10 people, so nobody buys that from them anymore in terms of products, though people will go there because it's accessible, but you know there's now a lot of black owned and businesses that are kind of making their Own products as well like natural shear, but our sourcing it from Ghana. You know black, so all this stuff. So if I feel like, it's really like our eyes have been open to know that we have choices like we're not set to you. Don'T just have to buy from this certain place that we can manufacture things and we can create things because most of these things do come from us, so you know why don't we sell to one another black women wearing wigs is definitely a topic. I have come across a lot on social media. From my own experience I can see it has taken a while for some people to get used to the concept of black women wearing wigs. You can say that this increase in visibility has had an impact on numerous women behind the scenes it has become an international business. This industry has boomed to the point where, over time, celebrities and public have also been sporting. Wigs, I can see it's definitely become more accepted. We took a trip to our H, wig studio, to discuss the process of making weeks, so I make custom made wigs and also customized weeks that are already made, and then I also sell ready-made wigs on my website. I think it's become a big thing. I think weeks have always been big. If you look back to, I guess our parents generation they were always wearing wigs. I think now it's just more of a thing where the week's look natural, so people want a week because it actually looks like their real hair and, I think also the presence of like social media, social media influences and seeing people like that wearing wigs makes people Want them more, and so I think it's yes big trend, that's just getting big back alright! So I'm going to talk you through making the custom-made, wig, and so I've got here a frontal moving. I like my plan to bring pre pluck for unto us cuz. It makes it's easier to work with and miss frontal isn't pre plucked, and what that means is that the baby has I'm sort of cut and you can see quite a solid hairline and so for this frontal I'd have to customize it quite a lot to get To look natural in terms of customization process, the first step would be for me to bleach the frontal. So that's a mixture of bleach powder and bleach liquid and then you sort of mix it together and put it on the frontal. Normally, I'd leave it for about half an hour to 45 minutes and check on it. The aim of bleach in the front always to get the knots to be, I guess, as invisible as possible. If you look closely here - and this doesn't look very natural - you can see that there's quite a few black dots, so bleach and the knots helps to get rid of that after I bleach or not you wash it with something called purple shampoo and condition it. What the purple shampoo does is it helps to get rid of sort of a brassy that tone that's left behind from the bleach. So normally after you bleach it, there might be like an orange tone and the purple shampoo will get rid of that. You give it a deep condition and then you're ready to actually start making your week, and so one of the key things you need to make a costume a week is a week eight because you need to cover it River. We cap I like to use these sort of stretchy ones, because they're quite they've got holes in them, so it means they're breathable, so you can actually kind of get some fresh air putting them on the head and everyone has a different sized head. So you need to make sure you have the person's head measurement, yes, the length of their head them in side to side and once you've got the measurement and you can measure it on the week and then use pins to pin them in and then next step Is to get the frontal one there and the frontal is aligned with the head measurements as well front order, thirteen by six or four inches so 13 inches. Normally, it's quite big for the person kind of head meant from side to side, I'm sure. Normally, I trim the sides down according to how I guess along the person's head, is from side to side and roughly, if I'm doing like just a median kind of head size, normally the frontal I'll kind of pull it down around sort of the top of the Nose if you've got a medium sort of weak head and then you've got to pin the frontal down so the top from side to side, and then the next steps would be to sort of stitch the frontal down at the back of the weak head. So alongside there and then at the back here, this is where the tracks of the wig would go. So normally I stitch two tracks like from side to side and then when it gets to the top in a sort of a u-shape buts, the wigs done before the hair stitched on what's key to get in there sort of week to stay on your head. Just having a solid elastic band and so elastic band goes from side to side from the ear flap areas of the week and that's what keeps the weight down on the person's head mummy. The band wouldn't be here when your head, it being behind. When I first started there was a lot of money to be made in the week business and because it was quite new, everyone worked in a wig and everyone was wondering. What'S this, you know wig that looks so natural. How do people pull it off? So I've got tons and tons of customers and I'd, say. Social media has been a big help like just being able to market for free. I just posts like a picture and get ten new customers. Now I'd say that the business, the wig business or the wig industry is becoming quite saturated, just because a lot of people are learning how to make their own wigs, which is a positive thing, and I think that's why a lot of stylists are doing sort of Tutorials to teach other people, so I'd say that there's more kind of weak businesses, but I don't see it as competition, because every sort of stylist has their own Flair has their own way of sort of. I guess making wigs and I guess what's for use, also for you. Wigs are a high maintenance hairstyle, especially if you want a wig, that's tucked down, and you want a frontal week where you want the sort of full look where you want to be able to brush the hair back. You need to be able to maintain it. If you get it started by stylist, maybe I'd say: move maximum a week two weeks, you're gon na need it and restyled or be stuck down. So if you're unable to do that, your wig isn't gon na have more maintain that natural look. So what I'd say is if you want a wig get practicing once you get the wig there's so many tutorials on YouTube. You don't want to be that person that gets caught slipping with a crusty week, good thing about wig system. I guess low maintenance in the sense that in comparison to weaves, where you'd have to do a weave every two weeks or every month, if you have a wig - and you have a good week that we can last you like a year years. So you don't need to keep doing your hair and if you know how to style it then you're good to go and you don't need a hairdresser. So I'd say that's one of the benefits. I guess one of the cons is that if you get so used to wearing wigs and you might feel uncomfortable wearing your natural hair and that's something that I've found myself even last year last summer, I was wearing a wig all summer and then, when I took That we got the top flat side of my forehead with a different color to the book and in my head, I'm thinking. How is my forehead this big, that I have two different shades to my forehead and I think one of the important things is self-love and also embracing your natural hair and so being able to do both is really important. That'S a good good, good question. You know my won't probably be simple. You know just a bad shape up. It'S always P because you kind of know when the bob was messed up, like you kind of know, when he's messed up in your heart, you're, just hoping our he's gon na he's gon na, like you know, pilot you know, I know they're screwing in the chair, Like you're giving attitude - and you know that he knows that you're feeling some type of way - I just don't say nothing and then maybe, if he's going to father, you see he's trying to do other things. He'S trying to you know, power to spray your head and stop like a big man or the haircuts and then like you need to go over this much II, oh okay! So for my 21st birthday I really wanted this Bob. You know China Delia long vibes and I went to UM. I went to this hairdresser never met her before we didn't have that hair relationship, and I always do my hair myself. So I was a little bit anxious to begin with anyway, but I wanted and yeah like you know, halfway in in the point where, halfway during the hair appointment, I'm noticing that my hair's not looking like you know how I should have. I showed her that I wanted it. Yeah got to the end of the hair appointment it. I really looks like it looked like. There was a mop on my head, like I look like a white man with a fringe and like like it like. I was part of the Beatles or something it was not a nice keep Bob. It was something else. When I went home I noticed that happened, the closing which he made to try and, like you know, finish, the the we've she'd use like bonding glue and like she'd, also sewed on top of that bonding glue. So it really affected my scalp underneath and actually lost her in that area. That patch of my head was sought for maybe about six seven months, yeah I'd say the worst experience I've ever had in my hair wasn't when it was natural, but when I was relaxed and I relaxed it, this was, I was very young, I relaxed it and I went to sleep, I don't know if this is how it happened, but this I remember it. I went to sleep and the whole back of my head just fell out. Oh yeah, I didn't have any hair, it's. That was that and then I just grew a bunch, go it back out and yeah, but I didn't go natural until like two years ago. I remember so when I've got to year 10. I started straightening my hair after, like three years of me. Having straightened my hair, I went to like one Gandhian head dose up, in normally words to go on a transition, but I still only so I wanted to like often my dad and stuff like that, and I fancy I want a bob for my hair. I should a picture to Rebecca and Auntie cut my hair to day level to okay and it's varying folks. I saw her so I cut in it yeah and I was like where from my friend was there for that for more support, and I saw her kind of like taking a big chance. I said: okay auntie, I'm straight into, I don't know what I want. She had saw one, it's, okay, Jeremy, don't worry and then like yeah, I left the hairdresser, no would say yeah I paid her to thank you auntie. The works have experience. I'Ve ever had was one was I uni when I let this go to my hair and then she took off my edges and then the other one was when I never gotten my hair and she broke the middle of my hair cuz. She came with it. She catered it fine, but when she was sewing in the weave like she, I don't know what she was doing. She like tightened it really tight. I like the middle on my head, broke. Um yeah did my West two experiences thanks Maria people know me as Maria London I'm a hairstylist in South London and everything here for quite a while. I started when I was like, like 11, so I started doing braids twist natural hair relaxer and then, when I got to like the age of 16 um, I started working in a hair salon, but they only made me clean because they didn't really trust in. They didn't really trust that I could do hair. So I was cleaning the toilets, cleaning the shop floor and then I just had to leave and then I found another hair salon which was like you know that African hair, something that you just seen. I in Peckham well, this was in Croydon, started working there. Then I started doing here and there was a lady that was like kind of teaching me, but obviously I knew what I was doing, but she taught me a lot and then, when I was like 17, I had like a breakup and then I just decided to Stop working at the hair salon and then I started doing here at home, but then I was only trying like ten pound, so I was getting a lot of clients doing braids for like 15 pound, the braids takes like seven hours, but at that age I thought I was making serious money, but I really wasn't. I started. I literally didn't think that I just I was just doing it because I love doing it that it wasn't a thing. Instagram back then wasn't like how it is now. It was just so common that people were just putting their normal pictures on there, but I was just putting hair no because I wanted people to like it. I wanted some people to see that I did hair I'll just start. Alright, let me just put it up. You know I do think it will be like this. I told I didn't. I thought I would go through education. I can just do something else. I didn't expect to do your hair, for the rest of my life at the beginning, for me was quite interesting because I never had any intention of being part of a salon at all. My mom started a salon about 19 years ago now, maybe 20 years ago. It'S a really long time ago about between 18 and 20 years ago, and at the time, obviously I was a child, but also I was I just always wanted to be. An actress you know, being an actress, has always been like my main thing and after I got back from drama school, I kept on going for auditions constantly and I'll, be so close to booking something, and then I wouldn't book it. So my emotions will be so like high and low so woman, I'm excited or one minute, I'm low and one day my dad just sat me down and he was all like look. I don't know why you think there's only one thing in this world that you're gon na be successful from you need to like do other things at the same time, alongside your acting, and so that's when I just started working at the salon, part-time and really casually. I was just that ain't gon na, be here long like I'm a star like you know, I'm not gon na be here that kind of thing and gradually I decided to have a stronger vision for the salon and nine years later Here I am so. I'Ve been doing a hair as long as I can remember, since I was a little kid, I have two younger sisters and my mom has always just kind of been good at doing hair, and it was kind of a ritual in our house that we'd do our Hair every two weeks without fail and my mom hated to girls with messy hair, so I would sit down and watch and pass other comb and stuff like that. So my mom said I was always interested then one day when I moved to Essex. So obviously I used to live my self, I'm mr. Essex and there weren't that many hairs valleys and that many hair sighs, I could do things other than braids and I've always been like a weave head. I like with so I decided to travel all the way to South I'm not gon na name the salon. I went there and got that nine because I was like you need to get there early waited for ages and then I showed the lady a picture cuz. I'M very specific about how I wear my hair, so I showed her pictures like this. Exactly how I want it. I have prom in two weeks like it can't flops. I don't worry like I've got dude, it's like I'm a pro, so I sat there and I got my hair done and it looks nothing like the picture and I was so upset - and I said to her like this - doesn't look like pictures she's like yeah. I did it to suit your face, I said, but that's not what I asked you like. You didn't do the job, so she was like well what you gon na. Do you need to pay me and I was like no, I'm not paying. First of all, your customer service is terrible. You were so rude and I got here at 9:00. You did my hair half way and made me wait four hours to finish and it's nothing why I wanted. So after that day, I vowed to myself that I'm never going to a salon again like this is not just a stereotype. People would say our African salons black salons have bad customer service. I was just like you know what I'm not doing this like. I'M not gon na sit through this just to pay money and then just not be happy. So at that point I decided that I'm gon na do myself, but this was before YouTube. So there wasn't anything they're gon na teach you it was just kind of trial and error, and so I just kept trying until like I perfected it, and then I was in college and I'll do my own hair people, like your hair, is so nice like who Does it I'm like me, and then I started doing people's hair in college and like lunchtime that I'll braid the boy's hair and get like 10 pounds, then I realized like this. Is this business like so when I was in uni and I start doing her on the side, and that was like how I paid my bills instead of working at Iceland in Tesco? I just hustled on the side and I graduated 2012 did a gel ISM degree and I was working at the Guardian and then, while I was working at the Guardian, I was freelancing at black hair beauty magazine. But despite that I never told them I did hair. I just broke and for me was the like combination of two passions. I love doing hair love right in it makes sense. Then I remember one time there was a hair, stylist and but she didn't actually come in and then we had obviously had a set. She was meant to do a tutorial, there's no one there and I was like so guys I kind of do hair and they're. Like really I was like yeah, I do hair. Let me show you my page. Look like you're amazing, as I can feel it. I can actually do a tutorial, and this was the time when everyone's going natural. So there was this thing out called the invisible part that everyone was doing it with glue, and this was like when all the black girls were kind of the hair, go natural and just trying to kind of promote healthy hair. So obviously glue was detrimental. So I was like you know what I'm gon na come up with a way that we could do it glueless, but I still gon na look natural. So I did, it got a double page spread and that was like one of the best selling issues of the year and they put my number in it. And obviously I wasn't business savvy at this point. So my phone just rang, we rang rang, rang and imagine I just finished uni. I store that job like I. Just the demand was just way too much, but it just made me realize, like there is big business like in people who do hair and do it well like before it used to be like we used to depend on a man to do things, not all black Girls, but some that goes, I thought that black girls, now we just wanted to do everything ourselves and a lot of men are realizing that why I like there's actually money in here, I don't think people actually realize how much money you can make in doing hair Back in the day, people used to laugh, oh my gosh. Yes, she does hair and PE, but we're making serious money like in a week. You can make over grand, like it's actually crazy, especially with wigs. Now that wigs have come into play like you can charge 500 for week, you can charge 500 for big, like and people pay and like for bundles. You can charge, let's say if you get free, bundles and I'm frontal 550 I charge 180. People say that I'm expensive, but if you know you're worth no one, you can't no one can put a price on your work. So let's say: if I do like four weeks a day and then four weeks the next day I can, I can make like go over grand in two days. If you make over grand in two days, let's take your work in everyday banging them ships. You can make like 2 grand when I went, natural, hairstyles or hairstyles are associated with black people or our culture. My culture um. I usually go little questions, but when I wear like European hairstyles like when I wear like a weave or when I relax my hair um, I don't really get that many questions. I prefer to wear my natural hair and to wear braids and natural looking hair styles. I feel most beautiful when I wear those hairstyles, so I guess I'm gon na keep getting questions. Oh yeah society does treat me differently, based on my, like, I think, mainly with the older generation, especially with men. They have this stigma that having long hair is, I have a feminine or it's unprofessional, or you know it makes you bragger. You know rabbi, I don't know what the word is they're using nowadays but like yeah. That'S why I used to get a lot of the time so kind of it's almost as if it makes you seem unserious, which i really dislike, because i'm probably one of the more serious people. I know you know and i'm not less serious now that i have long hair. You know it just doesn't make sense to me, and i think you know i'm entrepreneurs. I don't really have to go job in the reason and stuff like that. I know for a fact that, if I did, that would be something I would have to think about. You know whether people are telling me to my face or not. I know that people are going to view me differently. Based on how my hair is. You definitely get Society definitely treats natural hair differently to hair, that's more sleek or agreeable, so I definitely notice a difference in how people treat me when I'm out of my natural hair and how I've starred it versus when I'm out of wig or my hair sleeker. I feel like pretty privileged might be at play a bit more. I think people don't think natural hair. As pretty you know, I've never fought so far. You would treat me differently because of my hair, not growing up, I just for his hair and then I've got into the working world, and I think that - and I realized that my hair is a political statement. For some reason. I don't I don't know when it became like that um and I listen to other people's experiences of their hair. For me personally, I've never felt like well. Maybe if I look introspectively alike, I look outside of my experience. Maybe, but one of the stories who was my friend was job hunting and she said to me that she doesn't do braids when she's looking for a job. She wears a wig or she has a hair back just because she wants it to look professional. That'S when I realized that I had has an impact on how to say is you, and I think, is what the media coverage on, for example, the girls in South Africa that were getting punished because of the way that they had looked kind of made me aware That her is a political statement. More than anything I when I was younger, because my mom didn't really know how to do my hair as well. My sister that did my hair, and so there are days where my hair wasn't in cake. Oh, they look like what the matrix girl was. Has their hair like what had like, looser curls spare hair was all like laughing and stuff, and I think my hair was just like very much a fairy and so that when my hair wasn't in cane rows - and it was just packed back, mom's lack one of Those like tough Nigerians that will just pack your hair back, but she won't even dude I'm in Mac. She won't even do a cheeky little snake, glad she'll just pack it back, and so I was going to school people. I put me wild. He [ __ ] me crazy, did of the dirt like that. So that was then, and I think, when I Dennis I'd, straighten my hair any of the things before that people, whose called me that did to get teased a lot with me not being crazy. For me, a while - and I think I got to get to a nice lie straight in my hair. Suddenly I became do I mean the babe with the spot like suddenly people are like? Oh, I can move to do that me and I was like wow. This is really the system good I mean this is the system's matrix. Makai is a well-known implementer and in Tripoli we took a trip down to the launch of her brand cypher, where she shared insight into how she built a community alongside sharing her journey as a hairdresser at the launch, Makai hosted various workshops in two days where she Inspired and motivated the community and how to be your own hair entrepreneur. My name is McKay McDermott, I'm a content, creator, beauty and fashion influencer and a hair stylist and my hair company is called cypher, has always been a part of my life. I used to do all my friends hair in the playground. I still my aunts, hair when we were growing up. She used to babysit me a lot, so I think it's always been around me. I'Ve always been influenced by it, so it was like quite natural um. I spent any money when I was like 16, but it was like 10 pounds for a survey like it was a little big one and I think, being able to like live off it and buy like actual things in uni yeah that basically funded. Like my rent, you buying like books, materials that was all doing here, it wasn't an instant decision. It took me a long time. I was fighting it a lot and I was thinking okay, I'm a creative. So that means I need to go into advertising. I need to go into marketing. I just need to not be doing here because there's a lot of negative stigma attached to it, and I feel like my mom as a Jamaican parent as well. She was quite adamant that I didn't do here, because she didn't want to tell her friends that my daughter's a hairdresser, I think, that's what it really was but yeah, I guess, sustaining myself - became more important than what my mum thought. What I've been learning like really recently like the post, maybe four months, is it's really important to create more of a story around your brand, which I think that a lot of people don't do or don't remember, to do it's kind of like. Let me just post loads of hair or loads of me doing here, but I think you need to create, like a person, a persona that is doing the hair that enjoys it, that loves it. That can create more than just that for you and I think that's what I've been finding out over the past few months, like making Makai someone that you actually want to speak to you lay low and get your hair done by and I think that's what drives A lot of sales for me and gives me a lot of appointments. I think that's the most important thing to build a community, because once you have people that trust you, they are willing to spend with you and they are willing to be loyal with you, which is what I think. A lot of brands suffer like. Don'T know how to recover from like having customers that only purchased one time being a community, letting my followers subscribers know that they can always reach out to me and within their reach. That'S what the most important thing in keeping your brand above ground we officially launched like a couple months ago, but I wanted to bring an event to roll live today was supposed to be more of like get to know who I am what house cipher works, what We can offer you as a lifestyle more than just a service, because I don't think a lot of hair brands do that. I think it's like straight from being at home to being at the salon and then there's no like branding to bridge that gap. It'S really hard to get genuine engagement from influence or partnerships unless that influence are has a genuine relationship with her followers, which I don't think a lot influences. Do I think it influencing, because it's now a new job role, a lot of the relationships are very brand and consumer, so they've adopted a more traditional, even though they're, not traditional anymore, but they've adopted a traditional relationship with their audiences. So I feel like if your business is trying to do more than that then I'd I wouldn't I don't see why you choose someone that market you as this standalone business that doesn't know how to relate with their client if you're, a really small business, unless you Just want to reach and exposure, I don't think it's boy. I think the hair market will always boom. I think it's a lonely statistic that black women spent eight hundred billion dollars in the hair and beauty industry. I think that it's a given that black women always do have anything with the growth of frontals closures, lace and other materials that people use to make their install more natural. I think it's only gon na grow more and as people become more invested in looking beautiful. I don't think if there's only going to be an upward spiral. Basically, no, unless you have a big budget to pay them, then I would say you should you can use one every now and then, but personally like what they call again dollhouse. They used a lot of influences when they first started, which got them a lot of clients, but then you started to see that they don't treat their clients is saying, where's the influencer, so sometimes I think it does more harm than good. What do you think could be like the hardest thing that you face? I'M running a business, that's being influenced are starting. The hardest thing has been my mommy yeah, like I don't have a supportive family at all, like neither parent they're like what that we do. This kegger job so yeah, that's my biggest issue is at finding motivation, no good motivation being disciplined enough to know that I have to do work. Despite the negative things, my mum might be telling me about what I'm doing or not understanding the industry that I'm now navigate so yeah that that's probably the hardest thing and influencing. I think it's hard as black women to get paid brands, don't want to pay you and they always try to level you even when you ask them for a certain fee and I think a lot of the time. It'S like we have it's a lot more engagement with our followers because we're such a niche and as a result that we should demand more - and I think, Courtney - and I speak about this quite often. But it's really important to be abdomen and steadfast in your pricing, because you set the standard for a brand, should ask for when they come to black influences. Give my younger self the advice to say like don't. Let people tell you what your head means, because I also have a very unique relationship with my hair, like my head means something to me. Whereas, as a kid I was told, our people to have came, roads are rough people, gangsters or people that have certain hairstyles or dreads. Are you know? Just all they do is smoke weed and I listen to rusty music and [ __ ]. You know that, but I think all these stereotypes are very redundant in this day and age, it's very stupid. So I would just tell myself: don't listen to what people say about your hair. Just build up your own relationship, we'll go ahead and like learnt to love it, no matter how it looks younger self one hair tip it would be, be patient, just be patient, it will grow, it can grow I'd, say, don't relax. Your hair part. I didn't know any better and my mom didn't know any better, so yeah. I guess I've got to take these lessons and teach them to my kids or you know yeah and the women around me. I guess I could give my younger self one head. It would beat love my hair more I'm not succumb to society's values or what hair should look like an Tashi. What take more pride in my hair, because because my hair was so different from my contemporaries, I just kind of was just like. I hate the [ __ ] back to I mean I just like didn't really care about you. You took me a long time for me to see doing my hair as a self care process, and I really like spending time. I listen to music doing affirmations. I'M twisted, I think, if I had that when I was younger, I would definitely a lot more a lot more, a lot better about my overall physical parents, so my name is tiwa. I am the owner of the trap house salon and I come from East London. I actually didn't start off as like doing anything within hair. I was a fashion stylist and I dealt a lot with like music art ears, film, TV, music, videos, anything and everything, but I started to feel like I was getting closer to 30 and I started to feel like I needed something else. I felt like my purpose.