Sunday, September 30, 2018
Saturday, September 22, 2018
My Entrepreneurial Journey
Over time, many people didn't think that being a hair dresser / stylist were considered "careers" due to the majority of the stylist, mostly women, doing hair back in the days right in their own kitchens, mainly called "kitchen beauticians" or in more urban sects, "kitchen-ticians". Due to the climb in most economic statuses, beauticians, hair dressers or stylists, have become widely more respected due to the laws changing and more of theses stylists start to make more income for themselves and becoming a widespread of entrepreneurs in this game we call life.
As a young woman growing up in this environment, also the oldest sibling consisting of 6 sisters, these skills were not only handed down to me, they were taught to me by a handful of aunts, cousins and may she Rest In Peace, my grandmother.
I was maybe 6 or 7 when my grandmother put the first ever chemical in my hair widely known as the Jeri Curl. LOL. I was excited and a little afraid of what my mother would think if I came home with my hair all saturated in this chemical that caused my natural kinky curly hair to this tighter curl saturated in this liquid that I had to wear a shower cap on my head that kept it from leaking onto my mothers' sofa. My grandmother took very good care of my hair right in her own kitchen. Applying the rods, saturating my hair in this really foul smelling liquid which had to sit on my hair for it seemed like an eternity. Oh and I'll never forget how she cut my hair..... Not really. It was only a trim of my bang area of a small strand no longer than the tip of her finger to give it the neat little last touch. Only for me to complete the process with a head full of tight curls that draped down to my shoulders and looked like dark flowing ringlets that made me smile all the way home.
Thus starting a trend for me in which my grandmother never got to see before she passed, how much of an impact she made on my life. I never thought that I would be good enough to really make this a career of my own, even though I was a bad braider!! I would put braids in my sisters hair so quick and neat that I amazed myself a lot of the times. But just as quickly as I raised my self up, there was always someone there to knock me down. So, I only thought of myself as someone who can never make this dream a reality due to the fact that I let someone else diminish my hopes and dreams of being the next Madam CJ Walker. Someone who possessed the skills and talents to invent something so revolutionary for all hair dressers all over the world, was stopped in her tracks at he age of 11.
Well, considering all of that is now in the past, I'm only looking forward towards the future and my future started in February 2011............
As a young woman growing up in this environment, also the oldest sibling consisting of 6 sisters, these skills were not only handed down to me, they were taught to me by a handful of aunts, cousins and may she Rest In Peace, my grandmother.
I was maybe 6 or 7 when my grandmother put the first ever chemical in my hair widely known as the Jeri Curl. LOL. I was excited and a little afraid of what my mother would think if I came home with my hair all saturated in this chemical that caused my natural kinky curly hair to this tighter curl saturated in this liquid that I had to wear a shower cap on my head that kept it from leaking onto my mothers' sofa. My grandmother took very good care of my hair right in her own kitchen. Applying the rods, saturating my hair in this really foul smelling liquid which had to sit on my hair for it seemed like an eternity. Oh and I'll never forget how she cut my hair..... Not really. It was only a trim of my bang area of a small strand no longer than the tip of her finger to give it the neat little last touch. Only for me to complete the process with a head full of tight curls that draped down to my shoulders and looked like dark flowing ringlets that made me smile all the way home.
Thus starting a trend for me in which my grandmother never got to see before she passed, how much of an impact she made on my life. I never thought that I would be good enough to really make this a career of my own, even though I was a bad braider!! I would put braids in my sisters hair so quick and neat that I amazed myself a lot of the times. But just as quickly as I raised my self up, there was always someone there to knock me down. So, I only thought of myself as someone who can never make this dream a reality due to the fact that I let someone else diminish my hopes and dreams of being the next Madam CJ Walker. Someone who possessed the skills and talents to invent something so revolutionary for all hair dressers all over the world, was stopped in her tracks at he age of 11.
Well, considering all of that is now in the past, I'm only looking forward towards the future and my future started in February 2011............
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