Trina, Naturally: An Interview About Business, Dreams & Hair

Trina doing what she does best.

This is the second time I have featured my hair stylist of 16 years, Trina, on my blog.  She is a wealth of hair care and style knowledge, so there is always endless insight she can provide.  The first interview, we touched on some of her hair care tips.  This time around, I wanted to focus more on the business side.  I mean, after all, when we hear politicians discuss small businesses, how often does your local hair salon come to mind?  Every time you have sat down in a swivel chair, been adorned with a cape and put your hair in the hands of someone wielding flat irons, smoking hot barreled curlers or a pair of sharp shears you personally supported a small business.  For some, their support comes as often as weekly or as little as annually for special occasions, trims, chemical treatments or color.  Regardless of the frequency of your visits, the hair industry is big business.  Whether the stylist is renting a booth or owns the “shop”, those individuals act as their own CEO, president and operations team all rolled into one.  The competition within the industry has always been fierce, yet in the wake of the natural hair “movement”, women are becoming less dependent on their stylist and more self-sufficient and knowledgeable about their own hair.  If you stopped 10 random natural-haired women on the street, at least 7 of them have done their own hair.  With YouTube videos, meet-ups, product swaps and natural hair bloggers infiltrating your Facebook and Twitter timelines, there is so much information and there seems to be less of a need for going to the salon.  Visit your local Target, Walgreens, CVS or even Whole Foods and you are sure to find an end-cap or two featuring natural hair care products.  So with all of this information and DIY tips floating around, where does that leave our beloved stylists?

I took the opportunity while having my hair finger-twisted at Trina’s N.V. Hair Studio, located in downtown Chicago, to delve deeper into the subject.  I wanted her opinion.  When I first met Trina, I was a junior in high school; I just wanted my hair to be cute and manageable.   At that time, she was renting a booth.  Now the salon I go to is hers.  This year marks Trina’s 29^th year in the hair industry.  She graduated from Wilford Academy in September 1984.  Growing up, she was fascinated with hair.  She recalls her mom sending her to school with her hair looking one way and at some point throughout the day she would change it.  As early as the 3^rd or 4^th grade, she would do her sister’s hair and make “concoctions”, but back then she never “really claimed it”.  Since Trina has been in the business almost as long as I have been alive (she is not old, just started her career right out of high school), she has seen many changes take place in the hair care industry.  Some of the changes that stand out to her are the number of products and product knowledge by customers.  There has been an increase in choices for both salons and products.  One change she is not happy with is the “assembly line” mentality of some stylists these days.  Trina wants to put the “care back into hair care.”  

Trina has fully embraced the natural hair movement.  She has even started N.A.P.E.E. (Naturally Attractive Proud Energy Empowerment) Cakes a name she has created and hopes to brand to be synonymous with healthy hair.  The goal is to change the negative thoughts attributed to nappy hair and to use N.A.P.E.E. Cakes as a source of education and a forum for those with natural hair.  Trina admits the so-called natural hair movement has changed the hair industry a lot.  Especially for the professional who did not “jump on the train”.  She regrets that there are hairdressers who are “turning [natural hair] clients away because they can’t do it.”  What are the benefits of the movement?  “It’s great that women have embraced their hair.  [But] it’s a lot of work.  It’s good work.  Most heads need a break from the creamy crack.  That’s my campaign.  That is my point.”  Trina hopes N.A.P.E.E. Cakes will encourage women to embrace their hair no matter the coil or curl.  Making what may have previously been considered nappy i.e. bad hair, into the “new good hair”.  She wants women to “wear it and wear it well.”  N.A.P.E.E. Cakes workshops feature a wide range of hair textures and, of course, cupcakes.  “Who doesn’t like cupcakes?”

Trina throughout the years (clockwise):  Top Left- 5th Grade and Senior Photo, Right- before marriage and kids (1995 & 2005),  Bottom Right- daughter (R) and step daughter, Bottom Left- at last years inaugural N.A.P.E.E. Cakes event

With that said, I asked Trina how she competes with all the home techniques.  “I don’t” was her definitive answer.  Instead of making “How To” videos and blog posts the enemy- to hair stylists, she too has learned a lot from them.  Trina takes time to decode some of the products and their uses for clients in need.  “It can get overwhelming.”  Furthermore, she laments, women are spending their “last [dollar] on hair care products, [when] it’s all about DNA.  I want to bring the best out of your hair.”  Although loving hair care and products is not exclusive to Black women, there is something particularly special about our spending habits when it comes to our hair.  Trina says that that kind of attention and affection is not new.  It goes “way back.  We have always based things on hair.  We describe people by hair.  No other culture does that.  We have such diversity.”  She is right, think back to how you describe a Black woman, it usually goes something like this:  She has short hair.  She has a weave.  She’s the one with the braids.  She had a bob.  Her own family was always “fascinated with hair, in particular, her grandparents.  Trina recalls often cutting her hair while in beauty school and her family getting upset.  Her grandmother would tell her to “let your hair grow and wear your lip rouge.”  As a culture, Trina says, we look at “hair as beauty.  Hair can change things, change our moods.”

Trina counts YaYa from America’s Next Top Model cycle 3 as her current “hair hero”.  She adds Diana Ross and daughter, Tracee Ellis Ross, “I’m naming all natural women, aren’t I?”  Viola Davis made the cut, no pun intended, for just that- her haircut.  “I love that she cut her hair for the Oscars.  She stood her ground.”  Rounding out the group of hair and style icons is Solange.  “I love her whole style.  She’s got it together.”

With the wave of do it yourself product lines and salons going out of business all the time, Trina simply credits her clients for keeping her small business afloat.  She says most of her clients have been coming to her for over 15 years. “Old clients keep the doors open.”  Her definition of success is “going to work and being happy first.  The money will follow.  God, health, family, fun- surrounding yourself with people you look forward to seeing.”  Some other keys to her success are, “staying focused, learning new things.”  The hair industry is “full circle.”  A stylist must learn to take old “remedies and make them work for now.”

As the mother of an 11 year old girl, Trina wants to pass along the deep-seeded idea that she can do anything in life.  “She’s my inspiration.  She is fearless and coming out of her shell.”  A recent letter, her daughter Brooklynn wrote to her, ended with, “Mom, one day I think you’re going to change the world with the hair [you do].”  Trina, with pride, gushes, “She sees that I’m doing something I love.  I want to make a mark; change lives one curl at a time.”  In the next 5-10 years, Trina wants to see New Vision Hair Studio become incorporated into N.A.P.E.E. Cakes, becoming a household name.  Her ultimate goal is to host and create more style and hair workshops for women and young girls; with the thought that the workshops can one day grow into a fully-functioning hair school, providing young women an outlet and trade.

Trina (Center) surrounded by hair models at the N.A.P.E.E. Cakes event

Trina's Tips for Summer Natural Hair Care

Tip 1:  Hair Mask

If you have never tried a hair mask, this is a great time to do so.  Use a oil hair mask the night before a shampoo.  Include a nice amount your favorite moisture conditioner, don't be shy!  The more hair the more product.  Part hair in four sections (if the hair is natural, you can skip this step).  Apply the mixed conditioner and your oil of choice- coconut, olive or grape seed- to the hair.  After applying to the entire head, add another round of the oil of your choice.  Detangle with your fingers and put on a plastic cap.  Let this sit overnight.  This is a great pre-treatment before you go to the salon or as a DIY shampoo.  From here you can wash-and-go with a PH Balanced shampoo or create a twist-out.  The result is super hydrated, moist and shiny hair.  I love, love, love this!

Tip 2:  Try Color

Ladies, if you are natural and you don't have color, your hair can sometimes appear dull and dry no matter how conditioned it is.  Consider getting a tone on tone color (your natural color), to add depth and shine or go a few shades lighter.  If you have hair commitment issues, try a few highlights to add personality to your style.  Talk to your stylist and get a good consultation.  DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!  

Tip 3:  Enjoy

Have fun!  Let your hair be a reflection of who you are within.  

Bare Essentials

Last week, my girlfriend and co-worker’s teenaged daughter Kim* visited our office.  She had an early day at school and stopped by, as always, to visit me at my desk to say ‘hi’.  On that particular day, she was flanked by two of her schoolmates.  As I am close to her mom, I had heard the stories of this threesome of friends who do everything together.  However, I had never met the girls.  They are all high school seniors, preparing for college- at least Kim is.  Here is what bothered me the most.  Contrary to Kim’s very naturally beautiful look (she wears no makeup, has her own natural and full head of hair, although she loves painting her nails, she does not wear false tips or overlays and she keeps a very casual chill look about herself- no heels or tight skirts and dresses), her friends were a little glam.  One had a full weave.  The color chosen was black, which is such a hard color for most to pull off, especially when you’re young and have her complexion.  The fact that it was long (past her shoulders) just highlighted how bad it was.  I could tell from my amateur eye, that it was human hair- I’ll give her that, but it was a low-grade selection.  The other friend had false eyelashes.  Anyone who has ever worn lashes knows that even with “individuals” (which she wore) there is a very short, acceptably cute lifespan.  Do not get me wrong, my intent is not to bash these girls.  I cringe at some of the outfits and makeup choices I have made in my youth and in some cases, not so distant past.  So I understand a young girls desire to be ultra-feminine and mature beyond her years.  We all have witnessed little 3-year-olds pressed to get any kind of lip gloss, even if it’s just Carmex.  My problem is with the moms.  I know as a woman with no kids, my 2 cents may not be looked at as much.  But as a woman, especially a woman of color, furthermore a Black woman, I shudder to think of how these girls truly feel about themselves- their true selves. 

For the record, my mom was not spending crazy amounts of money on hair or anything else for that matter.  If I got individual braids, it was more about convenience and upkeep, than style.  But whether I chose to adorn my hair with afro-centric fabric covered headbands to jazz up my mom’s homemade cornrows throughout junior high (yes, that’s right).  Or, I fell in love with and worked intricate earrings, I made the best of what I thought was a bad situation.  I felt pretty in my own way.  Did I want a relaxer?  Oh yes!  But my mom had seen my hair fall out previously from the chemicals and did not want to further damage my follicles.  As a woman now with “big hair”, I am so grateful.  Instead of helping your daughter learn how to manage her hair, whether it’s relaxed or natural, you have added a couple of packs of nonsense to it!  This is why there are grown women walking around who are crippled when it comes to their hair.  They never got to know or understand it.  If they have an interview, date, big event, etc., they shell out money at the salon or slap a wig or hat on to create a diversion.  The last time I went to the salon was in May.  I miss my stylist like crazy, but if funds or time do not permit, I am still okay.  The reason I, like so many other sistas, feel so liberated with natural hair is because the message it sends not only to the world, but to yourself is that, I am good enough.  I am pretty enough.   With the lashes, I love lashes.  I think there is no quicker way to spruce up your face than a little eyeliner and lash action.  However, this look can still be achieved with good ole mascara and drugstore eyeliner.  As someone who suffered from (and still does monthly) acne, I know how hard it can be to feel totally comfortable with one’s self.  Instead of buying me the whole caboodle of make-up, like some of the girls in my class, my mother let me get a pigmented Clinique Cream Stick.  That was my makeup.  And I thought I was doing it!  What message are you sending your girls if you do not stress the beauty they possess without and within? 

Yes, hair and makeup take us to another level; but a good, workable canvas is essential.  Recently, while vacationing in Mexico, I noticed that after the first couple of days, a clean face with sunscreen became my beauty regimen.  Although I brought some product to do my hair at night in order to keep it “stretched”, coming in from partying at 4:30am, made that a task that would not be accomplished.  So my hair, affected by the humidity, stayed soft and fluffy, and short.  At an intimate gathering hosted by the same previously mentioned girlfriend, a friend of hers, who happened to be a professional photographer, brought his “big boy” camera.  I asked if he would take my picture.  My instinct was to stand up and pose.  But he instructed me to, “no, sit back down, that was a good shot.”  I did, and the pictures are beautiful.  There is one close-up and the other showing the full body.  Taken at night, he captured my glowing skin (my home body scrubs are indeed working) and yes, me being critical of myself, I noticed the slight dark circles under my eyes.  But if I am fair and honest with myself, there is not that much to critique.  The picture is all me- sans makeup.  I may have worn a little of eyeliner and/or mascara, but beyond that, the picture is me at my purest form.  We should teach our girls to appreciate themselves, as they are.  Then they will know how best to accentuate their assets and love themselves without any additives.

*Name has been changed.