Are you a Curly Hairstylist?

Hi! I'm Chelle ;)

Who Should I Become?

For a long time...

I aspired I'd become an obstetrician. I wanted to help deliver babies and was dead set on this idea for all 4 years of high school. Then, senior year hit me like a wall. Between makeup making millions and depression, I wasn't sure of much when it came to my future. After I graduated, I realized I didn't need to decide something so soon if I didn't have my heart in it. So, I worked at various mundane jobs. Still, knowing my purpose was needed somewhere else.

My mother suggested cosmetology school, and, funny enough, I never even thought about it until she brought it up. I used to spend hours locked in the bathroom, meticulously slicking, sewing, gluing every strand together. I learned out of curiosity mainly, but as a black girl with tight curly hair in the middle of Nebraska, I learned out of necessity. So, it only made sense for me to go to school to learn about my curls.

Missing Piece

While I attended school...

I went by the name Shawn. In our school if your name was too similar to someone else's you could choose a "fake" name. I loved this, I got to choose a new name, and a new start at life. After a year of being lost and confused on what I wanted to do, I finally knew what lit me up. Hair extensions, curly hair and fashion colors was on the top of my list to learn about. I wanted to be a stylist who knew and did it all. Especially with curly hair, if I was going to be a hairstylist and curly hair is a hair type, then I would need to learn curly hair. I found damn near everything in hair school- my purpose, ambition, and vision. Everything I'm thankful for to this day, but there was an essential piece missing. I went to school to learn about hair and that I did. Everyone's hair, but my own.

Hair school Chelle via 2019

The truth is I never learned how to care for my natural hair until I cared for others. This took years of trial and error to achieve later on in my career. After 15 months in hair school being told we didn't need to learn about curly hair specifically, overhearing "I'll never do those people's hair anyways,"and about a couple years of working in salons whose products wouldn't work for my curls, it become almost mandatory that I understand curly hair.

Imposter Syndrome

It all started with...

the simple question of "Do you want to leave curly?" Most clients were taken-aback from the suggestion. Some didn't even know they had curls at all, "just frizz". I barely knew anything about the curls on my own head, but I learned steadily about other people's curls through my very patient clients. Before this question I was just a baby stylist trying everything and most importantly- trying hard not to f' it up. Soon, I was getting the hang of it, just barely grasping the knowledge of my client's hair. At this point, I was given the title of "Curly Hair Stylist." I felt honored that someone would even consider me for the roll, but on the other hand I felt immense imposter syndrome.

During this time what made me feel like an imposter was in the name itself. "Curly," then, hair stylist. If you remember from earlier, the point of learning curly hair is because curly hair is hair and I'm a hairstylist. The title made me feel othered similar to how I felt in cosmetology school. I wasn't styling, cutting and coloring people's hair in their natural form to be a Curly and then stylist. I did it because I'm a hairstylist just like anyone else. I felt our clients deserve the option to be styled natural just as much as any other style. The option I am very familiar with never receiving.

In Conclusion

The next couple of years...

I'd continue my trial and error, then succeed my way into my current business, Morpho. A safe place for curly girls to be heard and understood. Through self education, failure, and free haircuts, I've learned how to love my own curly hair. The title is still a heavy weight to carry, especially at times when I think I'm not the right person to do it. However, that weight pushed me to bridge the gap with education on all hair patterns that's been missing in our industry and for me. I aim to normalize curly hair education with every cosmetologist because curly hair is hair and we are ALL hair stylists. Maybe one day every young lady slicking, gluing, and guessing circles around her hair can find a safe place to thrive like the one I've created.