We were lucky to catch up with Kellie LeDay recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kellie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career

I believe that the education system we have in place right now does not actually prepare kids for real life skills. I almost feel as if we are failing our kids. Failing them not in the education system metric way, but it’s almost like we are only preparing them to become “factory workers “, which absolutely nothing is wrong with what. We are prepping them to go to grade school, then go to college and create debt majority of the time, before they’re able to fully understand what debt is, and what it does to you in adult life, to only work for someone else, until they are 60-70 years old and after retirement they are told to “go enjoy life”. That’s not the way of life in my eyes.

A more fulfilling life should begin with the right life skills and tools for life. A lot of things that are being taught in the education system is not necessary for the real world. For example, history, how is the past so important when it has nothing to do with the future living in this day and time. Things that need to be incorporated in schools are things that our kids need to survive. Things like farming, Entrepreneurship, physical Health, mental health, automotive, financial literacy, how to fill out job applications, nature, even teaching them the ins and outs of buying a home, etc. When I was in middle school, we at least had home economics where we sewed materials like pillows and blankets, we also cooked food. One of the most important things we learned was how to write in cursive and sign signatures. Those things have been removed out of the educational system. It’s so important for the type of knowledge be taught to our kids for life survival traits.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

What I do here at Hairfiend Queenz LLC is, I create custom fit glueless units from scratch, on my sewing machine. I take measurements of my clients head and I transfer it to the mannequin head, where I began the process of creating what I call “Krownz”, using my very high quality mink Peruvian hair. I call my wigs Krowns because I see it as me crowning a queen. I like to say “Your hair is your Crown, you should never take it off” I have a few reasons why I chose to do the creativity that I do. One was the price for clients to get wigs put on or glue down was increasing rapidly. Installs went from $75-$80 to now up to $300. Not only was the prices increasing, but it was definitely not a protective hairstyle. Clients would eventually began to lose their edges, depending on the number of times that they will get their hair installed, if the wigs wasn’t being removed properly, causing the skin to become irritated, red, flaky, or even a rash.
Another reason I began to do my creativity is because I have cancer survivors in my family and friendships or even if it’s from alopecia, or maybe she wants to grow healthier hair without any damage to it. Sometimes for a woman to lose her hair can draw insecurities to herself. Insecurities to where she don’t feel as beautiful as she once did regardless, how strong she have to be for herself, or loved ones.
Lastly I created what I do, because when companies sell wigs, whether its small, medium or large, some people are in between a small and a medium some people are smaller than a small. Some people are larger than a large, and I wanted to be able to provide something that my customers feeling comfortable and beautiful. Something made “Just for them”.
I learned this craft from just getting on YouTube and watching others do this. The only other time I touched a sewing machine was in 6th grade. After learning the basics I took a virtual class online. I started making wigs in 2019.
I’m excited to announce I have new products I will be presenting spring 2024 !

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What I think helped me build my reputation within my market is I was my own walking billboard. I was the one modeling my own wigs when I didn’t even know I was modeling them. I would take very good photos go to the hottest spots in the city where I knew I would see my type of potential clients. It’s important to be in the right room at the right time with the right people. One of the most memorable ways I remember marketing was doing pop-up shops in Houston Texas. When I would do pop-up shops, I would bring everything to the table, literally, my sewing machine, loose bundles, created wigs, mannequin heads, even the measuring tape to measure anyone head who was interested in any kind of way.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

At the beginning, I was selling locally on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Word of mouth. In October 2021 I launched my website for the very first time. I wanted to do a website because I wanted to be able to be more worldwide and not only sell locally. So I wanted to incorporate shipping to the queens who would see my creativity online, but wasn’t in the same city or state. It was also, the fact of me wanting to build a bigger brand. I wanted clients to be able to find me and see my services and what I can provide without having to see me face-to-face.

Contact Info:

• Website: WWW.HAIRFIENDQUEENZ.BIZ
• Instagram: Hairfiend_QueenzLLC
• Facebook: Hairfiend Queenz

Image Credits
Photographs by Cameron Perry Make up by Meagan Phillips Hair and wigs by Kellie LeDay