We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jalysa Moody a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jalysa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

After starting my business and having a successful first year I decided to give back to my community. I partnered with a sorority sister to create a scholarship for young African-American women wanting to attend a Historically Black College and University . In order to raise funds for this, I reached out to all my friends, family members and clients asking them to support my endeavor. That support included liking and sharing my post on social media, donating financially, and sending the application to every qualified young lady. After only a few short months, my sorority sister and I were able to award four scholarship checks and college starter packages.

The amount of love and support I received was truly overwhelming. With their help, I was able to assist phenomenal young ladies in their academic pursuits. As a result, my clientele also doubled after people saw my commitment to our community. It was an amazing experience, made possible by the people who support me greatly.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

From kitchen beautician to owner of Naturally Monet Hair. As a young girl I used to sit and watch my mother do hair in our kitchen. It was just her side job but the more she did hair the more I grew fond of it. Once she realized how infatuated I was with hair she decided to buy me a professional mannequin head. I practiced day and night putting in relaxers, curls and braids. By the time I reached middle school, I was doing all of my friend’s hair and even the children of my mother’s clients. Once I reached high school there had been a cosmetology program implemented. There was no question whether or not I was going to take that class.

From there I eventually pursued my natural hair care license and after much hesitation, I decided to step out on faith and pursue my passion full time. Since starting Naturally Monet Hair, I have grown my clientele significantly with organic connections, taught classes and become the operated of the Girl’s Room, A hobby turned career, and I’m just getting started.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

When I graduated high school I already knew that I wanted to be a cosmetologist. My mother insisted that I go to college to get a four year degree and promised that once I graduated she would pay for me to go back to cosmetology school. When I first heard her say that of course I didn’t understand. She wanted me to have something to fall back on just in case hair didn’t work out. I completed my undergraduate degree at Elizabeth City State University earning my bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and entrepreneurship. Throughout my time in college I did hair on the side to make extra money. Even in college I had a great clientele. I would do sew-ins, braids and blowouts. I loved it. Once I graduated I moved to the Raleigh, Durham area where I started a job as a deputy clerk at the Durham county courthouse. Once my coworkers learned that I did hair, they immediately started booking appointments. Often visitors would ask my coworkers who did their hair and they would send them to my department. After the first few, I decided to order some business cards and I started giving them out at work. I would work at the courthouse during the day and did hair after work and on the weekends. Once I had my daughter, Ava, I decided to stop doing hair to spend my extra time with her. Once she got around the age of two or three, I started doing hair again because, of course, everyone was begging me to start back excepting clients. Shortly. after I started back, the pandemic came along and interrupted everything. During the pandemic we still worked pretty much full time at the courthouse. That’s when I begin to realize how unhappy I was doing my current job. Then I remembered my mom telling me that if I went to college to get a four-year degree she would pay for hair school. I started looking up natural hair programs because I knew all I wanted to do was braid. I came across Durham tech community college which offered that program. I reached out to one of the instructors and she sent me all the information that I needed. Once I realized that half of the program would be online and the other half would be in person, I called my mom right away for her to submit my payment. During this time I was still working full-time at the courthouse, doing hair on weekends, in school after work while also being a full-time mom. After 6months, 350 credit hours, and passing both state board exams, I was an official natural hair care specialist. I completed all my exams December 2020, found me a suite in January 2021, quit my full-time job in February 2021, and now in 2022 I own my own suite and rent out rooms to other professionals.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When I began hair school I knew it would come a day that I would need to have the funds available to get the supplies I needed to start my new journey. I had been saving the money that I was making on the side. Once I found a room to rent in a suite, I was able to pay my deposit and first months rent upfront. I then went to the hair store and bought all the supplies that I thought I would need for at least the first 2 to 3 weeks of me doing hair full time. My mom purchased my chair and hair station. I went in only signing a six-month lease because I didn’t know how business would be and I didn’t want to set myself up for a one year lease and not do as good as I thought I would. BUT GOD!!

I was always told to “work smarter not harder ”. I figured I could do the same as the lady I was renting from. So right before my lease was up, I started reaching out to realtors looking for my own suite space. On August 2021 I signed the lease to my very own five room suite.

My family came in and took complete control over everything. They fully furnished the entire suite space, purchased a sink , refrigerator, microwave and so much more. It was such a blessing!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Naturallymonet.as.me/
• Instagram: Naturally_Monet
• Facebook: Naturally Monet Hair