We recently connected with Airaina Knight and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Airaina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I was in Humanities class in my Alma Mater Fayetteville State University. We were learning about Nubia and the Nubians when God laid it in my spirit. I could not tell you anything else about the Nubians because that word took a difference. It was given to me in an instance N U WB N S and the words rang out Naturals Unisex Weaves Braids Nails and Skin. I liked it! I saw the words Nuw Bn llike become a new being. There was another tagline born, reflect the nuw bn in u.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Dr. Airaina Griffith-Knight Well educated, talented, professional , and multifaceted natural hair beauty industry Veteran. I entered this industry in 1997 after completing 9 months being groomed to practice Cosmetology. Upon completion i did not feel confident about applying relaxers and using shears on the public and so I vowed to stick with what I knew, braids and continue working on my education and psychology degree at fayetteville State. I would then get overwhelmed with all of the unchartered business. It wasnt until i decided to hire that i realized there were no qualified people and i would need to train. i then decided I would go back to beauty school to become an istructor. Once upon a time I was double majoring but I learned a graduation with a liberal arts degree was around the corner if i dropped one of my programs. I did I dropped education and went to pick it up on the technical side. later on during my work in a Masters degree, i learned that my industry was not safe and we werent protected as braiders in NC so i decideed to seek the respect that I fealt we deserved. I am most proud of accomplishing everything I sought to do in my career. I went to the highest level in my field, pledged a sorority, gave people jobs, gave people scholarships, taken people from poverty and watch them create lucretive careers and provide for their families.. I want people to learn how to reflect the New being that we receive and renew daily!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

standing behimd my work. being honest and straight forward with others. being more than fair with others and being humble to take losses with people and creating win- win situations.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

I aws attempting to sell a business and one of my best friends found out about it. she wanted in. The worse mistake because i began at A and went all the way to Z without dotting any i’s or crossing any t’s. It was horrible I lost the business a friend, and a Goddaughter. I thought because she had been working with me that she was admiring me or paying attention to me, what I found is that she thought I was foolish and didnt know what i was doing. When I in turn showed her that i was intentional and deliberate she couldnt handle it amd blew up at me. She was hustling, stealing, and manipulating me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hairloomsacademy.com
• Instagram: NUWBNSINC natural hair maverick
• Facebook: Airaina griffith-Knight
• Linkedin: Airaina Griffith- Knight NUWBNS Queen
• Yelp: hAirlooms Natural Haircare Academy

Image Credits

Chip Foust
Cityview