We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Davina Xavier Allen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Davina below.

Davina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

‘It’s alright he said”, don’t cry we will find a place I promise, even if we have to drive to Miami my husband Ted kept telling me after each disappointed visit to different salons. We migrated from the island of St Marten 24 years ago to the city of North port with our 3 boys, Davrick 6, Denzel 5 and Devon 2 months old.
I was having difficulty finding a salon in our area to to not only provide the services that I needed for my texture hair and also provide the fun and relaxing atmosphere that I was accustom to in St Marteen. After many horrible experiences including a 3rd degree burn from a relaxer I know that I needed to be the change that I needed in my area.
In St Maarten, sales and marketing was my primary job, I was also braiding hair for all hair textures types as a secondary form of income on the beach at Divi Little Bay Resort.
Because of these horrible experiences I decided to go and get my license to do hair. I grew up always playing with hair, I have 11 sisters and 4 brothers and being the second child one of my duties was doing the hair of my siblings.
There was no hair schools where I lived. I would have to go to a private school in Sarasota, Fashion Focus Hair Academy!
Driving to Sarasota from North Port was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, I had never driven on a road as big or busy as I-75, The very first time I actually drove into the wrong ramp towards the incoming traffic. .
I did not let that stop me, every evening after my husband came home from work I would drive to Sarasota holding onto the steering wheel like my life depended on it, praying to God all the way there….

At school I meet a young lady name Kelly and we became friends, who was also opening up her first salon and Spa 40 minutes from where I live.
I was being recruited by some of the high end salons in Sarasota, my reputation at being a very balanced stylist who was doing all hair texture types and hair extensions etc, I wanted to open up a salon in my city of North Port, Instead I rolled the dice turned down the other offers and teamed up with Kelly and drove 40min to work every day, until the day I showed up to work and part of the roof of the salon building collapsed after a bad rain storm.
By that time Kelly already knew she no longer wanted to be in the salon business and paid me off with salon furniture which I took to open up my first very very small salon which had 3 stations, which was rented from me by two of the other hair dressers from Kelly’s salon & Spa. A big difference from the salon and spa with tanning stations that I started my beauty career in. One of the best things that would happen to me before the roof feel in, I meet a sales representative that would introduce me to the other side of the beauty industry, the professional products and the education they provide. She would introduce me to the brand I still educate for for over 22 year, my game changer.

My husband thought that getting my license would get me access to professional products so I could do my own hair and would get him off the hook. He had no idea that I planned on being the change we needed in our community. A salon providing hair care services for all textures, race or gender, where anyone came come in and be served, a place where all the service providers has to learn how to do all hair textures, using the top products in the industry

Davina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

‘It’s alright he said”, don’t cry we will find a place I promise, even if we have to drive to Miami my husband Ted kept telling me after each disappointed visit to different salons. We migrated from the island of St Marten 24 years ago to the city of North port with our 3 boys, Davrick 6, Denzel 5 and Devon 2 months old.
I was having difficulty finding a salon in our area to to not only provide the services that I needed for my texture hair and also provide the fun and relaxing atmosphere that I was accustom to in St Marteen. After many horrible experiences including a 3rd degree burn from a relaxer I know that I needed to be the change that I needed in my area.
In St Maarten, sales and marketing was my primary job, I was also braiding hair for all hair textures types as a secondary form of income on the beach at Divi Little Bay Resort.
Because of these horrible experiences I decided to go and get my license to do hair. I grew up always playing with hair, I have 11 sisters and 4 brothers and being the second child one of my duties was doing the hair of my siblings.
There was no hair schools where I lived. I would have to go to a private school in Sarasota, Fashion Focus Hair Academy!
Driving to Sarasota from North Port was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, I had never driven on a road as big or busy as I-75, The very first time I actually drove into the wrong ramp towards the incoming traffic. .
I did not let that stop me, every evening after my husband came home from work I would drive to Sarasota holding onto the steering wheel like my life depended on it, praying to God all the way there….

At school I meet a young lady name Kelly and we became friends, who was also opening up her first salon and Spa 40 minutes from where I live.
I was being recruited by some of the high end salons in Sarasota, my reputation at being a very balanced stylist who was doing all hair texture types and hair extensions etc, I wanted to open up a salon in my city of North Port, Instead I rolled the dice turned down the other offers and teamed up with Kelly and drove 40 minutes to work every day, until the day I showed up to work and part of the roof of the salon building collapsed after a bad rain storm.
By that time Kelly already knew she no longer wanted to be in the salon business and paid me off with salon furniture which I took to open up my first very very small salon which had 3 stations, which was rented from me by two of the other hair dressers from Kelly’s salon & Spa. A big difference from the salon and spa with tanning stations that I started my beauty career in. One of the best things that would happen to me before the roof feel in, I meet a sales representative that would introduce me to the other side of the beauty industry, the professional products and the education they provide. She would introduce me to the brand I still educate for, for over 22 year. Pureology would become my game changer.

My husband thought that getting my license would get me access to professional products so I could do my own hair and would get him off the hook. He had no idea that I planned on being the change we needed in our community. A salon providing hair care services for all textures, race or gender, where anyone came come in and be served, a place where all the service providers has to learn how to do all hair textures, using the top products in the industry

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

Education, and the fact that I genuinely care about the people that walk through our doors, we prided ourselves in providing our clients with the highest quality service combined with education. Being able to provide service to everyone that walk though our doors no matter race or gender is what’s sets us apart. I also focused on being a great mentor and coach to everyone I came in contact with,I am always working on creating an environment where everyone felt welcome.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My dream has always been to grow our culture, As an National Educator for one of the top brands in the US, I had the opportunity to travel all over sharing my passion for the beauty world, I saw the need for more of the culture/environment that I had started in my home town, and very much wanted to expend. . I attended a business class and soon realized that I should restructure our salon and Spa hours to 2 shifts, 8- 1pm and 2pm- 10pm to accommodate our clients that finished work after 5pm. Once that was in place and we had staff to attend to the clients there, our next move was to open a second location in the next city, of venice Fl, Unfortunately Covid happened 2 months after we opened it and after five months of trying to hold on to both locations we had to pivot and let the venice location go due to its location. Such a beautiful salon and spa but it was located in an independent/assistant living facility, I couldn’t in good conscience bring outside customers into the facility knowing the danger that could come to the people that live there. So we lost that investment and refocused our energy on our original location.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.dvinassalon.com
• Instagram: Dvinaallen @DavinaA6951076
• Facebook: Davina Xavier Allen D’vina’s Salon & Spa
• Linkedin: Davina Allen
• Twitter: Davina Allen @DavinaA6951076
• Youtube: Davina Allen @dvinaallen4680
• Yelp: D’vina’s Salon & Spa
• Other: D’vina’s Salon & Spa

Image Credits
Reinhardt Kenneth Harpers Bazaar magazine photo shoot