We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ebony Sade a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ebony, appreciate you joining us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?
A lot of ladies are choosing to wear and care for their natural hair these days where as before “protective styles” like lace fronts, wigs and closure pieces are slowly making an exit. Choosing a more natural looking extension install that closely resembles your natural hair is an extra boost of confidence because there is no worry about lace being exposed or lifting. This can cause embarrassment and uneasy questions from those that aren’t educated in the beauty industry.
I started diving a little deeper into extensions that give extreme versatility but at the same time be easy enough to manage and cared for once my clients leave my chair to go home and tend to their daily lives. Most women want versatility, having the option to be able to wear your hair in a high bun/ponytail, to be able to flip your hair to the left/right, middle part or half up/half down styles is very attractive! I wanted to be that stylist that offers that so this is where I came across strand by strand extension techniques.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a graduate of Lancaster High School, class of 2008 where I received most of my credits to obtain my cosmetology license. I was enrolled in a cosmetology program from Sophomore to my Senior year. Unfortunately, I had to take a slight detour for a few years because…LIFE! Lol that’s the best way I can explain it. I had a lot of discouragement around me and I was convinced that doing hair was not a real job. So I went and got a real job.. corporate america really molded me and gave me customer service skills I don’t think I could’ve learned on my own so I’m very grateful for that but I was so unhappy. Unfulfilled, unappreciated, stressed and overworked. I was literally just working to pay bills and in the back of my mind I always knew I wasn’t supposed to be there. I always daydreamed of being a successful hairstylist but I could never wrap my mind around how I could start. At this time I had a child that depended on me so that made things more difficult. I had to figure out how I was going to pay bills, take care of my little one and finish getting the rest of my credits.
The perfect opportunity came when I was laid off, I was able to enroll part time at a local program to finish getting my credits and my dream slowly started to unfold. I was now a licensed hairstylist!
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Word of mouth! While we live in a digital age, the power of the tongue is still very relevant. While I get a lot of exposure from social media, my clients are my walking billboards. I’ve gotten so many referrals from word of mouth and these clients, I find, seem to be the most loyal.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to learn to push through the resistance. Bring an entrepreneur you learn really quickly that everything has a season. Just because it’s slow right now doesn’t mean that you’re not good at what you do. In the summertime people are traveling or on vacation, during Christmas most are trying to buy their kids the latest edition of the new PlayStation so getting their hair done is not priority.
In my slow seasons (which I rarely have now) I would spend my time getting better and practicing on my mannequin to prepare for when I’m back running again.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.hairbyebonysade.com
- Instagram: @ebony.sade