We recently connected with Isis Brantley and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Isis, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I was still in elementary school when I realized I was drawn to the creative/artistic path, as I loved singing and even speaking before an audience. My mother picked up on my talent and encouraged me to perform. I participated in school plays, and later in high school I was in drama and oratory. After high school I was off to North Texas University intending to major in theater. As my destiny worked out, I met friends who were into culture and history, and we formed a creative performance team, bringing our works to the community. All along I was becoming more interested in African natural hair braiding, which I had been practicing since childhood. My sweet Mommy had raised me to become independent. She worked two or three jobs while raising me and my siblings, so she was the model I needed to take charge of my life. Hair braiding rose to the top of my destiny, and I soon opened my own hair braiding studio in my home in south Dallas. So, one can see that my entire life was wrapped up in creative energy.

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?

I opened my first braiding studio around 1980, and from then on I have never stopped, being an independent entrepreneur since. Never, ever did I work for any other boss but myself and over the decades I have endeavored to pass on the motive and skills and knowledge to my students to endow them with success. After some years I became well known in Dallas, and word also began to spread around the country. During the first ten years I attracted many well-heeled clients who wanted to transition from relaxing to natural styles. I became known as Dallas’s Queen of Braids, and this really made me happy, for it let me know I had made the right choice, thanks to my ancestors. It was during those years that a young girl and her sister came into my shop, having seen the sign out front showing braids. Their Nana had given them $20 to spend, so I said, “Well, let me see what I can do.” The girl was Erica Wright, who in several years would become none other than Erykah Badu. Out of our friendship was born the now famous “Isis-Badu” braids that were a hit around the world. She was featured on numerous magazine covers crowned with my work.
In 1995 I was absolutely surprised and shocked when a women came into my salon and informed me she was fining me for braiding without a cosmetology license. This was the beginning of a 20 year fight for freedom and justice for ancestral braiders. The fine was bad enough, and the trial afterward, but one day seven cops burst into my shop again, and told me I was under arrest. I was placed in handcuffs and put in the back of a cop car, whisked off to Dallas County jail to be booked, strip searched and thrown into a tank – for the “high crime” of braiding without a cosmetology license.
That experience scared me, as I had five little children to feed and braiding was my life. But my community rallied, and a wonderful lady and her husband came to my side, Pamela Ferrell and her husband stood with me, encouraged me, and said I must fight. I did, a legal battle that went on and on. In 2013 I filed a federal law suit with the help of the Institute for Justice. We went to trial in January, 2015, and I WON! As a result, the Texas legislature amended the cosmetology law freeing braiders from state licensing. A new industry was then born.
During those years I had also begun my Braid Freedom Movement, which we celebrated annually with a parade and festival. I have continued producing these events, today in celebration of our freedom. Sadly many young braiders are totally unaware that it was the Isis Brantley House Bill #2717 signed on June 8 2015 that allows them to work without an expensive and mostly irrelevant cosmetology license. In 2023 the Texas Crown Act rode my movement to become law, barring discrimination against black natural hair in public schools and workplaces.
Decades ago I also founded my school, the Institute of Ancestral Braiding, and I have taught thousands this ancestral hair care knowledge, including my own branded techniques, such as my Isis Locs, and others.
I have a special interest in teaching children about their ancestral hair, and each summer have been doing a Crown Kids Camp; also, I love teaching non-black parents how to care for their black children’s hair.
Years ago I also created my own lines of hair care products, Sisters of Isis, enjoyed by many.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission in life is “Healing through the hair.” I am motivated daily to spread my knowledge to guide and heal clients who are challenged with hair loss, and other issues affecting their self-esteem.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Each time I touch a client’s head, and feel my love of their hair activating their crown, and then see the delight and joy when done, magnifies my reward at what I have been doing going on half a century.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.naturallyisis.com/
• Instagram: @naturallyisis
• Facebook: naturallyisis
• Linkedin: Isis Brantley
• Youtube: naturallyisis