Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jikaiah Ayla. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jikaiah, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Incorporating feminism into the beauty industry was a natural progression throughout my career, as I realized how toxic this industry had been to women. I wanted to flip the toxicity that is bestowed on women in the beauty industry. I felt that when I worked with my clients, I was always wanting to reach who they were on the inside and figure out how I could make them feel empowered. I didn’t want to re-create something that they were told that they should be to be better ] Instead I ask my clients: “how do you want to feel? “How do you want to look?” I’ve had many older clients tell me that I’m the only one who’s ever asked them that question and it’s even brought tears to their eyes. My presence on social media has given me the space to speak about women’s rights and women’s empowerment, and given me the opportunity to be someone who can help them feel empowered on the outside as well as the inside. In New York City, I have noticed I have a really strong following of really successful women who want to sit in a space where they get to have their hair natural — styled and cut natural — instead of being told they have to have it blown out or they have to look a certain way. I book extra time with my clients because I really want to know who they are, what they stand for, and what the embodiment of those feelings inside looks like externally for them. I high-five them and tell them that this is something that they did for themselves and something that’s to be celebrated for themselves. So often as women we are told to be beautiful for the outside world, but if we claim that beauty and we acknowledge that we feel beautiful, then that’s a problem because it means we’re not the perfect little humble women society wants us to be. I say screw that. This is yours, you did this you, you found me, you’re paying the money and you’ve done something for yourself today. So please look at yourself and every reflection you pass, take all the selfies you want and post them because you get to celebrate you! This belongs to you. If you don’t wanna share those photos publicly, but you want somebody to celebrate them with you, I’m there. Feel free to always send them to me and I mean it! I genuinely wouldn’t still be doing hair after 20 years if I didn’t deeply care about the power of women and the connections I make while they’re in my chair.

Jikaiah, 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?

Sure. In this two-decade career, there have been many times where I could barely even pay the rent because salons would convince me that I was so lucky to have the opportunity to be there. Whether it was a celebrity stylist-owned salon space or a top-tier space, they didn’t feel they needed to pay me appropriately, even though they legally required me to be there for 40 hours a week. Often, I would only get paid 30-40% of one haircut or maybe for the two haircuts or services that I did for that whole week. Sometimes that meant I would get a two-week paycheck of just $200. Here I was working at these big salons where people would think that I was getting paid well, and yet my colleagues and I were all hardly able to pay our rent. My resilience kept me from staying in those places. I looked for other alternatives or worked for myself because I knew my value, and I didn’t quit this industry even though many times I wanted to. I had faced, at times, really toxic leaders who would degrade and diminish me and try to come up with reasons why I couldn’t be promoted. They would make you feel as small as possible. I remember really early on in my career being in tears because this woman spoke so badly to me. A colleague of mine gave me some really good early advice and told me that some people are just here to lay onto you what’s been laid onto them. So, as soon as you finish with their appointment and you’re done, go to the sink and wash your hands and wash them off of you. You’ll feel so much better and you won’t have to carry around that horrible experience or their energy, which we totally absorb. I’ve used this throughout my career and share it with other young people in the industry when they’re feeling discouraged and feeling like they must be so awful because this person spoke in this way.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In my career, there have been many instances where I’ve had to be resilient and innovative. To make ends meet and to fight either the downturns in the economy or more recently, the pandemic. During the pandemic, hair stylists around the globe were completely shut down and many of us didn’t receive any sort of unemployment or financial help for months — regardless, we stayed connected to each other and our clients. I started doing Zoom haircuts teaching my clients with mannequin heads on my side of the screen using my hair tools to show them how to cut their own hair. I taught trim classes online, and I taught many other hair stylists some of the haircuts and my techniques that I’m well known for in the hair industry. I believe the hairdressers in my industry really took this time as an opportunity to seek out more education, and we were learning it all from each other by being able to do these haircuts online and with Zoom classes. It really helped me get by and I know it did for a lot of others. I think we all learned how to be innovative and to see beyond just the physical, which prior to the pandemic had only been physically behind the chair. We started working with companies and having affiliate links. I’m genuinely quite proud to work for the company that I do, Hairstory, because they already had a really generous commission affiliate link designed for hair stylists to be able to give their clients to order products. I literally bought groceries with the affiliate commission checks when there was no other money coming in.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.Jikaiahstylist.com
• Instagram: @jikaiahstylist and @jikaiahphoto
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jikaiahStylist/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jikaiah-ayla-8b6a4510/
• Other: https://to.uptime.app/mMKYE90G4Ib