Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Keyshia ‘MzzKeyz’ Reed. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Keyshia ‘MzzKeyz’, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
I started my career with the purpose of transforming hair, but I now understand that I’m building this corporation for the purpose of transforming lives. I’m here to help you stop letting the ‘I don’t know how to’ get in your way of fulfilling all your natural hair goals and to support you past your hair frustration into hair freedom! My mission is to show you what your hair can do and what you can do with hair through fundamental education that develops consistent maintenance skills and hair care routines that produce lasting results in overall hair health, cultivates a life skill and builds up self confidence in your natural hair!
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?
Doing hair has always been a part of me. A gift passed down from my mother’s mother, to my mother and then to me. Growing up, I remember my mom teaching me how to plait braids on my doll and it’s been history ever since. I eventually grew from playing in my dolls hair, to playing in mine. Then I went from mine to my sister’s and my grandmother’s (dad’s mom) to my friends at church and then at school! I quickly became the girl that could braid some hair hunny! And being raised majorly by my father, that meant less beauty shop trips! So you know he was happy!lol After that, doing hair just became my go to for a number of reasons and shortly after, really became my side hustle. I worked my little fingers to the bone for a loooong time! But around 2012 is when I really started to take this hair thing more seriously. Now granted, at this point, I still hadn’t gone to cosmetology school yet, stand alone natural hair schools weren’t a thing and honestly wasn’t I interested anyway, because who needs a piece of paper to tell me what to do, right? Chile, that couldn’t have been further from the truth! But I kept pushing through, with every client I got better and then… I discovered YouTube yall! Honestly, up to this point, about 2015 now, I had been self taught. So learning from youtube university, as they say, was quite the upgrade I didn’t know I needed.
Fast forward to 2016, I had really started building a name for myself. So I decided to stop playing and go to hair school. Problem was, I decided that I didn’t want to go the cosmetology route and with that option you learn everything from skin care to nails and I just wasn’t interested in any of that. I literally just wanted to do natural hair and braiding. Then I finally found a school in 2017! Tennessee’s first stand alone natural hair school called The Institute of Beauty! So I decided to take a leap of faith and finally enrolled, quit my job, of 3 years, at Walgreens and began a new journey as a natural hair student!!! It was the best decision I could have ever made for myself! Once I finished everything and officially became Board Certified, I thought it would be smooth sailing from there, but it wasn’t. It took a while to get my feet off the ground at first. A lot of trial and error, learning and unlearning and almost giving up. I went from paying commission, to booth rent to now owning my own salon suite! I grew from barely having 2 clients in a week to being completely booked 2 years later and turning people away! I even had to stop taking new clients after a while! In that short time I was able to go from not really having a plan or knowledge about entrepreneurship or business, to now having a full fledge Corporation and although small, it’s mighty in so many ways!
Stylez Beauty Company, Inc. is still my baby and it’s steadily growing to this day! Today, I manage about 60-100 recurring clients monthly, I produce my own all natural products: Herbal Oil Mix and Hydration Mix, and I am also in the beginnings of launching 2 new ventures: The Natural Mane-tenance Virtual Class Series via Facebook Groups (launching December 1, 2022) and The Natural Mane Workshop, a program I want to acquire contracts with the schools or city and one day launch into huge camps to bring this to kids of all ages throughout the school year! My goal is to help preteens, parents and professionals learn, practice and polish their natural hair maintenance and styling skills by providing foundational tools and industry experience to build confidence in execution, give encouragement in consistency and supply knowledge through visual, virtual and hands on teaching and learning!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
So this question can go so many ways, but my advice to any new stylists that don’t have the clientele, just yet, would be to…
1. Figure out what type of client you want to service.
What do they do? Where do they shop? What’s their lifestyle like? You have to know the type of person you want to serve in order to know how to find them, market to them, get them in your chair and keep them there! Create your ideal avatar(customer/client). If you need further assistance on more details, check out videos on youtube!
2. When selecting salons for your apprenticeship or a permanent location, scout the salon.
Go for a random drive through or schedule a tour. Check out the area and the people in it! Is the area safe? Is the salon environment conducive to what you want your clients to experience? Are the other stylists professional? Is it a welcoming environment? Is it an environment you can learn in and from the people there?
3. Use every opportunity you can to show off your skill or knowledge!
For me, I attended a lot of networking events and pop ups. I also vended at some events doing live demos, styled models hair beforehand, got shirts made and had them pass around flyers and cards or direct people back to my table, volunteered for hair events, photo shoots and fashion shows! Social media is great for a broader reach but word of mouth is KING when it comes to a local buzz! Also any opportunity you have to service and style a client in the salon is like an audition for others to see. You never know who’s watching or who will refer you! Always execute with excellence and consistency!
4. Always have your clients book their next appointment before they leave your chair!
This is how you create recurring clients! And also do follow up check- ins, this allows you to get more personal with your clients, create a stronger stylist/client relationship and they will really appreciate the time you took to ask them about their experience and how their results are lasting!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
That’s crazy because I’m actually in the midst of pivoting in lieu of this interview!lol So I mentioned the 2 new ventures that I’m in the process of launching, with the virtual class series launching next month and preparing the workshop program for proposals to submit to the city and the schools by the end of the year… Well, that is my pivot! lol Recently in my business, an opportunity presented itself to start shifting into education on the subject of basic fundamentals for managing and maintaining natural hair. Now I’ve always had the notion of teaching, another gift, and I thought it would be a great idea to combine my love for and ability to teach kids and natural hair! I figured since I started as a kid and loved it to the point that now it’s my career, why couldn’t I be the bridge in the gap helping kids learn a life skill directly from a professional. If you remember, I stated that I had been self taught most of my life and just recently been licensed now going on 6 years. So I want to now, provide kids with something I didn’t have in that space. The ability to learn how to manage their natural hair and be confident in their technique and outcome! Now luckily enough, we have youtube university but that can be overwhelming and still confusing to a point. I want to give a hands-on learning experience in fundamental detail on the basics and graduate from there. For kinky, coily, curly hair types, this natural hair journey has been tough, from finding the right products, prices skyrocketing in the salons to parents nowadays just not having the time or know how themselves to deal with an afro on a day to day basis, and I want to help teach kids in the correct way with the correct tools, terminology and techniques!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stylezbeautyco.com
- Instagram: www.intsagram.com/stylezbeautyco
- Facebook: www.fb.com/stylezbeautyco
- Other: www.keyshiawiththekeys.com
Image Credits
Melvin Alexander, Jr. Keyshia Reed