We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Latasha Gray a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Latasha , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

In 2017 while working as a hairstylist at a commission based salon , I would sometimes receive a client that would book a sew in and on the date of service would bring their previously worn, dirty, mangled bundles and sometimes would request a color service on the bundles SAME DAY.This would turn their three and a half hour visit into a six hour or more salon visit. One day i told my client to drop her hair off at least 24 hours in advance before her scheduled install appointment. The client complied, and while I was detangling shampooing and preparing the hair for her service scheduled for two days later I was really at peace and fell in love with handling bundles of hair outside of the clients visit. I couldn’t wait to make it feel and look like new ! Within a few weeks I was cleaning and drying bundles and my fellow colleagues noticed that I was doing this process and also noticed how much care I was taking with the hair and thought it was a good idea to handle all service request two bundles before the actual appointment. This is when I realized that the process I was doing would benefit stylist as well as clients by saving time and effort in cleaning and servicing the bundles before hand. I wished I could do more of this over working on physical clients lol. I would imagine having a physical place with intake and workflow like a traditional dry cleaner. I often imagined how I would re- package the restored hair smelling like clean laundry with consistent packaging. This is when I decided to make this a business, THE HAIR LAUNDRY! I got an LLC and the business was born

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?

Hey yall ! My name is Latasha Gray. I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. I am a product of The Atlanta Public School System and I am 33 years old. I graduated from The University of Georgia with a BBA in Management Information Systems and Technology (MIST). While in college I attended Athens Technical College part time to obtain my Master of Cosmetology license. I did not worked in the IT field post college; however I worked in sales and account management during my brief corporate career with Coca=Cola and Hewlett Packard. I’ve always had an affinity with business process and hair! I love the hair industry so much that I left corporate America to live a life of entrepreneurship as a master cosmetologist and business owner in the hair industry, I first worked at Glitter Salon and Spa in Decatur. I was a stylist at Too Groovy Salon in midtown and proudly gained all the knowledge I have about silk pressing and texture styling through the Too Groovy education system. In 2017 I was recommended to participate in an interview on a GPB (Georgia Public Broadcasting) show called On Second Thought, where I was honored to speak with A’Lelia Bundles ( great-great- granddaughter of Madam C.J. Walker) and Environmental Working Group to discuss our views on the dangers of beauty products marketed to Black women. In 2017 I received a scholarship to be apart of the Paul Mitchell’s ACE Beauty Academy, where I was taught one-on one to master my cosmetology skills by beauty industry legends such as Camille Friend, Jacob Khan, Martin Parsons and many more. 2018 was an impactful year in my career as a founded my business The Hair Laundry, and I became a managing stylist at startup company, Sweetroots Hair Bar in historical West End, Atlanta (my old stomping grounds). During my tenure there I learned about caring for and styling hair with non-toxic and plant based products. in 2020 I took a leap of faith and became completely self employed and joined Salon K Merrell in Forest Park, GA as a booth renter and gave The Hair Laundry a home base in this salon. I was contracted to be the official hair stylist for the Wakati product line and began growing my Grayt Wedding Hair services through Wedding Wire and The Knot. My favorite part about being a licensed freelance hair stylist is the ability to work across the industry, So, besides being a salon stylist, I have enjoyed working as background hairstylist in tv, film, commercial and fashion in productions like Ragtrade Atlanta, TammyDele Films and The Fayette Gala, RHOA Phaedra Parks Pop- Up Shop, Black Panther 1 and 2, and BMF . Overall, I believe that my contribution to this industry and purpose in society is to truly to create businesses that improve the professionalism and efficiency in which the hair industry operates. The first step is with my business The Hair Laundry.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I love the hair industry so much that I left corporate America to live a life of entrepreneurship. I believe that my contribution to this industry and purpose in society is to truly improve the professionalism and processes in which the hair industry operates. The first step is with the Hair Laundry, please don’t hesitate to take your hair to the cleaners.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

As an entrepreneur I spend lots of time in my Jeep. So audiobooks have become my best friend. I have always been in the habit of reading to understand areas of life that i didn’t, or struggled to improve. I think that if more people read and understood The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. This book reveals a powerful code of conduct to transform self-limiting beliefs in order to experience life with more joy and reduce needless suffering. I have personally implemented these codes of conduct in my current life and I have experience results in my life. As apart of training and on-boarding, I have every employee I bring on to The Hair Laundry team read this book for the 4 principles it teaches: 1. Do your best at all times. 2. Dont make assumptions 3. Be impeccable with your words. 4. Don’t take anything personally. I want my team of employees to be enlightened personally first and developed personally using the Four Agreements as a resource.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.myhairlaundry.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehairlaundryatl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hair.laundry.735/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latashag/

Image Credits
Simeon Kelley