We were lucky to catch up with Raissa Etono recently and have shared our conversation below.

Raissa, appreciate you joining us today. Do you have any thoughts about how to create a more inclusive workplace?

Before becoming a business owner i was a braider myself, i worked in three different braiding shops and they all had one thing in common which was no inclusiveness amongst braiders or even the owner, everyone had to fetch for themselves somehow, everyone fought to be the owner’s favorite in other to get little favors like for example; be assigned to more clients than others etc ..which therefore created unnecessary competition and jealousy among us, resulting to an unhealthy workplace. As a young amateur at the time i just had to swing through the waves to survive ,that experience made me put into prospective how i wanted my braiding shop to function.

My goal is to creat a family oriented work place, where we can all be able to help each other in areas we might be struggling in, that way no one feels left behind. The goal is to push each other to our full potential and not tear each other down by creating unhealthy competition. It doesn’t help us as human and also for the business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My names are Raissa Etono, i am the co-founder and co-owner of bomb hair studio located in Addison Tx, Braiding has always been my passion, i started braiding at a very young age either practicing on dolls or begging my siblings to let me braid their hair. The older i got the more i wanted to dive into it, i worked and gained some experience at some braiding shops.. working at a braiding shops allowed me to gain an insight of the salon industry. after working at braiding salons for a couple of years in 2021 a friend and i decided to open up bomb hair studio.

we provide hair braiding service and loc services to black women , our job entails giving women freedom to be able to not worry about crowns they can take on the world with complete freedom. We empower women to love their natural hair. We are able to do that by serving women with microlocs services, knotless braids, bomb twists and spring twists. We are known for our bomb twists and Belle Microlocs™. We offer a luxe ,high quality and fast braiding service that caters to our black queens. Our main focus is making sure each and everyone of our clients have the best braiding experience, feel confident and trust their crown is in good hands.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My business partner and i met through a mutual friend in 2016 and instantly connected through our love for hair braiding. Three years later we decided to start working together by collaborating on tours. We started offering a service called Bomb Twists which is a natural and lightweight hairstyle that black women desired because it blends well with our natural hair. We wanted to do styles that would encourage women to not have to put chemicals in their hair. We are both super fast braiders so we formed a great team and gave women exactly what they needed.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

To come up with funds for our business was extremely hard because we were going through a pandemic at the time, everything was slow but that made us work even harder because we had a goal we had to accomplish.. so we had to dig into our savings , took extra clients at home, worked long hours to come up with the budget. It was a long few months but with hard work and dedication everything worked it.

Contact Info:

• Website: Bombhairstudio.com
• Instagram: @bombhairstudio