We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Renay Bossy Graham. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Renay bossy below.

Renay bossy , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

Hikey-hello gorgeous..
I’m bossy ….
I’m a licensed cosmetologist a West Coast La greedy girl…. lol who loves hair.
My salon specializes in individuality for every client. Our clients are walking talking advertisements the best kind to have.
We specialize in customer service 90s style you get your hair done on time so, I think that separates us from the industry altogether…lol. We actually thoroughly wash and Clem’s hair what a game changer lol… I say that was super sarcasm.
I think we’re different from the air quotes Instagram salons or stylist no shade.
But we definitely make sure that our clients experience a life-changing hair service environment if that makes sense. We provide life-altering growth services . We use treatment such as red light treatments .I have products that I make in my own kitchen I can’t give everything away but if you look at our Instagram and our website we definitely have success stories with cancer and alopecia patients.We keep our clients We have a lifelong clients.
I would say my salon is rare The industry it’s not exactly professional shall we say.
There are so many horror stories where clients are losing hair ,losing their edges.
STYLIST canceling at the last minute. We believe in true professionalism at
Hikey ya gorgeous LLC SALON . I’m definitely grateful for the training & tutelage from my West Coast OG stylist. Shout out to the king of Beverly Hills Elgin Charles. From a little girl I was always taught that he was one of the standards of the hair styling community in Cali.
Now my salon business right now we are traveling salon. This 24 year was our year of pivoting forward not letting any circumstances situation get in our way. Translation any trifling no good Salon suite owner . Could ruin or deter us from our success. A little bit of honesty … Such a Sagittarius thing to do at all times might I add lol..
I personally treat everything client like I want to be treated myself.
Time is money and people can definitely spend their money and their time elsewhere. For me I want to make sure that they get an experience a gorgeous experience darling.
We separate ourselves from industry standards by. Making sure that each client’s individual needs are met . We actually provide full service hair care knowledge cleansing treatments.etc.
That’s really a thing I promise, bear basic bare minimum of washing hair
To me it’s laughable but it’s reality.

We separate ourselves by being an all-inclusive kind of one-stop shop.
We do a lot of bundle packages with hair and services included.
We try really hard not to nickel and dime our clients are make our clients feel like they’re being taken advantage of. With still making sure that we make a profit because of course every company every salon suite owner is in our pockets .Don’t get me started….. But our services consist of and run like this when it comes to bundles…

So we have like haircut services that come with cut, basic color ,hair – aftercare information which is huge because a lot of people don’t do that.
We personally believe that you’re a walking talking advertisement . we want our work to look great even
, when a client is away from us weeks later.
Just know the best compliment to a salon our advertisement,is word of mouth definitely not IG people don’t want to believe that but it’s word of mouth and you’re walking talking advertisement your clients walking around with great hair months later your color service still looks great 10 weeks later..
I believe what separates us from this industry of hair styling is definitely the personalization of each appointment .the treatment of each client customer service people. Please return to customer service.

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

My story is a little different.
I’m a shop baby- a West Coast shop baby.
Meaning I had to be babysat. My parents were real protective so it was family only.
My family that babysat was my auntie’s that were hair stylist.
So I got the bug early of loving hair and everything about it.
I learned about professionalism real early. I believe that’s the thing that saves me -in this industry the world that we live in now that’s very much social media driven.

My old school tutelage of do it yourself and create your own I was tired how to create my own products This is why I specialize in hair growth and I have great success with alopecia diabetic and of course cancer patients I’m grateful for learning how to hone my talent.
My salon and brand go by the same name Hikey ya gorgeous LLC SALON ™
I created my business out of necessity. One of the hardest points in my life I created this business after losing my parents. For me it was really sink or swim time and I chose to swim.
I’ve been able to get articles work with different organizations like the national Cancer society with less than a thousand followers on all social media platforms.
Truly because of my determination and self-awareness and complete drive I’ve been able to hustle and connect my business with these different organizations.
By the grace of God .I have complete success.
I know I loved hair. I love to interact with people so I put those two together. I just basically went with the things that I knew best and hair was one of them.

BUT NOW THE GAME OF HAIR HAS CHANGED AND NOT NECESSARILY FOR THE BETTER CUZ IT’S NOT BASED ON TALENT ANYMORE IS REALLY BASED ON PERSONALITY WHICH I HAVE ONE A BIG ONE I JUST DIDN’T THINK THAT I WILL BE FORCED TO USE IT. MEANING We have to now play the IG game and let people into our personal lives to actually have the level of success that we want kind of the gift and a curse I guess. It’s an odd place for me considering.

I built my business on word of mouth so I’m kind of one of those stylists like if you know you know.
I’ve been able to work with a lot of different successful women heads of companies things of that nature in the professional world lawyers doctors chiefs of hospitals.
Strictly off of my hustle I work differently.
I knew that I wanted to make sure all women were able to be gorgeous.
Me being a multicultural stylist meaning I do all women all textures of hair

I never allow myself to be put in a box as a melanin rich woman .
Instead of leaning solely on social media like most hair stylist do big mistake in my opinion
I’m grateful that I was raised by OG stylist on the West Coast.
Sometimes you have to go to the client. Let me give you an example to show you what I mean here’s the hustle….

I know that there’s a need for a good hair stylist amongst nurses RNs and doctors.
So I went to all my local hospitals and went to the nurse’s desk.

I gave some sample of my products
Some free lashes and lip glosses and I gave them my advertisement.
I’ll let the nurses know that I have late appointments or early appointments available for them.
I came up with a referral program which worked out really well for me.

I know that I wanted my business to be centered around a certain type of client. Professional is the word that comes to mind…
So I went after those clients with full force shall we say lol…
This is what I mean when I say I’m West Coast different.
I went to business conferences and mingled with successful women.
There again I passed my advertisement.

That’s what I mean by you have to know your client. you have to know your niche within the hair industry and just go for it bet on yourself I don’t know any other way of doing it.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

This is a great question.
One lesson I had to unlearn as a license cosmetologist and a melanin rich woman..
Because the world is different for us
I don’t have to kill myself to have a successful business.
I don’t have to work myself into a early grave to have a successful business.
It’s okay to say no. Follow your first mind. All money ain’t good money.
Never drop your integrity and your morals for any amount of money 💰 💰 💰 It will come back to bite you if you do.

Those are just some of the lessons that I learned and I unlearned from being taught to work extremely hard you can still work hard and be successful and not stress yourself out because if you stop moving your business stops moving as a cosmetologist most of the time Don’t let nobody lie to you nobody loves your business like you do. So we cosmetologists end up handling everything we’re always really hands-on. I had to learn that it’s okay to set personal boundaries and to pay attention to your own mental health as a melanin rich woman that is such a big thing for us to start doing and to live by. And this year of 2024 was definitely a learning lesson and definitely put some of my former beliefs to rest permanently grateful for it.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Another great question
Funding my business was not easy because…
Here’s a moment for the readers This is the God to honest truth 💯 This is the hard QUIET part out loud be prepared.

As a melanin-rich woman….
The world is not the same for us in business at all The opportunities loans grants are not the same for us We don’t get what everyone else gets and that’s reality We get denied That’s reality with more talent a better business plan you name it
And I’ll say the small business association is definitely not helpful in every state especially Southern States you feel in the blank. I went I was not helped I literally had to file a complaint… A little FYI for the reader.
We have it 2millon times HARDER THAN ANY OTHER GROUP OF PEOPLE ARE ANY OTHER GROUP OF WOMEN EVER WILL HAVE IT AND I STAND ON THAT BECAUSE I AM THAT WOMAN AND I WATCH WOMEN AROUND ME GO THROUGH THE SAME THINGS AND WORSE
we’re taught when we first start out that we have to be a hundred times better than anybody else to get a FRACTION of what anybody else would get That’s reality This is the harsh QUIET part out loud I’m not afraid to say it… I want every woman reading this to continue to keep going ESPECIALLY MELANIN RICH WOMEN ,because for every NO THERE’S is one yes that you will get..

As for me I literally had to work and do hair .I had to sell my products. I had to teach my skill set to other people as far as like weaving and braiding, coloring . I hustled to get the money together to open my first salon suite….along with my second one when my first salon suite went bad due to management issues — them literally stealing from my account..
In this hair business we go through the WORST
We don’t have the help that we actually need so we end up starting over a lot. That’s reality. THE SBA NEEDS TO BE PUT ON BLAST.. THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO HELP US AND THEY DON’T THAT’S REALITY AND THERE ARE SO MANY WOMEN WHO LOOK LIKE ME TO HAVE THE SAME STORY AND WORSE..
The harsh truth is I had to sell every talent that God has blessed me with. turn around and save all of the money from those talents that is how I opened my business. Selling food selling baby room designs selling personal styling selling my actual ability to do hair My hair weaving services My specialties in camouflage extensions for alopecia clients. I’m grateful that God bless me with so many different talents but I shouldn’t have had to go through that I should have been able to get help from the SBA . I still need help with my business you know on the back end and I really have to learn as I go because the help that other groups of women get it’s not there for us that’s just the reality for melan rich women I know so many of us that go through this.. I don’t like it but I’m grateful for YouTube University.lol

The authentic sad part about this whole thing is when we do have groups of women that get together to just help melanin rich women you have evil jealous people that go to supreme courts and put a stop to us Are they think they put a stop to us and we just do what we do best we start over again. So no there was no loans for me there was no help for me from the SBA .there were no grants that was offered or shown to me… What you see is pure West Coast hustle. I wanted something and I work to get it like all women who look like me do respectfully… That’s my story on capital… Women with less talent and no business plan who don’t share my complexion I watched get loans and grants.. and get help from the SBA I have a friend of mine who’s a stylist and she couldn’t believe what happened to me because everything she has is because of the SBA They helped her she got several grants she got capital investments everything for business that she cares nothing about and is now closed might I add so yeah me the melanin rich woman.. We do exactly what we always have to do we’re forced to it’s not that we want to we’re forced to I say that loud and clear. We hustle we save we work ourselves to the bone..The end

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