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

Tamika, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve had the name, heavenly Thairapy for over 13 years. It literally came to me in my sleep, along with all of my other creative inspirations that I have spiritually been gifted. All of which have paved the course and have allowed me to scale up to this position where I currently stand as Business Owner, Professional Hair Braiding Technician, Product Creator and Designer. I’ve always strongly believed that an intimate and symbolic relationship between Therapy and Hair has always existed, this notion became the catalyst for what would become Heavenly tHAIRapy Hair Braiding Studio.

At Heavenly THAIRapy, Our bottom line is, THERAPY THROUGH HAIR, because when you think about it,Beauticians are one of the few existing occupations which actually takes the time to listen to someone who actually wants to talk. After someone has had their hair done, they feel just as good as someone who just conversed with their therapist. Both of those individuals step out into the world filled with hope, renewed, refreshed and ready to take on the next level. And that’s the type of therapy I wanted to impart on people.

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

I started braiding hair at 12 years of age. I was tired of my mom putting dinosaur braids in my and my sisters hair for school and with starting junior high school, It just wasn’t an option anymore, so I learned how to do my own hair. You can say that I was one of the first to coin Knotless Braids, as, In 1992, at 12 years old, with my mom telling me not to put any fake hair in my head; And me wanting to put extensions in my head, I had to be very creative and discreet with how I added Braiding hair onto my own hair. I would start with my own hair and then add a little piece of braiding hair, and then a little more and then a little more until I had this nice sized braid that was undetectable to my mom and everybody. Once I began junior high school, everybody wanted me to do their hair, so at lunch and nutrition, I’m braiding kids hair into two cornrow braids and making five dollars per person, averaging $15-20 a day.

With My Family being below the poverty line, on the county, family of nine kids with a single mother, there was no lunch money to be had and so that became one of my first hustles, braiding at 12 years old.

Braiding followed me to college where I became the braider of all sports teams on campus. I was braiding hair for the men and women’s basketball team, the men and women’s track team, the football team, as well as various sororities and fraternities before their step shows.
I worked at a hair salon in San Fernando Valley, where I was introduced to celebrities and began doing some of their hair including our beloved Rick James, Trey Smith, (Will Smith’s eldest son), and also braided and nanny for Danny & Kathryn Federici of Bruce Springsteen‘s E Street Band. And even though I had all of this experience with braiding hair, I still chose my education and career in psychology over becoming a hairstylist, because, to a single mother of 9 children, who had migrated from a third world country, a hairstylist was not a real career. This too became my belief until I Quit my corporate job in 2021 working for a psychology firm In Santa Monica and became a full-time Business owner.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Heavenly THAIRapy manufactures its own Natural Hair Care product line. We manufacture our BEST SELLER’s Phenomenal Hair Growth serums, Whipple Butter hair creams, as well as strengthening and hair growth shampoo, and conditioning systems. Initially it took months of research to select the appropriate ingredients that would work in conjunction to provide the desired level of quality and outcome of the products.

We completed trial Studies with the consent of our clients, who provided reviews and feedback, as well as outcomes of their actual hair growth, and what the product had accomplished for them.

Valuable lessons were learned such that, although it’s easier and more expensive to hire someone to complete the research and manufacture the products for you, the value comes in, doing it yourself, knowing the formulas, learning the formulas, executing the formulas, and reaching the desired outcome each time.

This was an invaluable experience for me, because although I am a hair braider, I took pride in being able to develop, formulate and design natural hair care products for my clients that I made JUST for them. I was able to see the improvements each time they returned to my chair and they were able to see the improvements each time they take out their braids and saw hair Growth, and Regrowth. That is the inspiration and energy that kept me scaling up to the next level. It started with all natural hair oils, then hair creams, then shampoos and conditioners, and now I have my own hair braiding hair line. All of these Products lead to the successful opening of Heavenly THAIRapy Braiding Salon and Supply in Fountain Valley, Orange County.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of my funniest stories to date is the reason why I quit corporate America in 2021. The psychology company I worked for was able to successfully pivot through the pandemic, create new positions, and expand business, but to the detriment of its employees work- life balance. I was working six days a week at least 10 hours a day. I was overseeing the daily functions of 17 clinicians, 8 psychologist and 9 neuropsychologist, and I was the Regional Manager for 60 skilled nursing facilities in LA County. My company supplied those 60 skilled nursing facilities with psychologist and neuropsychologist from our company alone. The last six months of my time with my company, where the most crucial as they were shoving us into marketing positions on a whole nother level, making cold calls, and trying to intercept as much business as possible, due to the Increased need in telehealth. Covid numbers rising and dropping in the nursing homes made it undesirable to have the clinicians going in and so because we were able to institute telehealth all day, we needed to ensure that we had enough facilities.

They were forcing marketing down our throat daily where we had daily marketing meetings and marketing trainings and it went on for months and months it got to the point where I had enough marketing and I quit. I didn’t sign up to be no Marketer.
I left that company just to find out that once you start your own company the only thing you do is Marketing And advertising all day and so it was the funniest thing that I quit because of marketing and took on a whole new career where it’s all marketing, but I’m well trained, and God knew I would need the experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.HeavenlyThairapy.com
• Instagram: Heavenly.thairapy
• Facebook: Heavenly thairapy
• Twitter: Heavenlythairapy
• Youtube: Heavenly THAIRapy
• Yelp: Heavenly THAIRapy
• Other: Product line @hthairapy.com

Image Credits
S. Chandler T. Chandler