We recently connected with Thamar Williams and have shared our conversation below.

Thamar, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

At the one of the lowest point in my life, I needed a change and I figured rebranding my business would occupy my time and bring new purpose for me. One evening, a really good friend of mine and I sat around and threw out names until we agreed that Phenomenal Tresses was the new name for my business. It felt good to start fresh and give my business a new look.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was born and raised in Miami, Florida and I grew up in a household and family that were full of women and girls. Doing hair was second nature for me because my sisters and cousins were my dolls. There were times when I would try and braid my father’s beard and he would let me. So my fascination with hair started very early. As I grew into my teen years my mom allowed me to experiment more on my hair as a way to support the gift she saw in me and also to help her save money, lol! After awhile I was responsible for doing my twin sisters’ hair and that made a lot of my school friends want to get their hair done by me. It was fun and over time I was getting paid $25 to $30 to do hair. Back then, that was a lot! I was happy for it and it immediately sparked that entrepreneurial spirit in me. I went through high school and college doing hair for friends, classmates and people that heard of me from word of mouth. I moved to Tallahassee, Florida to attend the illustrious Florida A&M University to obtain my degree in Elementary Education. I’m a talker and love helping people so teaching seemed like the ideal career for me. Even with having my first born son during college, I managed to graduate college and still grow my hair business on the side. I immediately started teaching after graduation but my teaching career was short lived after getting let go due to the recession in 2009. As crazy as it may sound, I was not a bit concerned about what the future held because I had hair to fall back on. God told me not to apply for another teaching position and to just do hair. Although I was confused, I was obedient. This gave me time to really reevaluate where I was in life and how to make the most of the changes that was happening in my life. The following year I decided that I wanted to really invest in my business and I attended AVEDA, one of the best cosmetology school to receive my license. After graduating I continued to build my clientele. While building my clientele, my family was growing and I felt that I would never get a salon which was one of my dreams after becoming a cosmetologist. I continued to work and believe that things would fall into place at the appointed time. I prayed and wrote down my goals so that I could motivate myself to reach for my dreams. In 2017, after giving birth to my fourth son I was able to make that dream a reality and my husband and I had a grand opening for our salon. It was a happy moment for me and to date we have been at our salon 5 years now. So many innovative ideas has been birthed while in my salon. For one, I launched my hair product line in 2020 for my clients to be able to mimic the routine for their hair care at home. The pandemic really opened up our eyes in regards to not having access to the luxuries we were used to so this was a major breakthrough for my business. In that same year I hosted my first Summer Youth Braid Camp for girls ranging from ages 8-17. This again was inspired by the pandemic in teaching young girls to be resourceful and self efficient in their hair care journey. I taught them basic skills of braiding and we build on those skills until they gained the confidence of braiding their own hair and even other people’s hair. This year will be my 4th summer hosting this program and my goal is to provide this camp to 100 young girls in the community that have a desire and passion to do hair like I did when I was growing up. Im so proud to say that Phenomenal Tresses was featured in our local newspaper on the front page highlighting what we were doing in the community to help the youth stay busy and learn a life long skill. Another proud moment for me in my business was creating a hair challenge for my clients to learn about their real hair and what it takes to properly care for it. I had about 100 clients that joined me quarterly all of 2021 where we wore our hair without extensions to watch and witness the transformation of our natural hair grow and glow as we learned the proper hair regimen and routine. I appreciated all of the accountability partners I gained and I have clients that thanked me for setting up this challenge so they could appreciate their hair more. As of now, my focus is to teach my clients about hair care and the importance of having a hair routine. I mainly have clients that enjoy wearing their own hair in styles such as flat twists, two strand twists and a silk press. What I want everyone to witness in my craft is the passion that I have for hair but also giving knowledge to my clients about how to take care for their hair from the inside out. The pandemic has shown us how life can change drastically within days and self care is now my biggest topic in the salon. Every woman or person for that matter deserves to be well kept. It starts with small gestures of self care like getting a regular shampoo/condition service in rotation. In my industry I will continue to promote finding happiness in taking caring of our physical, emotional and mental state. If I can make one client walk out of my salon feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and recharged, I have done my job as a stylist.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Well, my business partner is Antoine Williams, my husband of 15 years and in 2002 when I came up from Miami to Tallahassee to attend FAMU I met him at the bus stop. I was on my way to class and he drove pass me. We instantly locked eyes but never thought in a million years we would see each other again. Lost story short, we did see each other again, started dating from the day we met. It happened so effortlessly and I think we both knew that we would be doing life together long term. We now have 5 kids together and been doing business as a family ever since. He has been a real supporter of my dreams and I really wouldn’t be where I am today without him. He took on the task of renovating the salon into the vision that I had years and years ago, I’m very grateful to him and I know that this one of the reasons why God allowed us to cross paths. I have also incorporated my children in the business as well so that prayerfully we can grow into family empire that will generate wealth for generations to come.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Quite honestly, once we found the location for our salon, my husband and I made the decision to take the income tax return we received in 2017 and invest in renovations and purchasing supplies and tools needed to run a salon. It was the best decision we made for our family and now our business is taking care of our family. The investment we made then is paying off till this day and I couldn’t be more happier with the growth that we witnessed in those past 5 years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.phenomtresses.com
• Instagram: @phenomenaltressesllc
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/100035245362092/