We were lucky to catch up with Tierra Reese recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tierra, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.
My senior year of high school I started getting into hair and weave extensions. My dad told me he was going to either buy the hair or pay for the install but not both! So I said hey I can learn to install it myself ! I started doing my own traditional sew ins and practicing on my friends. I graduated in 2016 and went to college and realized I could make money off of doing hair because multiple people on campus and social media “who did your hair?” My very first client is someone who actually shares the same name as me, Her name is Tierra Grant. I only charged her $45 ! I was so excited. I then started doing her and her sisters hair and my cliental eventually grew.
Tierra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Tierra Reese who is known as “Tslayy” or my salon Ts. Studios. Im a master cosmetologist who specializes in natural hair, weave intensions, wigs, and locs. Im a single mom of a handsome 6 year old name Kaiden. I opened my own salon/ store front at the age of 23.
I started off in college as a natural stylist who would do silk presses, and sew ins. I then started working in a salon called Big heads in downtown statesboro. There I worked under Rasheen Black where I fell in love with locs. She taught me how to restwist, style and maintain locs. As time progressed my clients wanted to get frontal and closure installs and basically forced me to learn! I then started practicing and doing lace installs on one of my clients named Ashley. She’s the reason instarted doing lace and let me practice on her. One thing I learned about doing hair is to never stop practicing and investing in your skill set!
One thing that sets me apart in this beauty industry is my personality. Not only do you have to know how to do hair but you have to know how to make people feel good. I feel like being a hair stylist has turnt me into a therapist, a aunt, a cousin, a friend, a listening ear, a mom and a sister. I look at each one of my clients as family. I love what I do because I love making people realize how beautiful and important they are. Doing hair isn’t about just getting your hair done, but a journey.
One thing I am most proud of about being a salon owner is that I stuck to it! Giving up is so easy to do but I didnt. I stuck with my craft and made it work. Now I’m able to give back to my community with yearly back to school drives, provide a life for my son and myself.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
When I started it was a side hustle that became my main income. I always wanted my own salon. I started of in barber shop paying booth rent and then I went into a small suit. After I found the building my salon is in now I slowly redid the building with my own finances. I tried to get loans but I didnt know much about business credit and my personal wasnt too strong. I worked for ever equipment in my shop.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
So my salon has 4 stations and I charge booth rent for those. Booth rent is a weekly fee that I charge each stylist to work in that space. I aslo have four private rooms and they pay booth rent as well. One thing Iearned about managing a salon team is having like minded people. For any new salon owners my best advice is to not let just anyone rent a booth from you. Yes you want the income but working around like minded people and people who have the same vision as you when it comes to a salon experience is very important.
Contact Info:
- Website: Tslayy.com
- Instagram: T__slayy
- Facebook: Tierra Reese
- Youtube: Tierra Reese @Ts-Studios21
- Other: Im working on my youtube now. It should be dropping In June of 2024
Image Credits
Cedric Bacon Photography