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As the black population in the suburbs grows, hairdressers specializing in African-American hairstyles find they can fill an increasing need.
By TIM GRANT and MELIA BOWIE
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 12, 2002
CARROLLWOOD -- Cheryl Blackwell saw opportunity when she got bad service at a hair salon years ago in Carrollwood.
There was only one salon at that time serving African-Americans here. And although she didn't know how to style hair, she recognized a chance to go into business for herself if she learned.
Working part time for Chase Manhattan Bank at night, Blackwell enrolled in a cosmetology college. Within a year she had a state license to style hair and, within two years, her own salon.
"When I went to school, my goal was to open a shop on this side of town because there was a great need for black hairstylists in this area," said Blackwell, who owns Mane Concern Beauty Nook at 4901 Linebaugh Ave.
Today she is one of about a half-dozen hairstylists who specialize in serving the growing population of African-Americans moving to Tampa's northwest suburbs.
For the most part, the owners are entrepreneurs who launched their businesses with no bank financing and built their clientele largely through word-of-mouth.
For the clients -- black professionals living in predominantly white neighborhoods -- the salons are where they can relax, be pampered and bask in an atmosphere where they are not minorities.
"I know all about my clients' kids, their jobs and hobbies," said Theresa Cotten, owner of Hair Expression at 4917 Ehrlich Road.
Her customers have told her they felt "snubbed when they went to white salons to get facials," and alienated at nail salons where the workers "talk in a foreign language and treat you like an assembly line."
Cotten and other hairdressers interviewed serve customers of all races. But the money is often in black hair -- black women's hair to be exact.
Women come to these salons for relaxers, a one- to two-hour chemical process that straightens the hair for approximately $50.
Other services are more elaborate -- such as the fusion extensions made popular by singer Toni Braxton. Each strand of hair is attached to an artificial strand using a hot adhesive. The process can cost up to $500 and take an entire day.
"The styles that blacks want require more time and products," Cotten said.
You'll never make it out there.
That's what they said three years ago when Jacquelyn Turner considered leaving a styling job in Ybor City to open her own shop -- Bliss -- in southwest Carrollwood.
But someone had to pioneer black hair care in this area, she reasoned.
Demographics backed her up. Census figures show the African-American population in northwest Hillsborough more than doubled between 1990 and 2000, from just over 8,000 to 17,500.
Even now, the market is wide open.
"I prefer areas like Carrollwood and New Tampa because those areas are untouched," said Willie Terrell, a barber who has built a clientele of black and Hispanic customers at Vonda's Hair Designs at 14815 Lynn-Turner Road.
Stylists here find that, more than Tampa natives, they are seeing white-collar professionals who moved to the Carrollwood area from other cities.
Jennifer McFadden, an information technology manager for Price Waterhouse Cooper, moved to Westchase about a year ago from New York. A friend referred her to Blackwell's salon.
"I think the selection (of salons) out here is still growing," McFadden said. "As far as quality is concerned it varies. Anybody can open a shop, but it's hard to find a place to do the type of work we're accustomed to."
The salons serving African-Americans in northwest Hillsborough are concentrated in Carrollwood, the area's commercial hub. Two are on the outskirts of Plantation, a development that is about 13 percent African-American.
The first black-owned salon in New Tampa -- Cookie Cutters (Haircuts for Kids) -- opened in February along the Highwoods Preserve Parkway.
But, reflecting New Tampa's population, Cookie Cutters has mostly white customers.
"We actually didn't think of owning a black business," said owner Nicole Workman, who is married to Haywood Workman, a former point guard for the Indiana Pacers. "We're just trying to cater to everyone in the community."
Measured by the 2000 census, that community had more than 20,000 white residents and just over 1,600 African-Americans.
"I know there are a lot of African-American families here, and more and more of us are moving here, (but) I just wouldn't open up any place that caters to just one ethnic group," Workman said.
"I think maybe in the city of Tampa it would do better. But here it would not take off."
Marvin Gaye croons from the overhead speakers in Bliss Hair Salon.
Beneath his silky voice, Jacquelyn Turner (a.k.a. Paashion -- the shop's owner and stylist) hums along as she applies a hot curling iron to Kim Folks' hair. Folks, a billing and payment manager for Tampa Electric Co., was one of Turner's first customers at the shop at 4802 Gunn Highway.
"On Friday and Saturday, it's crazy in here," says Turner.
After three years and a dubious start, business is good, says the 39-year-old Chicago native.
Turner was still at the Ybor City shop when her mother noticed a real estate listing for what once was a Fantastic Sams. She recalls her banker telling her outright "ain't nobody gonna give you no money."
But days later, he did. "He (the banker) said they'd give me just enough money to buy it," she said. "Nothing extra. No supplies, nothing."
Other salon owners used their own savings to start their businesses. Some had a hard time finding landlords to lease them space.
"I think they're concerned that a black business will bring down the image of the shopping center," Cotten said, adding that some landlords fear the businesses won't survive the life of the lease.
When she opened Vonda's Hair Designs in 1994, Vonda Jones said she had no bank loan and routinely worked until midnight to make ends meet.
Cotten launched her business the same year and faced similar challenges.
She often styled hair until 10 p.m. Then she'd exchange hairbrushes for paintbrushes until about 2 a.m., fixing up the shop by herself.
Even after three years in business, Blackwell said she is unable to gain a bank loan.
"I've done everything on my own and it's really hard," she said. "Everything in here I bought through doing hair.
"I'm believing this will be the breakthrough year when somebody will finally give me a loan. As a business owner, you need working capital. At this point in my business, I should be reaping profits and not putting everything back in the business."
Cream-colored leather sofas sit in wicker bases inside the lobby of Bliss. Overhead, potted plants rest on a ledge. Magazine spreads mounted on the wall showcase intricate braids crowning the heads of dark-eyed women.
"I always felt like a beauty shop was fertile ground for cultivating womanhood," said Turner. "Little girls come in here to see, are you wearing black nail polish, a lot of makeup. They may see that on MTV but . . . that's not real life."
To some, the beauty shop is where positive self-images are shaped, where culture is reaffirmed for women of color who are scattered throughout the suburbs. Others find it is a place where they can let down their guard and talk freely.
At Bliss, children are given activity books and taught that "readers are leaders." The television is rarely on. Complaints about boredom are met with a standard refrain from the owner: "Go get a book!"
Have a boyfriend? Heading off to college? Not without some counseling from Turner, who has a wall of snapshots on her office door showing the children of her clients.
Jones has tried to create a Christian atmosphere at her business. She wants her salon to be a place where people can leave feeling good about themselves inside and out. It is not uncommon for her customers to ask for prayer or participate in praying for others at the salon.
"People don't leave the same way they came in," Jones said.
Religious or not, the atmosphere of the salon can be as important as the service.
"I want people in the suburbs to know I am here for their convenience," Cotten said. "I offer that and a quality service in an atmosphere they can relax and be comfortable in."
-- Times staff writer Bill Coats contributed to this report.