10/27/2026
I DON'T USUALLY POST LIKE THIS, BUT TODAY I NEED MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO HEAR MY HEART. ❤️
I've been watching the conversations surrounding salons. Who should survive, who shouldn't, and where people should take their hair and their money.
And I need to be honest with the people who love me.
I am hurt. And I am overwhelmed.
For years, I made a conscious decision NOT to build my social media platform by exposing clients, criticizing stylists, or tearing down other businesses.
I stayed in my lane. I kept my head down. And I continued serving the people who walked through our doors.
But this conversation has gone too far.
Let me be clear. I cannot tell anyone where to go or where to spend their money. That choice belongs to you, and I respect it.
But if any part of you believes that independent Black-owned salons like mine deserve to be pushed out, I need you to understand how deeply hurtful that is.
For 24 years, I have stood by the Black hair care community.
I have worked to maintain a salon where stylists are present, educated, supported, and equipped to care for hair that our industry is still too often undereducated about.
People have walked through our doors feeling like they were down to their very last hope of saving their hair.
And they found HOPE here.
That didn't happen by accident.
That is a life's work.
And our work doesn't stop with the clients.
We apprentice stylists. We onboard them. We educate them. We train them.
I have taken stylists from ground zero and helped them build thriving clienteles.
I have shared clients from my OWN chair so that a stylist having a slow week could still take home a paycheck.
I have watched people grow within our walls and eventually leave to build something of their own.
And I understand that growth.
But I also want people to understand something.
A salon suite is still a salon with walls.
There is still an owner. The difference is that the owner may not know you personally, may not know your struggles, and may not be invested in whether your clientele grows.
That investment has always mattered to me.
When I returned to Paul Mitchell to earn my instructor's license, I realized just how different these two worlds had become.
The beauty school was charging more for a basic color service than we charged for ANY service in my salon.
And I remember thinking...
How did we get here?
How did the very salons that have nurtured generations of stylists and cared for our communities become the ones people speak about as though they no longer deserve a place?
I'm not asking anyone to choose a side.
I'm not asking anyone to change where they spend their money.
I'm asking you not to dismiss the value of what we have built.
Because behind these salon doors are years of sacrifice, education, mentorship, service, and genuine care for people.
And today, the weight of watching that be dismissed feels heavier than I can quietly carry.
I'm hurt. I'm overwhelmed. And I needed the people closest to me to understand why.
With Love,
Leandra ❤️
