Social distancing isn’t stopping this stylist from helping sisters care for their hair and learn a skill while in quarantine.
If you know anything about people from Detroit then you know that they’re tough, they’re innovative, and they can pivot to adapt to almost anything. That’s exactly what hairstylist Niani Barracks, more widely known as Niani B.,did when the COVID-19 pandemic put the salon where she works, and her livelihood on pause. She took an in-person class idea and translated it into a digital safe space that has become a haven for Black women to learn to braid with no judgement.
“I get a lot of moms who don’t necessarily want to pay for their children to get their hair done, but they don’t know how to do it,” she tells ESSENCE. “They don’t understand natural hair care. They don’t understand how to braid, how to twist, how to keep it healthy and look good without straightening it or doing something else that might be harmful. So I had this vision to teach a class.”
If you want to read the rest of this article.. it was featured on Essence Magazine.