![]() “I won’t say Caucasian hair or Black hair because some people have thin, fine, straight hair. “But to be able to stand up and be like, ‘This is who I am, and this is how beautiful I am with it,’ it makes me feel &mldr strong and empowered as a woman.”įor many Black women, Barfield said, hair is their “crowning glory.” But she doesn’t limit herself to Black clients. “It was a stigma in our society to wear our natural hair and people looked down on it.” “It makes you feel confident, strong, and it gives you a sense of self,” said Dennisa Smith, a Pure Essence client who first met Barfield in 5th grade. She’s always had an entrepreneurial spirit, she said, and there’s just something extra special about “having your own.”įor many Black women, rocking their natural hair has broken through rigid cultural standards about how to wear hair created and enforced by white Americans and institutions with no knowledge of Black styling. “It was just natural.”Īnd whether customers want to wear their hair natural or need braiding, straightening, coloring or a weave, Barfield can make it happen. “I guess I’ve always liked doing hair,” she said. Next came high school training and cosmetology school, before landing jobs at other salons in town. As owner of Pure Essence Salon on Magnolia Avenue, she has cultivated a community hub over the past 10 years in business - a place where people can open up and let their hair down for what regular customers consider the best service in town.īarfield began braiding her own hair in middle school and later began styling hair for her friends. ![]() “But just being warm, being welcoming and listen.”īarfield is not a therapist by trade, although it’s one of the many roles she plays. ![]() “You don’t always have to talk all the time,” Barfield said about her role as a hair stylist. When seated in Chanta Barfield’s chair, clients can be in their most vulnerable states. No matter what is happening in their lives, whether they lost a job or are fighting cancer, Barfield makes it her mission to lend an open ear. ![]()
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