One of the biggest struggles women deal with is finding a stylists they can trust, especially when moving to a new city. Where do you start?
Brandelyn Green created Voice Of Hair to give women an opportunity to find the best hairstylists in their area, and to provide access to examples of their work and reviews before they book their appointment. She has grown her social media audience over 530k+ followers in less than 3 years and is continuing to share her passion of hair, beauty and entrepreneurship. Learn more about Brandelyn Green and why she chose to create Voice Of Hair.
What’s your hair story?
I have been “natural” my whole life. However, I started going to the hair salon at about 5 or 6 years-old, so I didn’t learn how to style my own hair until I went to college. After college, I worked for a global healthcare company and had a chance to live in Sweden for 6 months. While I was there I learned how to take care and style my natural hair because the stylists in my town did not know how to work with “afro hair.” It was frustrating at first, but it was also liberating because I was able to try every natural style I could think of. Some failed and some didn’t. This is when I actually grew to love wearing my natural hair. Now that I live in Texas, I like to go back and forth between wearing blowouts and roller set styles. I love having versatility!
Tell me about the Voice of Hair and what inspired you to create it. . .
Voice of Hair was created out of my personal burden of struggling to find trusted stylists who could style my hair. I have lived in 8 states and in Sweden in my lifetime and in almost every place I have lived I have had struggles with finding trusted stylists. Voice of Hair strives to connect women of color with kinky, coily or curly hair with the best stylists and hairstyles for them. We utilize social media and our website to identify and highlight different stylists and hair tutorials to share with our community. Our goal is to help women have a trusted hair experience. Voice of Hair is a platform for all hair types: we don’t just focus on natural hair and we don’t just focus on straight hair. Women like to change up their hair so we try to provide inspiration and information for everything, regardless of hair type.
What challenges have you endured and how did you push through?
One of the biggest challenges was figuring out what to do with this massive community that we created. Yes, it’s great to have a lot of “followers”, but I wanted to build a profitable business, not a just a social presence. I decided to start a website, but I had a lot of issues with getting VoiceOfHair.com up and running. I hired web developers who were not qualified and I ended up wasting thousands of dollars. When that happened I felt defeated, but then I decided to dig in and figure it out on my own and I was able to build my site on my own.
Profit over popularity—always remember that!
What advice would you give women in business trying to leverage their social media to be profitable?
Start where you are, with what you have. More specifically, if you’re just starting a social media page then start with the end in mind. Know what you’re creating for your community before you start and think about how you will be able to monetize it in the future. If you already have an established brand on social media, take time to listen to your audience to see what they need and then develop products and services that can help them. You should not think “what can I do to make money”, but think “how can I help my community achieve what they want?”
I know that you’re a new mother, how do you balance business and motherhood? How do you prioritize your passion?
OMG yes, I absolutely had no idea how hard it is to be a working mom! I have so much respect for mothers everywhere. Initially, it was really hard finding balance because I felt guilty when I was working, but then I would feel guilty when I was spending time with my daughter and I wasn’t working. Now that she’s 8-months-old I take her to daycare a few days a week and that gives me time to get work done so that when she comes home I can give her my all. I think many women fall into the mindset that “I can do it all, I don’t need help” but the reality is that we all need help.
What are some projects you’re working on and what can we expect from you in the future?
We’re planning to do more live events so that we can connect with members of our community in person. We’re also launching a site to be an extension of our Instagram page to help our community find the featured professionals—that will be ready by the summer! Lastly, we’re doing some Instagram workshops for those who want to know how to grow their business using social media.
Be sure to stay connected with the Voice of Hair to gain resources and hair inspiration from hair stylists across the country.
Want more from Alexandra? Follow her on Instagram for all things hair, beauty and fashion.
