The studio was set up by Byronie Richards, an MBA from Jamaica, and her partner, who moved to Shanghai three years ago and struggled to find anyone with experience cutting, styling and caring for Afro-centric hair. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have anywhere to do my hair for the past three years,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hen this opportunity popped up and so I took it.鈥�
Richards has hooked up a team of four stylists who have a combined 35 years of experience working with Afro-Caribbean hair. The chief stylist, Melanie Phillips, spent more than 20 years working on hair and is licensed in Mississippi, Memphis and Minnesota.
Services for women include relaxers, coloring, weaves, braids and locking. Men can get trims, fades, locking and texturizers. Braids, dreds and cornrows: they offer all those services for Chinese hair, too, or white hair, or whatever hair you鈥檝e got. 鈥淚 also want to target the Caucasian market,鈥� says Richards. 鈥淏ecause nobody in China does extensions for Caucasians well.鈥� Right now she鈥檚 working on importing blond hair from Russia and Canada.
When we went down, everyone was sitting around talking and laughing. Seemed like a real nice social spot to gossip and shoot the shit.
Richards says many of the customers who come in have really damaged hair because it鈥檚 been treated with the wrong type of products, or by people who don鈥檛 have experience cutting this type of hair. 鈥淲e鈥檙e focusing on hair maintenance and getting your hair back to being healthy,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o we鈥檙e using all top-of-the-line products and we鈥檝e got treatments from all the best brands.鈥� All the products they use are imported from the US. Nice.
Prices: Perms start around 450rmb. Waves and braids from about 400rmb. Men can get a line-up for 70rmb or a cut for 200rmb. Kids prices are cheaper and if you want you can bring your own products and they鈥檒l knock down the price.
If you don鈥檛 know what you want but just have a hankering for something new, they鈥檒l give you a consultation and walk you through the options.
Right now the salon is only open Sunday and Mondays, 9:30am-7:30pm. You need to book, too, so phone first. Find their full info here.
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