Natural Hair Care Institute turns students into entrepreneurs

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MINNEAPOLIS — A school newly endorsed by the Minnesota Department of Education and the City of Minneapolis is looking to empower talented young people to work with natural hair.

The Natural Hair Care Institute is about to graduate its first cohort after having spent three months learning together.

"I hope to create an environment that the kids feel free, and they feel like they're at a friend's house or at an auntie's house at a mother's house," NHCI president Afolakemi Lawani said.

Lawani is also the founder, lead instructor and director at NHCI. Despite her many hats and her other business, Bonita's Extensions and Braids, Lawani takes the time to oversee and supervise every single student. She said that's the point of a small class size.

"It's not a braiding school, it's a natural hair care school," Lawani clarified. "We teach people the methodology of doing natural hair in its entirety. We don't use any chemicals so that's really what we do here."

"This is going to be one of my first times making a wig from scratch," Aleiycianah Smith said. Smith is one of the cohorts and she was working on a blonde wig with a curved needle.

On top of wig-making, the class covers everything that Lawani found lacking at cosmetology school during her years there.

"The teachers couldn't approach natural hair," she said. "They could verbally do the part of teaching but the clinical part of teaching which is to teach braid, and to teach people how to approach natural hair wasn't there."

But the demand was and still is there. In fact, it's growing.

"Wearing wigs is pretty popular now, especially in our community," Miangel Williams said. "As being like young, and want to try color and length and stuff like that, and I know that they are high demand."

Miangel Williams said she already has her business plan laid out. Once she graduates from NHCI, she plans to open her business, "Lace Legend," named after her legendary lace wig-making skills.

Williams said she started making wigs when she was 12 years old, and many people have told her she's legendary. However, she said she still learned so much from being at NHCI, especially when it comes to having a business mindset.

"I took from this being an entrepreneur and also being someone who is working under someone else," she said. "I think you can learn a lot about being more efficient and precise with what you want."

"We don't do the work for them," Lawani said with a smile. "They do their own research, they try to find out what community are they going to serve, who is going to be their client base? What kind of prices are they going to charge? How should they prepare themselves professionally?"

And while the program is rigorous, as with any meticulous craft, Lawani said she hopes people aren't scared away from the term 'natural hair.' She wants anyone who has sparked interest, to look into it, to embrace it.

"'Maybe I could be a natural hairstylist, help people maintain their glory or educate them about their crown, or how to keep the integrity of what God gave them in the first place,'" she said. "And save money! Because it's cheaper to have your natural hair. [Learn] to care for it, to love it. It's the crown we wear every single day.

The cohort of five will graduate at the end of October, and many already have business plans to open shops in their own communities.

Lawani said the City of Minneapolis is also working with the institute to provide full-ride scholarships for young people between 18 and 24 years old who are interested in attending. You can find more information on their website: nhci.education/scholarship.

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