Dr. Shanessa Fenner and Tameka Shipman, Owner of Having Aunties in Reach

Tameka Shipman is a natural hair care specialist and founder of the non-profit organization Hair, which stands for Heaven Aunties in Reach. Hair provides free hair services and activities for boys and girls aged 5 to 12. Tameka started doing hair at a young age and pursued formal training in cosmetology. She emphasizes the importance of self-care and proper hair care techniques, such as using professional products, satin products for night-time hair protection, and regular protein treatments. Tameka's most popular hairstyles include knotless braids, boho knotless braids, and locks. She has built her clientele through word of mouth and has not submitted photos to hair magazines. The reasons for the increasing popularity of natural hair care include avoiding harmful chemicals, cost-effectiveness, and embracing one's natural beauty. Tameka's future goals include transitioning to teaching natural hair care and expanding her non-profit to reach more children in different states. Currently, Hello and welcome to the City of Toronto. I'm your host, Dr. Shadesa Finner and we have a wonderful guest this evening on our podcast. We have Tameka Shipman, she's a natural hair care specialist. Welcome Tameka. Thank you. Now Tameka, we're going to go ahead and get started. I would like for you to first tell our audience a little bit about yourself. Well, as she said, my name is Tameka. I am originally from Newark, New Jersey, but I moved to North Carolina at a very young age, maybe about 10 years old with my mom and my siblings and I love to do hair. I do hair pretty much full time. I've been doing it for many years and that's a little bit about me. Okay. Now Tameka, when did you first realize that you wanted to learn how to do hair? At what age were you? I believe I was about 12 years old. I love to play with Barbie dolls, so it stemmed from there. Every day I would come home from school and I would grab my Barbie dolls. I would grab some hair combs and I would just try to braid their hair. So it pretty much started at around age 12. Okay. Tameka, so what kind of training have you been a part of? So in other words, what kind of training have you had? Did you go to school so that you could make sure that you could be the best natural hair care specialist ever? I did. Actually, back in 1997, 1998, I actually graduated high school, did early graduation, and from there I went to a college called Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, North Carolina. There I actually took a cosmetology program every day upon leaving school at 12 o'clock. So I actually started back in 1997, 1998 in the cosmetology program. I did that for a little while and decided I wanted to do something different, so I went into teaching. And then a couple years ago I said, you know what, Tameka, you need to do hair. So I went back and did natural hair care and got my natural hair care license and been doing natural hair since. Okay. Okay. Now, Tameka, how long does it take to obtain a natural hair care license? It only takes three months, believe it or not. Three months you can become a natural hair care specialist. From there you take your schooling and you go to the board. You pass your boards and become a licensed natural hair care specialist. Okay. Let's move to your baby, your passion. You have a nonprofit called Hair, H-A-I-R. Please, of course, let us know what the acronyms stand for and let's talk about your nonprofit Hair. I do Hair and it stands for Heaven Aunties in Reach. We were established in 2019 and it's a nonprofit for boys and girls ages 5 to 12 years old. Basically what we do is cater to kids in the community. We do free activities once a month and we do our biggest activity, our biggest event in August of every year where we bring in kids and do it for free right before school starts. We actually get about 150 to 200 kids hair done for free before school starts. Okay. Now, Tameka, tell me where, which counties do you do this or that you've done this in? We've done Wake County, Columbus County, Cumberland County. We did Robeson. We've added them. Now, I think this year we're actually going to do Wake County, Columbus County. We just stemmed and added another little inner town in Columbus County called Bozeman, North Carolina. Okay. Of course, Tameka, and I want to thank you again for coming to my school. Of course, I'm a principal and Tameka came to my school and she braided all of my babies hair. I want to thank you again for that. Tameka, kind of tell me how did this get started? Because you and I had that conversation and you told me a little bit of background about what made you decide to do the babies hair. Yes. I actually just came up with it at the blink of an eye, to be honest with you. I feel like everybody pretty much worried about or centered around backpacks for school for kids. One day as I was headed to work, I passed by a bus stop and I was like, Lord, the babies hair is not done. God immediately spoke to me and said, you know what, Tameka, you can do a back to school braid job. That's what kicked into gear and from God speaking to me and saying, hey, you can do the braid job for kids and prepare their hair for back to school. I've been doing that ever since. I know how it felt to having grandparents to raise me and my siblings and my grandmother not knowing too much about hair. I knew how I felt sometimes going to school with my hair not done. I probably would have liked it. That made me turn towards the kids and say, hey, parents, let me provide a free service for your child, for back to school, for parents that don't really have the time to do it or the grandparents or older siblings that are made or becoming responsible for taking care of the younger siblings. I pretty much started doing it that way, just to try to provide a service to help the parents or the caretakers. I pretty much have been doing it ever since. Okay. Now, I know that you said that you all do activities with the babies. What kinds of activities do you do with the babies? Yes, we do. We have a 12-year-old who's now 13. She comes in and teaches the kids how to bake. She has her own business and is baking cupcakes and making things of that sort. She comes in and teaches the kids how to bake, how to measure. We do something called juice and paint. We do a look and learn. At the look and learn is where I actually have kids to come in and I actually teach them how to braid, how I was taught at the same age. We've also added barbers to try to teach the little boys. We try to bring in more boys into the organization because it is based on boys and girls and not just girls. We're adding barbers to come in to teach the little boys how to cut, how to hold clippers, why it's important to do edge-ups, things like that. We pretty much do it. Anything we do, you name it, we do it. We do pretty much the same thing in Wake County. We do it in Columbus County. So, we kind of piggyback off of each county and try to do some of the same things with the same materials and things like that. Tanika, I want to talk a little bit about self-confidence because we know as women, our hair is our crowning glory. Okay? And kind of talk with me, Tanika, about that child who came in and you could look at her face and she was kind of down and kind of sad. But after you said that, Tanika, and braided her hair, kind of talk with me about how she transformed and now she's smiling and she's happy, she's looking in the mirror. Kind of talk with us a little bit about that and the power of, you know, someone braiding your hair, taking care of your hair. So, first and foremost, I am a person, everybody that knows me knows, Tanika is a potential taker. So, anytime we do a kid's hair, everybody knows, find Tanika because Tanika wants to take the picture. And just to see the kid's smile, my first question to the child is, do you like your hair? And it's automatically a yes, I love it, thank you so much. And I'm like, you know, can I take your picture? And they're like, yes, I want my picture taken. The smile is so big and it boosts their self-confidence so much. It makes me feel good to see that I made a difference. And it can be the simplest hairstyle. Some of the hairstyles are as simple as a child getting two braids or getting their natural hair braided with beads. And just the fact that, hey, somebody's doing my hair and it's not my grandmother, it's not my mom, it's not my older sister, that alone boosts their self-confidence, to be honest with you. Yes, and I think that it's so beautiful, even with adults, you know. And we all know that, you know, there's been controversy in some workplaces about black women wearing their natural hair, you know, so that is very, very important, you know, because it makes us as women feel good about ourselves. Now, can you talk to me about some of the common hairstyles that you do? Talk to us a little bit about that. What are some of the more popular hairstyles that you do? For me, my most popular is knotless braids, boho knotless braids, and locks. Those are my most common. My clientele is strictly natural hair. Ninety-eight percent of my clients are natural, and this stems to getting knotless braids, a lot of crochets, a lot of boho braids, which is a braid that have a curl coming off of them, or locks and lock styling. Okay, so why do you feel like those are some of the most popular ones? The one knotless is most popular due to the fact that women can get them, and they're very, very, very light tension, versus a box braid, which is more tension, can be a tighter braid to the scalp, and a knotless braid is geared more to having your natural hair feel, to where you can pull your hair up, there's no tension, there's no tightness, and that is why the knotless braids now are pretty much at the top of the line, because somebody can walk away and feel like they don't even have their hair braided, versus a box braid, which can be a heavier braid, a tighter braid. Okay. Tamika, let's talk a little bit now on some tips to take care of natural hair. Give us some tips. My first tip is to take care of yourself. If you can take care, and if you are properly taking care of yourself, you're going to properly take care of your hair. Proper shampooing, staying away from things that cause tension, that cause tightness, that cause cooling, certain glues when you're coming into quick weaves, and weave, and sew in, using the proper thread, things like that. So we have to be mindful when we're doing styles on clients, to make sure what we're doing is going to promote hair growth, and not take away hair growth. So keeping that in mind alone, making sure you're eating proper carbs, making sure you're eating proper diet, making sure you're getting enough water. All those things are important when we're thinking about proper hair care, our hair growing, being healthy. Now, what about the trimming of the hair? What kinds of products should they use? What kinds of products should they stay away from when you're a natural hair care person? Kind of talk with us about that. Now, to be honest, because I'm a natural hair care specialist, I stem to using professional products. So when it comes to professional products, of course the client can't walk in the store and get the products that I will use on their hair. But I do try to educate my clients on certain things to stay away from, like heavy oils, trying products because the friends get that it works for their hair. So when you're a natural person, we do go through different products to find what works for our hair. But I try to stem them towards products such as As I Am, things that I know that will work for our hair. Keeping, like I said, heavy oils out, spritzes and things like that. Now, Tamika, is there a certain oil that's not heavy that they should use? Kind of talk with us about that. Should they wrap their hair up at night? What should they wrap it up in? I mean, kind of talk with us about that as well. Most definitely. I tell my clients to use like satin products, maybe satin pillowcases, satin bonnets, satin hair scarves. I'm very big on tying your hair up at night. And that's to secure it. That's to keep it from rubbing against your cotton shoes. Because a lot of people still use that. Things like that. So keeping cotton from getting in your hair, especially with my lock clients. Because once that gets in, it's kind of hard to get out. And you have to go through a series of things to remove that stuff. So yes, tying your hair up at night is very, very, very important to me. At least that's what I, you know, tell my clients. Oils, I provide. I make my own hair growth serum. So of course, you know, I throw that on my clients. And I do tell them sometimes we can over-oil our hair, which can cause damage. It can actually revert what we're trying to do to our hair. So I tell my clients, hey, you only need to oil once or twice a week. That's it. Nobody needs to oil their hair seven days a week. And a lot of people feel as though they do because, oh, my hair is dry. Oh, my hair is brittle. When it could be that they need a treatment. So I try to educate them and walk them through different things to let them know, no, you don't need, you know, the extra oil. You need a protein treatment or, you know, things like that to try to bring it back in. Let's talk about those treatments. Let's start with the protein treatment. I do recommend a protein treatment at least every other month. Some people, their preference, some people will like a treatment every month, which is fine as well. I tell them to, you know, pretty much look at their hair. If their hair pops every time they run a comb through it, if it snaps at the, you know, drop of a dime, if they can just run their hands through it and strands of hair come out, things like that, which could also, again, fall back onto them needing more water. Talk to me about the trimming of the hair. How often should the ends be trimmed? Now, if they're doing braid services, things like that, because like I said, now, 2023, everybody is doing pretty much protect and styling or moving into embracing their natural hair. So with my client, some of them get a trim every three months. Some of them get a trim every six months. It basically depends on the way that their hair grows, the fastness. Some people's hair grows really slow. So it pretty much, we just pretty much eye it, depending on how often they get their braid services. Now, Tamika, let's talk a little bit more about shampoos and conditioners. I know that you say you always advocate for professional products, but what about, you know, people who want to go in the store, go into Walmart or go to the beauty stores and all? What kinds of conditioners and what kinds of shampoos, you know, should they use? Now, see, again, like I said, when I send somebody to the beauty supply, I try to get them to use the brand called As I Am, only because I like it. I think it works very well for the hair, and they have a whole product line from the shampoo to the conditioner to the treatment to the rice water, things like that. So they have a whole brand that I'm pretty sure you're going to find something that will work for your hair. Tamiya Waheed, that's an awesome product as well. I have recommended that to a few clients also. And people don't really realize that there's a whole slew of, like, natural, quote, black products for us. It's just the matter in us taking the time to use them. We're so quick to use something for two days and say, oh, it didn't work for my hair, when we didn't actually give it a chance because we didn't use it as recommended. Okay. Now, how do you ensure, Tamiya, that, you know, your techniques are up to date with the cosmetology industry? Are you constantly being trained, going to different workshops and all? How do you make sure that you're staying up with the latest hair techniques? Yes. Well, being a natural hair care specialist, we do have to have certain trainings and things like that, which is actually offered online, and they're free for us. Outside of that, I am a YouTuber because a lot of what we do, other people will post, and you can kind of read up on it. It might also be on Google a lot, but outside of that, I go to North Carolina Board of Cosmetic Arts. I go there, and I read up on my trainings. I stay up to date with those because I have to, number one. And number two, I'm a reader, so I have to educate myself because things change at the blink of an eye. Today, we're able to use this product. Next week, we can't use the product. So we have to keep ourselves knowledgeable in order to teach our clients what to do after they leave our chair. So it's very important. So, yes, I have to stay on top of that, and the only way to do that is by taking the refresher courses through the North Carolina Board of Cosmetic Arts site. Tamika, how have you built your clientele? Wow. Wow. To be honest with you, as I said, I started, you know, learning to braid around 12 years old. Around 14, I started doing people in the community, and believe it or not, I still do some of those people now at the age of 44. So I actually built my clientele back in Columbus County, which was Rockville, North Carolina. Once I moved to Raleigh, I did one person here, and my clientele was built by word of mouth. I kid you not. It was built by word of mouth. I have a full clientele, probably over 150 clients, and they pretty much came from word of mouth. A told B, and B told C, and God did the rest. Okay. Now, Tamika, I'm sure you take pictures of the adults and the babies and all. Have you submitted any of the photos to hair magazines and other publications? I actually have not with my adult clientele, but with City Insight, I think I have posted some photos in there. Some of the kids that actually came to the braid drive and got their hair done for free, I think I have photos in there of a couple of the kids. Outside of that, the rest of them are all over social media. Now, of course, Tamika, deciding to go natural, of course, is a big, big decision. Why do you think a lot of people now are transitioning to natural hair care? My first response to that will be getting away from chemicals, period, because now certain chemicals are causing cancer, a lot of cancer in women, and I think that's the ultimate decision. That's why a lot of us are deterred from getting relaxers and things like that. Also, money. It costs us way more money to get our hair done with added care, added weave, relaxers, color, things like that. So now people are moving to natural. You can pretty much spend a couple bucks and do something with your natural hair. You can take it and put it in big twists and do a twist out, and it costs you nothing to do that because it's something that you can do yourself. I think all of those play into why people are choosing to go natural now and also becoming more aware of who they are and embracing themselves. I'm a beautiful black queen, and I don't have to have this in my hair. I'm a beautiful black queen. I rock in my afro. I think all of that plays into why we're now moving into embracing our natural hair. Tameka, is it easier to take care of natural hair? I'm pretty 50-50 on that. I say that because it would be easy for me to do it, but someone that's transitioning, not used to doing it, it can be difficult in the beginning. It can be very difficult, but as they start to embrace it and realize, hey, I can do it, it becomes easier. In the beginning, it can be quite of a struggle because they're still trying to learn how to manage it, how to comb it properly, what styles could I do that's going to make my natural hair look right. It can be a struggle in the beginning, yes, ma'am. What are your future goals for yourself and for your business? My future goal is to actually one day move away from doing hair and to actually go into teaching. I want to do, I said I want to do a small amount or a couple 101 to actually become a teacher in teaching natural hair care. I do have my license for that as well. That is one of my ultimate goals in the end and to also branch out and have hair in as many cities and states that I can so that we can reach as many kids as we can to get them off of the games, get them off of the cell phones and tell them, hey, we have aunties here. We're not your blood aunties but we are your aunties. We want to bring you in. We want to spend a couple hours with you. We want you to know that we love you and that we care. Yes, my ultimate goal with hair is to branch off and open up as many chapters as I can while also working on the braids and beauty side, moving into teaching eventually, yes. How many states do you have your non-profit in now, Tameka? It's just North Carolina right now, yes. So do you plan on maybe within the next year or so trying to do South Carolina, trying to do the surrounding states? I am and all I need to do that is a few good aunties. Okay. So you have to, in other words, to recruit some, of course, some braiders and all and some barbers who will come with you and travel to those states? Yes. And with the two chapters that I have now, we pretty much do that. I tell, you know, anybody that inquires, hey, if you can get the kids and you can get us a safe location to come and do activities, we're there. Any final thoughts at this time, Tameka, about anything that we've discussed today or anything you'd like to say? My final thoughts and it's a thought that I tell everyone is to pretty much keep God first and you have to have a heart to do anything. If you don't have a heart to do it, it's not going to come. It's just not going to happen. And I also, you know, tell myself I constantly write the vision and make it plain. And I also say, you know, Tameka, the vision that God gave you, He's not going to give to anyone else. And I live by that. And so, yes. So my final thought is just that you have to keep moving. You have to keep pushing Sometimes the road gets long and dark, but you have to keep moving. Sometimes you stand by yourself. Sometimes you're alone. You have people that will say, hey, I'm going to help you. And you turn around that person isn't there, but you have to keep going, especially if it's the vision God gave you. And you have to understand that everybody may not understand it because it's something that He gave you. So it's only meant for you to understand. Tameka, please give everybody your contact information at this time. You can follow HavingAuntiesInReach Actually, we're on Google. You can just Google us HavingAuntiesInReach.org We're on Instagram at Hair.NC We're also on Facebook under HavingAuntiesInReach and also the email. Everything is HavingAuntiesInReach at gmail.com Phone number 919-895-2642 Okay. Well, Tameka, thank you for being on the City Insights podcast this evening. Thank you for sharing all that valuable information. And of course, I wish you loads of success. And audience, please thank and thank you for listening to our podcast for the City Insights. I'm your host, Dr. Shanessa Finner. Please take care and take care of your beautiful head of hair. Thank you. Thank you.