Curly Dreams-Curl Creation Salon

For the past 5 years since the age of 17, Janae Hargett has been pursuing her curly dreams. As a young girl she remembers not always knowing how to manage her curly hair but also not having confidence as related to the texture and styling of her hair. With the support of her mother, in high school she started learning and began to pursue her cosmetology license through Anthis Career Center. When she graduated with her high school diploma, she also graduated with her cosmetology license and began to pursue hair as a career. Her specialty is curly and natural hair.

As she worked with Veronica Townes at Optimistics and her clientele grew above 200-300 people, she realized that she needed to expand. A little over a year after renting her own place, she received a loan from BrightPointe and with some of her own money decided to purchase and remodel a larger size building so that she could begin to hire and train staff.

Her current location on the northeast side of town holds up to 6 stylists and she currently has 4 including herself with 2 more on the way over the next few months.

As she has started to hire and train young or newly graduated stylists on her systems and on natural and curly hair, her salon is expanding. We were able to connect to discuss all that she’s accomplished so far and what she looks forward to in the future both personally and professionally.

Ervin: Congrats on all of your success! Tell me about how you’ve continued to grow your business and tell me about your product and the process for creating that.

Hargett: I’ll start with my product. Several years ago I created a product I call Banah which is a curl treatment product. In addition to my journey of learning and gaining confidence in my own hair, I wanted to create a product that supports the culture of understanding, hair care and love for curls for any who use the product. Creating my product was trial and error with a chemist and the trademarking process. The product is an in-salon service only professional product. We utilize it within a system that includes a consultation, cut, treatment and care for damaged hair.

In growing my business, I have started an Associate Program (similar to a program I went through but tweaked for my salon) in which I hire and pay new stylists as they go through the 6-8 month training program and begin to build their own business and clientele. They are staff within the salon and are trained to utilize the processes and products to care for natural and curly hair. We also now have a braider who braids all ages but specializes in children 12 and under. The staff have various skill sets which helps to diversify our salon and serve many clients with a variety of services including natural and curly but also cuts, color and blow outs (hair straightening).

Ervin: This is great! What does the future look like for the salon amd you?

Hargett: We are now serving over 1000 clients and have grown pretty quickly. I look to continue to support and train new stylists as well as grow the salon in Fort Wayne and eventually grow beyond the local area. People drive in from Indianapolis and even Chicago so I would look at the surrounding areas for expansion. I also would like to hire estheticians amd incorporate skin care in the future. Overall, I want to support the next generation with hair care and education. My primary job has shifted to supporting more training and development of staff as they build their clientele.

As I continue to grow my family as well, I want to make sure I am thinking of my children's future and other young people in our community.

Ervin: Thanks for your time today and congrats on your success! Many blessings on your future!