Remember “Bloggers?” Aka the original ‘digital’ influencers. Garielle Allen was one of the first bloggers, back-in-the day, for the natural hair community. But she took it one step beyond sharing her natural hair journey, she became certified as a professional stylist with the education to back up the credibility of her online presence.
This week’s Volume Up by The Tease guest not only was one of the first natural hair bloggers, speaking out on natural hair for those who felt lost and confused with their hair type, but also later became a licensed professional. Gabrielle Allen, aka Strawberricurls, took her passion project and turned it into her full time career.
Gabrielle is the owner of Shades Studio Salon, founder of Shades Studio Academy and a Healthy Hair Specialist and Stylist Coach. She began styling hair seven years ago and is passionate about natural hair care. Gabrielle is also a beauty influencer with 400,000 plus followers. Gabrielle provides in-person and virtual classes for hairstylists and beauty professionals as well.
Gabrielle joined us this week to talk about her journey from blogger to licensed pro as well as becoming an educator. Gabrielle is consistently learning from those around her and pushing the industry forward by keeping everyone around her accountable.
This episode is packed with amazing information and is a conversation that you will not want to miss. Head to wherever you stream to tune in!
“I mean at the time that I decided to start wearing my natural hair they didn’t have a lot of resources out there… well it started as a passion project because I felt like more people should know this because I was seeing results…If I was lost, who else is lost?”
“With the controversial topics and all that stuff. Nobody was willing to talk about it that looked like me. So I decided, ‘I’ll be the first’.”
“And the best hairstylists that I knew, white, black, asian, hispanic, it doesn’t matter, learn from everybody. Right? So when you kind of box yourself in and say, ‘well, I only want to learn from this person because they look like me’, you know. You miss out on an opportunity for so much that it’s not even funny.”
Listen to the full episode here or wherever you stream and head over to our Instagrams @Readthetease and @volumeupbythetease.
