TAMPA, Fla. – August is National Black Business Month, and I’ve been talking to Black entrepreneurs in our community all month. I stopped by Salon Brazyl in Carrollwood, a small salon that specializes in natural hair care.
“I definitely feel like I’m helping them restore their lives. I’m taking care of the health of their hair,” says Latecia Hankerson, owner of Salon Brazyl in Carrollwood. While I was there, she was working on the hair of a longtime friend and client. “I love styling too, but I feel like I’m healing the hair and making it healthier so they can continue that journey to healthy hair.” Hankerson was born into hair care. Her mother was a hairdresser, and she remembers that time vividly. “I remember sitting on the floor of her salon at two years old, taking in the smell of the salon, looking around, and just having that feeling. I’ve always been obsessed with beauty and creating and enhancing it,” Hankerson explains.
She started cosmetology school at just 15 years old and eventually worked in various salons until she opened her own in 2006. “I wanted to control the atmosphere. I wanted to control the experience and I serve my mimosas, my coffee, my tea. I have snacks. They tell me about their day and that experience is priceless,” she said.
She doesn’t do perms, extensions or straighteners. She focuses on improving the health of natural, curly hair. “Because that’s my niche – curly and textured hair – my biggest hurdle is convincing women who look like me that their hair is beautiful. I could cry,” she said, getting emotional.
And the best business advice she ever received: “Come early or arrive on time. It can literally make or break you.”
Link to Salon Brazyl
I-Team Investigator Adam Walser is investigating another case involving a Manatee County man who discovered serious problems with seat belts and an air bag in two different used cars he purchased from the same dealer.
Florida man buys two cars with defective seatbelts and airbag systems at the same car lot
