Brady Cates
bcates@uwyo.edu
Hair is something that is very unique to the African-American culture or different ethnicities, but many students on the campus of the University of Wyoming are not able to go to a salon to get their hair done.
Laramie does not have a hair salon that is able to suit the needs of the black culture or other ethnic cultures, or perhaps people just do not know of one, Jasmine Austin, instructor in African-American and diaspora studies, said.
Austin said she has to go back to her home state to get her hair done or do it herself.
“I have to fly four hours back to Louisiana to get my hair done or in the worst case I have to do it myself, which is the case for most black students on campus,” Austin said.
Ashley McDowell, senior majoring in criminal justice, said she is not able to get her hair done in Laramie either.
“I go to an African-American lady in Cheyenne to get my hair done. There is no place in Laramie that deals with black culture styled hair,” McDowell said.
Many people have to go to other places like Casper, Cheyenne or Denver, but those cities are hard to get to when the winters are so harsh in Laramie, McDowell added.
Along with the problem of not having a salon in Laramie dealing with ethnic hair care, Wal-Mart has its own small hair product section that is not labeled for ethnic hair care, Austin said.
“In Wal-Mart the ethnic hair care section is right next to the foot fungus section and no one really wants to go to that section,” she said. “So it isn’t a very welcoming environment when it comes to taking care of black hair.”
This is frustrating for black students or anyone in general that is just wanting to purchase hair products so they can keep their hair healthy, Austin said.
“This is very frustrating to me because I don’t understand why they can’t just have these hair care products with all the rest of them. It shouldn’t have to be in it’s own section that isn’t even labeled,” McDowell said.
There is a hair salon in Cheyenne named Ethnic Hair Care that recently opened to suit the needs of people with ethnic hair. A woman named Leahnya Gunn, who has been in the cosmetology business for 16-years, runs the salon.
Gunn said people from all different ethnicities and all different ages come in the salon.
“We specialize in caring for hair that is overly curly, coarse or any aspect of hair that is hard to deal with,” Gunn said.
Many people have a misconception that if you have ethnic hair it just means that you are from an ethnic decent, Gunn said, adding that even someone who is white can have ethnic hair.
“Ethnic hair is pretty much overly curly, that isn’t necessarily easy to work with and has a little more coarseness to it,” Gunn said.
Gunn said the issue with having a salon like this in Cheyenne and not in Laramie is it is hard for people to get to Cheyenne or some other place near Laramie when the weather is bad for five months out of the school year.
“It would be great to get a salon like the Ethnic Hair Care salon in Cheyenne to Laramie. They would probably make a lot of money,” Austin said.
Maranda Blake, manager of Smartstyle Family Hair Salon in Laramie, said they do cut people of different ethnicities hair and some students from the university come into their salon to get their hair done.
“We do cut African-American people’s hair at our salon, but a big reason why many stylists are uncomfortable with cutting ethnic hair is because they didn’t really learn how to cut that type of hair while going through cosmetology school,” Blake said.
The Smartstyle Family Hair Salon does have a couple stylists that are very good with cutting and styling ethnic hair, Blake said.
