Event Overview Contributed by Carolyn Fraser
(Houston, TX) On Saturday, September 14th, from 12PM – 5PM, the Zayd’s Natural Kids Grand Opening Event showcased the new salon and provided tons of fun for guests at its Museum District location (5221 Almeda Road). Zayd’s Natural Kids is the only natural hair salon for children in the Houston area!
Approximately 300 children and parents enjoyed beats from BET’s Master of the Mix Season 2 Contestant, DJ Supastar and her Spin Academy student – DJ Lily B, several performances from The Baby Isaac Crew live characters: Baby Isaac, Disco Joe and Lil Bubba, the ‘Lil Miss Natural Beauty’ Runway Hair Show, pamper parties, snowball flavored-ice truck, video gaming truck, ABC Bodyart, face painting, swag bags and giveaways every hour, including Zayd’s poodle bags and free food and drinks. Amenities for parents and adults included, henna tattoos, hourly giveaways, at-home hair maintenance tips and pamphlets, along with natural hair product samples. Official Sponsors included: Organic Root Stimulator, Taliah Waajid’s Kinky, Wavy, Natural, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Supastar Spin Academy, The Baby Isaac Crew and Brown Sugar Beauti.
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Hurt2Healing Magazine got the exclusive with Zayd’s Owner, Shawna Farooq, discussing her inspiration and drive to provide quality services in the Black community!
Ebony S. Muhammad (EM): First, I would like to congratulate you on 9 years of service in the Black community, especially with something that is promoting natural hair. I believe that is an industry which is growing ever so rapidly. Why do you believe it’s important to have a salon that focuses on natural hair?
Shawna Farooq (SF): A lot of times our parents aren’t educated on how to maintain their daughter’s natural hair, and I found a need to educate our parents on how to do so. Their child’s natural hair grows so rapidly, yet, they don’t want to put the chemicals in their hair. Unfortunately, the parent has been using chemicals for so long that now it’s almost like a sense of forgetting how to take care of it in its natural form.
Now, I see where they are embracing their natural hair, but they’re not so knowledgeable on how to take care of it. Therefore, I felt like that was something I could bring to my community; to embrace it, continue to wear it, appreciate it and love it.
We were born with natural hair so it’s not a new thing. It’s trendier now.
EM: Yes ma’am. I think that’s one of the reasons why some of our women and girls don’t have natural hair, because we don’t know how to appreciate it and take care of it. You actually went into the next question that I have, which is regarding the education for the parents. When I was growing up my mother had difficulties with my natural hair, and I had a lot of it (laughs). Does Zayd’s offer formal “How To” classes, or is it a case by case teaching moment?
SF: I will be offering parenting classes on how to maintain the hair; how to comb it out on a regular basis, how to detangle it on a regular basis, what products to use and so forth.
EM: Awesome! So when a child comes into your salon with a perm/relaxer and wants to “go natural”, is there a service for them to go through the process?
SF: There’s definitely a transitional process that we take them through. My transitional clients are actually my most important clients, because they’re in a very vulnerable state as far as trying to take care of their hair, understand what’s going on and deal with their new growth. We take them through the process. We don’t rush them, because it is a process. We wait until they’re comfortable with doing the “big chop” and with the length of their natural hair before they cut the relaxer off. There are certain styles in between that they can do while the relaxer is still on the hair as the natural hair is growing in.
We keep licensed, trained stylists to educate the children and parents on how to go through the transitional process or if it’s already natural and how to keep it healthy.
EM: Excellent! My last question is that you mentioned being natural is to be appreciated and that it is a process, therefore are you and your stylists catering to the self-esteem of the girls and the mothers as they go through this process? It is a spiritual journey when you go from having a perm and having a certain look to now having to be comfortable with your natural hair regardless of the texture.
SF: Basically, our job is to make them feel as comfortable as possible and with making them feel comfortable about it, it enhances their self-esteem naturally. They see themselves evolve right before their own eyes. It’s a little that we do, but it’s mostly the girls that really reach into themselves. Natural is more mainstream now, so it makes them more comfortable when they see their friends wearing their hair natural and other women going natural. That’s helps with the self-esteem. It’s really gratifying to see how many smiles we put on their faces when they go natural.
EM: Beautiful! Thank you very much, and again congratulations!!!
To learn more about Zayd’s Natural Kids, visit them online at www.ZaydsNaturalKids.com
(L to R – Shawna Farooq & Ebony S. Muhammad)
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Pictures!
Zayd’s Natural Kids Grand Opening Event Pics (Photo Credits: Energy of Creation and Lane Strahan):https://www.dropbox.com/sh/25c4sjvc4935f0o/oEgDtqAbZ0
Zayd’s Natural Kids Hair Models (Photo Credit: Energy of Creation): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1bf80lqqe8schvl/NactRpP-rK
About Zayd’s Natural Kids
Located in the culture-enriched Almeda area of Houston, Texas, Zayd’s Natural Kids is a full-service natural hair salon that caters to children, ages three (3) to thirteen (13). Zayd, meaning increased growth in abundance and Owner, Shawna Farooq’s parents, Imam Eugene and Dr. Daa’iyah Farooq’s spirit of community development and entrepreneurship, inspired her to open Zayd’s Natural Kids. With an increased number of children involved in the natural hair movement, opening a children’s salon was the ‘natural’ thing to do for Shawna. Zayd’s Natural Kids is conducive to the unique needs of children – providing a fun-filled environment while offering the best in natural hair care services. Zayd’s Natural Kids specializes in Cornrow Braiding, Double Strand Twists, Coiled Twists, Locks, Bantu Knots, Pressing and many more natural hair styles for children. The salon offers Zayd’s Natural Kids hair care products, hosts Glam Parties, does Makeovers and Glam Photos and houses the Creation Station, a one-stop personalization station for kids’ activities while at the salon.
For more information go to: www.zaydsnaturalkids.com.
