Story by Diego Alcaraz-Monje
Photos by Izzy Young
Video by Everett Wold
Illustration by Jordan Hale
For some, doing hair is a skill students use on themselves, friends or the community around them. Three students, Torin Fields, Jordan Nunnally and Kyla Bryant run small businesses doing hair from inside their dorms and apartments.
“Textured With Torin”
Sophomore political science and sociology double major, Torin Fields from Nashville, said that she feels honored to do hair.
“I feel like a lot of other Black people, or people with delicate hair, really put a lot of pride into it,” Fields said. “So the fact that someone is letting me, I feel honored to do their hair, because that’s such a delicate thing.”
Fields said that she has had her hair business since her freshman year, after seeing how many people needed their hair done. She said she is self-taught and has been doing her own hair throughout her life, and was encouraged by her first clients, her siblings, to make some extra money.
Through her business, Fields said she does a little bit of every style, but specializes in braids, retwists and any styles involving natural hair. She said that she has three to four clients a week, doing styles of her room in Pearce Ford Tower.
However, she said that for her, it’s not just about the money.
“If that was the case, I would be picking the easiest styles to do,” Fields said.
Fields said she knows that a lot of people have “hair trauma” with stylists, even experiencing having her hair relaxed as she was growing up. She said relaxing, which consists of chemically straightening natural hair, caused her hair to burn.
“It’s that level of trust that you get with your stylist or your barber that you don’t get with anyone else,” Fields said. “You’re building that intimate relationship where you can talk about those difficult things that might not be hair-related.”
Fields said her favorite part of doing hair is being able to form that kind of relationship with her clients. She said she aims to offer a space where clients can open up, vent and even share advice back and forth.
“It’s deeper than just okay, client and then over,” Fields said. “I want to make sure that it’s a good experience.”
Fields said that her clients even know her outside of doing hair due to her activity on campus, being a resident assistant, president of Mount Zion Campus Ministries and operations chair for Black Women of Western.
She said she believes that hair is very spiritual, from growing up seeing the power of Black space where they form a connection with a stylist they come back to.
“They know everything about you, you just come and sit in the chair,” Fields said. “I think there’s beauty in that, because there’s beauty in community.”
“Cutzbysiir”
Junior broadcasting major from Louisville, Jordan Nunnally, said it wasn’t his idea to get into doing hair.
“After I graduated high school, I didn’t know where I wanted to be,” Nunnally said. “I was probably going to end up being the type of person who works just to get money that way.”
Nunnally said his mother wanted him to have a trade as a backup plan or side hustle, and he was put in the Kentucky College of Barbering. He said that he ended up falling in love with it.
“Barbering is not only a trade where you get money, but you get to socialize with people,” Nunnally said. “You get to network with different clients that you have. It’s also like giving them a service and boosting their self-esteem.”
Nunnally said he started his business halfway into his first year at barber school, and continued it after graduating and beginning at WKU in 2024. He said that his business is small as of right now, but he hopes to grow it and work in a barbershop after he is able to earn his license.
He said he does various cuts for different types of cuts out of his dorm in Bates-Runner Hall, as well as travel cuts, but enjoys cutting clients with waves or fine and straight hair the most.
“[Barbering] feels like an art,” Nunnally said. “From the moment I turn the clippers on, looking at a canvas, and [getting] started, it just has that satisfaction when you get done.”
Nunnally said that even though haircuts have the same name, it rarely has the same steps or results based on the person. He said that one of the main takeaways of barber school was that each cut matters.
“There’s some people who are not having the best day or the best week, and when they come to me, it’s almost therapeutic,” Nunnally said. “If they’re not feeling all right before you get finished, they will definitely feel good right after.”
Nunnally said that it makes his day better to be able to help somebody else, and he wants to be the person who uplifts others. He also said that one client he has remembered through his time as a barber was a client with autism whose mother would only bring him to Nunnally.
“The first haircut I did, he loved it, he was smiling, he gave me a hug,” Nunnally said. “It just felt like I did something really great, and it was so small, but it was just that genuine connection and laughable moments that we had while I was taking care of him.”
“Blessed Locs”
Junior interior design major from Nashville, Kyla Bryant, said that owning a business has always been in her blood.
“My whole family has businesses,” Bryant said. “I’ve always wanted to have my own thing going on.”
Bryant said that she learned to do hair at a young age through her mother and started her business in 2021 during COVID-19. She said she had to eventually stop so she wasn’t posing a health risk to her mother, who gets sick easily, but relaunched in August of 2023.
She said that her business centers around locs, since braids are very tedious for her. Bryant said her mother used to do braids and developed problems in her hands, which she didn’t want to follow since she wants to continue her business for the long run.
She said that most of her clients are men, since it’s hard for men, especially athletes and people in organizations, to take care of their hair.
“It’s hard for them to keep up with their hair,” Bryant said. “I decided to be a priority for them on campus so they can keep it up.”
Bryant said that her favorite part of doing hair is the amazement after she’s done with the hair and showing off the style.
“It’s just crazy how God can really move me while I’m doing hair and how he blessed me with this gift,” Bryant said. “I can really make art in someone’s head.”
She said that every time someone sits in her chair, she prays before the client arrives for the client to feel at ease and able to talk.
“I don’t want you to feel like a stranger in my chair, or I don’t want you to feel like I’m a stranger touching on your hair,” Bryant said. “I want you to feel like this is a relationship, a mutual relationship, me doing your hair and just getting to know me on a personal level.”
Bryant said that as an extrovert, she loves meeting new people and creating a network of clients and other hairstylists.
“It’s pretty fun, and if I’m not able to do [the client’s] hair, I still have connections for other people to do their hair at the time that they need,” Bryant said.
She said that she believes that if someone is selfish or stingy about their business, “God’s not gonna bless you.”
“Showing off other people’s brands is really cool,” Bryant said. “I don’t care if they don’t show off mine, I still show off yours. That’s how I am.”
