 We are hard to deal with yeah, and I think over time you can become jaded and Become you know when you see that black person your fellow black person walk in you might not be as You might become more suspicious than optimistic and that kind of leads you to Bad customer service. Yeah, so it's kind of like a chicken-of-the-egg thing. Do you think? So let's let's start here. Let's start here here here, right? If you guys could explain to men Especially black men what hair means to the black woman, how would you try to make that make sense for us? I Would say honestly so easy to say hair is confidence Like your hair how your hair looks can determine exactly how you feel like I know for some time for me If my hair isn't done, I probably won't go outside because I don't feel the prettiest But now I'm in this space where I can put my bunny and I can go outside and I can feel beautiful But it's taking me time in a journey to go through that, you know space of figuring out How do I want to wear my hair? Do I feel pretty like this? What are other people gonna say about my hair? So um long story short. I think it's all about confidence really What would you say Courtney? What does my hair mean to me? I don't know. I feel like my hair or any other woman how they may feel is that their hair actually describes them Like certain people wear color here. Some people wear long hair everything Can also describe you based off your appearance. I feel like some days You might want to be this girl tomorrow. You want to be somebody else? That's why a black woman have wigs. So we go get into it. Yeah Defines us. Yeah, that's that's really good. I'm gonna ask you a specific question Okay, we talked about it before and then I'm gonna ask y'all as well So remember I asked you Does a different hairstyle attract a different type of guy? Yes. Yes, absolutely When I'm wearing my hair in an afro or more of a natural style, I'll get men who like hey queen you look so good Or even if I'm wearing a wig that or I don't wear wigs, but if I'm wearing a protective style, that's Curly very big. I get that type of response. I found that when I wore bundles I didn't really get any feedback from people and I don't know if it's because I blend it in more That's what they're used to seeing but you definitely do get a different response Because you can stand out at different elements in different levels and then attract different people I feel like What was the question what what how have you noticed the difference in guys that you attract based on the way you wear your hair See, I might see not trying to be funny But bust down middle part with my suit on business woman. I might track a businessman if I got Let me think Different hairstyle short blunt cut wavy. I might track Some man that want to be at the gym all the time like it all depends on how your hair look Yeah, well, she said it really depends on What that person like so for me for example, I was seeing a guy and I Was seen a man And for some reason he liked my braids and I'm like, why do you like my braids and I was seeing another guy like years prior And he liked my natural hair. So it's like we honestly never know what that we never know How to wear hair to impress a guy because every guy like different things Yes, like some men do not like weave like do not come around me with weave on they don't like lashes This is like they want that natural look 24-7 all the time So most men just from what I I hear they do prefer more of a natural look Because I think they're questioning what they're signing up for when you take all of that stuff off So it's like it looks good, you know when you're all glammed up and stuff But if you look way different when I'm laying down with you, then it's definitely like what do you really look like? there So This is gonna be like a shallow thing, but I'm noticing like hairdressers. They want you come and wash They want you blow-dried. They want you like detangled. What's the deal with that? Is that even legal? No, seriously, I feel like that's I feel like that's not accurate as a hairstylist job You're supposed to wash the clients here, man, sorry I don't care what nobody say because even we can us clients we can go wash our hair and it's not fully washed the way you Want it it's still grease in our hair It's still oil in our hair and then you still have to wash it again Or the fact that you're upset because it's oil in our hair and you don't feel like washing it out Like I don't think that's a part of the rules at all to not wash your clients here period I can't relate to that life I found me a hairdresser who Does not want you to come in with your hair wash like she will do it for you You just got a this the class of I shouldn't say that the type of women nowadays that are in that industry The customer service is just lacking in so many different kind of ways and I remember I Tried to have someone do my hair and they told me that my hair was too thick and they were like I can't manage hair like this or they said something like It's not my job to make sure that your hair is healthy. I'm a stylist like those are red flags for me because your hair Is your crown? You don't want people messing with your energy and taking your hair out, but I don't know I just feel like a lot of women nowadays We're not used to caring for our own hair and I think that shows with people who are doing hair as well like though Bus down middle part they give you a soul and they give you all different types of things But try to find someone who can maintain and manage natural hair. It's a little bit more challenging Well, I mean that brings me to a question about like black-owned business, right? Like, you know, the honey hair company is a premium luxury brand Yeah, but in a way, which is weird to me They're kind of an outlier because most hair manufacturers are Asian Most hair consumers are black Women so y'all make it make sense for me. Why is it that it's easier or we're quicker to spend money with Asians? Then black like yeah, honey hair company That's a good question. Like you said, uh customer service customer service is everything customer service is key You have people that I mean sometimes people like black woman You could we have to agree that sometimes our attitude is bad Where we're not satisfied with the products that we're receiving so that's already a red flag not being Satisfied with you just spend all your money on when you know that there's vendors out here and people across China Who you just got to send a text to and they gonna do the job but customer service is key you have to learn how to talk to people and then Communicate with them on what the issue is some people was just dragging or even like for example with running a business period like If people don't receive the services that they pay for they're not satisfied or they're not happy or they're following the complaint or they're Dispute in their orders and it just be like that falls back on the black business because all you we had to do was communicate with each other But someone didn't take the time out to take the initiative and actually communicate what the problem was I Would say so I feel like people are sometimes used to what they know and I know for me All we know is that Asian vendors like when we first started we're here We were we was getting it from like Asian vendors, right? So I feel like people got used to that and they don't really want to go out of the norm of that So it's like why shop there when I've been doing this all this long time So I think it's all about just breaking that cycle of doing something that you always being used to You're gonna go for a piggyback. I got something to say I don't know how it's gonna be received I mean, I think that other cultures come in and they capitalize off the fact that we don't support one another So that's number one. I mean if you think about other cultures when they come here They established their business and they're putting money back into the community So that other people can start a business and they have a cultural on-club of people who are doing well the thing that I find is that And I'll just speak for myself I love to support black-owned businesses customer service can be lacking but a lot of the time because We we don't have a lot of mainstream production. The pricing is more expensive And so for me as a consumer I need a little bit more than just saying you're black for me to spend three times the money with you than somebody else And I also need to know if your your reasoning is well, you should support me because I'm a black-owned business What are you doing to reinvest back into the community? And I'm not seeing that I think a lot of people are You know kudos to them. They're successful in their business, but they're not giving back And for me it's not justification to put money in your pocket if you're not doing the same in return to get back Yeah, definitely like what value do you bring? What value do you add to this community? You're gonna say something corny Okay, she said she said we was needed Okay, so if if you know if you guys had to represent the black female delegation as the number one consumers and The people watching are black-owned You know whether they also sell beauty products Whether they sell food, whatever the case may be How would you get it across to them as far as like what they need to do to be competitive for your business compared to the Asians or other people who are vying for your money Well, like when you talked about earlier customer service is everything because if you got a bad or two like you were saying I'm not gonna want to shop with you. You got to bring some value I'm all about value in customer service if you got those two then I'm coming to you because I'm like Treat people the way you want to be treated. I know it's like so kindergarten, but When I give service, I'm gonna make sure it's top tier. So when I receive service I want to receive it the same exact way. I Like that. I like what you say. Yeah, I'm gonna play God's advocate for a second because as a black Business owner as somebody who's worked in sales with black people And I'm sure she could attest to this as well We are hard to deal with yeah, oh, yeah, and I think over time you can become jaded and Become you know when you see that black part your fellow black person walk in you might not be as You might become more suspicious than optimistic and That kind of leads you to bad customer service. Yeah, so it's kind of like a chicken-of-the-egg thing. Do you think? If black business owners had better customer service the customers would be better or if the customers were better The customer service would improve if the people was better both it could tie both ways because it's like I Mean personally I want to know who I'm talking to before I purchase anything or if you're a company like I'm I'm real big on reviews Like our reviews don't lie No, I'm gonna read the reviews. Let me see what these people are saying what services have they received what was their feedback and Sometimes reach out. Why do you feel this way? What went wrong and receive an actual honest opinion? so it could be on both be has because It could be the person who's actually consuming the product or the other person. It's like Yeah, we got to meet each other halfway Personally is everything. It's like who are you as a person? Why should I shop with you? I want you to bring value to me Both ways They got to be both ways, but I also think like like now I think like that if you have a service You want that customer? So you got to be willing to do everything in your power to make sure that you provide that service So me as a business owner, I'm gonna make sure that I'm the one trying to get you to shop with me So my customer service is gonna be good to you from the job You can come back so I'm gonna come up to you with a great attitude I'm gonna come up to you offering value and compassion and just being very genuinely You know wanting you to purchase with me Versus you don't have to come to me and add anything because I want you like you don't need me You can go anywhere in this world to get what you need, but you came here. So I owe you that satisfaction It's almost like the customer is always right that needs to be Definitely Just be sideways and they know they sideways and it's just like who are you and then I just easily Refund or just let you have whatever you want because you just not a good person mentally like I already see where your head is that and how you communicate it's not on my platform I'm gonna throw this question to you time. Okay, before you do that. Can I um, can we take a couple steps back? Did you say that we can be difficult to deal with I Have done customer service for a long time in my past and I think that there are customers of all races who are horrible But I think that some of the burdens that we kind of carry as black people is that if we're a bad customer is attributed to our race And it's if a white person comes in or any other ethnicity It's not because they're white there this is just just that person their personality So it's like I now have to become a representative for the whole community when I'm interacting with you for you to not look At me that way and I think we have to be mindful of that too and that kind of goes back to how we view black-owned businesses as well, right? There's not Which I don't know the statistics In terms of how many black-owned businesses there are versus non black-owned businesses, but I imagine they're not equal And so we're probably gonna interact more with white-owned businesses or other ethnicities than black ones So because we don't have that much of a pool. It's like any little interaction we have we attribute it to the whole Community of black-owned businesses, do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think we just have to be careful of those biases that we have with one another That's good. Yeah, I agree with you So the question I was going to ask you was from a guy's point of view it seems like There's been a rise in Women switching up their style Is that true? Are we tripping or does it seem like, you know, let's say between 2005 and now like everybody has A wall to look like that and everybody is doing this this week and this next week. Are we tripping as men? Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. We need to talk I'll say something first because I've noticed it. It's like Everybody want to be like this It's this thing that everybody just want to be like and it's like everybody's following that That aesthetic like the it girl or What is that girl like who why does everybody want to be that girl? the nice high-rise apartment with the nice car and The nice clothes the the purse is all in the closet. It's like, why do we want to be that girl so much? Why can't we just Not settle with being normal, but why can't normal be that? Like who's to say it's normal who's to say that's the thing we need to be Like why can't we just all be free and Society has really just I feel so bad for the younger generation Because they are not going to be able to be themselves Because they're going to always try to be that because everybody else is trying to be that Yeah It's people in high school looking like how we have our makeup done right now, right the prom pitches from when we were in high school versus So different. Nobody is set apart anymore. Mm-hmm y'all ain't tripping But what we ain't tripping us women ain't tripping looking at no offense other women But you do have some women who I mean, it's a great the girl is great. Her life is great I guess that's why everybody wants to be that image, but it's like what is it? You don't have to be that image to be You can be you And you can still have a great life and that goes on and say like how success like we all look at success in different You know definitions like who's to say that's successful You could get all that and still Not be you want to hold another element out. That's where I'm at It's like, okay. I got this. I got I'm the it girl. I'm that girl I'm I'm social media, but it's like what makes you that girl. It's like, I'm not even happy But you got everything that I want