Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayanna Hopson
Hi Kayanna, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The Hair Geniee was founded July 28th of 2022 in honor of my mother Regina Jones aka Ms. Genie who passed on May 26th of 2021. She was a very intelligent and beautiful woman who instilled education in me and the power of belief. I started on this journey hoping to continue the legacy of her name and this has helped me keep her closer in my heart as a way of relief and memory. This has been a very difficult journey for me because everyone did not believe in my vision but knowing that it has given me every reason to continue to strive and stay consistent. My passion for hair has kept me hungry and has allowed me to stay true to myself and my work. I have come a long way because I had to build confidence from the ground up and ignore all the discouragement, negativity, and criticism. As my passion for hair grew more intense, I decided to incorporate content creating. I started content creating because I knew that I wanted to do more than just stand behind the chair. I decided to start content creation to engage with my clients, business pages, and anyone who is an active support on my page. I knew that I was good with a variety of things and not only hair. I knew that I was always good for being a positive light to other stylist and showing my raw personality would help others understand me and my story. I started to create content with my clients to show more of my fun authentic side but also to allow them to express themselves on camera as well. The moment that I stepped out of my comfort zone I went viral on my hair page with my first video reaching 1.5 million views. I gained more followers, views, and interactions within a few weeks by just being consistent every day. I trusted the process and I started to feel more confident in myself with the help of God guiding me and leading me through this journey. Within the last year, I have had 15 videos go viral and over 500 clients and all I did was put the work in and pray. I spent sleepless nights and days pouring so much into my business while working a full-time job and hoping to have my own salon one day working for myself as a full-time stylist and content creator. On this journey confidence, gratitude, consistency, resilience, faith are the key values that have allowed me to stay afloat and move further with my business and I know that with the hard work I have put in it will soon pay off and I will be super successful while carrying my mother’s legacy
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. Some struggles I’ve had along the way was figuring out where i wanted to be at the end of this journey. I was so unsure of what i wanted that I always found myself comparing my work to other hairstylist. I was so discouraged because i felt that i wasn’t getting the recognition i deserved in my city as a stylist and i would always see what god was doing for others and not appreciating enough for what he’s doing for me. I had to truly walk by faith and stay confident in myself that i will get everything I’ve prayed for and some.
We’ve been impressed with The Hair Geniee, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Hair Geniee offers a variety of services such as braids, twist, silk press, ponytails and quick weaves. I started off focusing more on natural services in cosmetology school and then slowly transitioned into braiding services because initially that was what I enjoyed doing most. I happened to get on tik tok one day and I saw this style called island twist that stood out to me and instantly caught my attention. I didn’t see anyone in my city offering that as a service, so I decided one day to do the same exact style on myself. When I did this style on myself, I instantly got so many compliments because no one has ever seen the style before in my city and that’s when I knew the island twist was going to be something that separated me from every other stylist! I started to perfect it every chance I had and I just kept getting better and better. I happened to be so good at this style that this was the only style people wanted to book! This style has by far been the most popular style I ever offered and has made me so much money within the past year. I started to become very known for my twist that everyone knew me for being the best in my city. I’ve had so many people tell me that they’ve never seen anyone’s twist as clean/ consistent and thick as mine and that’s when i knew my twist were unique. What I am most proud of is being able to make a name for myself on social media as a stylist/ content creator and my page reaching 850 thousand people within the last 30 days.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memory was being able to experience being on a basketball team with some awesome people and winning a state title earning a ring my sophomore year.
Pricing:
- Small Island twist $220
- Medium Island twist $210
- Large Island Twist $190
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @_thehairgeniee
- Facebook: Kayanna Hopson
