Penn State students provide Black hair care services | Penn State, State College News

College becomes a home away from home for many young adults — but some everyday essentials can be harder to find, especially for Black students at a predominately white institution like Penn State.

From haircuts to loc retwists, many Black students tap into their entrepreneurial spirit to provide hair care services for their peers.

Courtney Richardson specializes in locs, box braids and other protective styles.

Richardson, a fourth-year studying biobehavioral health, has done her own hair since high school. Once she got to college, she did her roommate’s and friends’ hair. Through word of mouth, it eventually grew into a business.

“I feel like it helps the community because hair care is taking care of yourself, and college is really stressful,” Richardson said. “Being able to help students take care of themselves while they’re studying for exams and stuff makes me feel good.”

She highlights her work on her Instagram page, @crownedbycourtney_, and uses the Booksy app for people to book appointments.

“When clients decide to start their loc journey, it’s also a self-love journey, because they’re learning how to love their hair how it is,” Richardson said. “Every time I help a person with that, I’m playing a big role in their hair care journey.”

After developing her brand during her second year of college, she now has an established client base, with over a 1,000 followers on Instagram.

Elijah Vega is a barber who cuts people’s hair in his apartment complex or in his clients’ homes.

Vega, a fourth-year studying management information systems, specializes in haircuts such as low fades, all-around fades and lineups.

“I need to learn how to cut hair in a way that I’m catering towards people who don’t have (specialized barbers) up here because I know there’s not that many barbershops,” he said. “They upcharge a lot of the college students here, so I wanted to be the person who was able to provide a semi-affordable haircut while also specializing in specific hair types and different hair textures.”

After a steep learning curve cutting his own hair during his sophomore year, Vega gained confidence in 2022 and began cutting hair for others. Vega takes appointments via the link in his Instagram bio @tempfaded.

“I’ve always been a natural entrepreneur,” Vega said. “I’ve done a lot of things like resold clothes and shoes. At one point, I was reselling cars. So when I started cutting hair, that’s what everybody knew me as.”

He said including his barber business on his resume helped him land an internship, allowing him to advance his career and grow personally.

“I had relationships with people that I never even knew I would have talked to, but then they will book an appointment with me, and we’ll have a full-blown conversation like we were best of friends,” Vega said. “There’s a lot of relationships that I built from this business that I would never have obtained if I didn’t start to market myself.”

Trinity Thompson, who focuses on a variety of services from sew-ins to twists, created an Instagram page for her business this year, @trinstouch._.

“My mom actually went to cosmetology school, and I was very tender-headed as a kid,” Thompson, a second-year studying nursing, said. “She only did my hair, so I kind of picked up on it from seeing and feeling her do it.”

Having grown up in a predominantly Black area, she said she felt culture shock when she arrived at Penn State. She realized a lot of people needed the service she was offering.

“Black hair care means a lot,” Thompson said. “I don’t want to say that hair is our whole identity, but it is a really big part of who we are as Black people. We have a very unique hair texture, and it needs a lot of proper care.”

She added that it can be hard for Black people to take care of their hair without prior knowledge.

“Especially with Black girls, they struggle a lot with dealing with their natural hair because of how curly and thick it can be,” Thompson said. “So it means a lot in terms of embracing the texture and all the different styles we can do.”

Thompson recalled receiving a message on Instagram from a girl seeking hair care advice. She didn’t own a blow dryer or know which products to use, so Thompson guided her through it.

“She had no idea how to braid. Although it was such a simple style — just two braids, but she didn’t have the resources,” Thompson said, “To be able to offer that to her and give her that same joy and happiness reaffirmed why I do it in the first place.”

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