Yale community steps in to offer hair care for Black students

A student organization and a faculty member’s daughter help students tend to their curly hair, compensating for what they see as a lack of access to those services off campus.

Hana Tilksew

4:03 am, Dec 04, 2025

Contributing Reporter

Julia Furneaux, Contributing Photographer

Yale community members are taking textured hair care into their own hands, filling what they described as a void of accessible options for Black students’ hair in New Haven.

Current or recently graduated Black students interviewed by the News cited the strict policies of New Haven stylists, expensive beauty product prices and a shortage of affordable stores in close proximity to campus as obstacles to finding quality hair care.

As a Yale student, New York City-based influencer Sanaa Williams ’25 experienced difficulty finding a hairstylist that was affordable and matched her desires.

“If I ever wanted my hair in a specific style, I would usually just go back home to my stylist in New Jersey to get it done, which is kind of inconvenient,” Williams said in a phone interview.

In light of these difficulties, some have turned to student-run on-campus alternatives.

In 2024, students founded the Coily Curly Office to host workshops and give out products for curly hair. Faozia Coulibaly, daughter of Berkeley College fellow and dance instructor Lacina Coulibaly, has also been running her own braiding business through the Instagram account @yefa_hair_braiding since she moved to New Haven three years ago.

The Coily Curly Office’s Instagram page describes the group as “Yale’s only natural hair centered student org.” In the fall, the group hosted a cornrow and flat twist workshop and a wig installation workshop aimed at teaching students with textured hair to style it for themselves.

Getrude Jeruto ’26, a co-president and founding member of the Coily Curly Office, traced the organization’s roots to students’ needs. 

“First of all, it was because of shared complaints about how expensive making your hair is over here and how long it takes,” she said in a phone interview. “Everyone’s just talking about how expensive, how hard it is to take care of their hair.”

In addition to styling workshops, the organization has also partnered with hair care brands to provide free product samples for students with coils and curls. Last year, they partnered with L’Oreal. This year, they have partnered with Kinky-Curly.

While the Coily Curly Office has been able to collaborate with companies, they have had less success collaborating with local hairstylists, specifically braiders based in the New Haven area. Jeruto cited additional fees for arriving late or having thick hair as examples of “rules” that make it harder to work with some braiders.

“They’re very specific with their policies, or I think they just make it difficult and expensive as well,” Jeruto said, adding that if you bring a friend along to your appointment, some braiders may charge extra.

Even when a student with textured hair decides to do their own hair, acquiring the tools to do so can be a struggle in itself.

The upscale beauty retailer Bluemercury on Broadway sells a range of high-end products from brands that lie outside some student budgets. The Yale Bookstore has a small selection of curly hair care products, although some prices seem to have been marked up. For example, the Mielle hair oil sells for $9.99 at Target and $12.28 at the Bookstore.

Jeruto said the free samples provided by the Coily Curly Office can alleviate a financial burden.

Beyond affordability, proximity is also a concern. Even when students are able to find stylists off campus, getting to the salon can be a challenge.

“As far as I know, I don’t think there was a stylist or place that people would go that was walking distance. I think people would have to take Ubers or borrow someone’s car,” Williams said.

That experience created an opportunity for Coulibaly, who moved to New Haven from Burkina Faso three years ago.

“I started posting a lot on the Instagram and from that mouth-to-mouth I started getting some customers,” Coulibaly said in a virtual interview. Her first client was a student of her father’s. 

As she started braiding more clients, she would hear about their struggles concerning hair care. “Most of them was thinking about how difficult it was to find hair stylists at New Haven that was affordable for them, since they are students,” Coulibaly said.

Looking forward, Coulibaly wants to learn to install wigs for students who would like to wear them. While she does not see hairstyling as her long-term career, she is happy to provide a service for the time being that many students struggle to find elsewhere.

Beauty Plus, a beauty supply store that closed over the summer, was located at 827 Chapel St.