Meet Jamaica’s Natural Hair Dynamic Duo

Joni Williams is one half of the Hair Skin Love Jamaica Dynamic Duo. Hair Skin Love Jamaica is a new company which gives clients consultation for best hair care practices. They also do protective hair style installations such as weave and crochet braids. Jamaican Divas spoke to Joni to find out more about her business.

Why did you start hair skin love Jamaica?

Me and my business partner found that there was a very significant need in the market for people who want to have healthy hair or health skin, especially hair. When you go to a hair dresser or a stylist, you tell them what you want and they give it to you. They don’t ask you about your diet, your genetics your hair regimen nothing. They just give you what you want and a lot of the times that will lead to traction alopecia it will leave you with eczema. It will leave you with some sort of condition because you’re not doing procedures that are in line with your lifestyle, your health, with your genetics, you just do what you feel. So what we do is provide consultation, we provide healthy hair advise. Both me and my partner have three years of experience in giving people advice about what to do and what not to do when it comes to growing your hair long and strong and healthy. Most of the clientele we see are in the stage where they’re saying OMG my hair is falling off I don’t know what to do. They have kids whose hair is coming out. They drop them off at the salon and then just leave them there and pick them up and this is how it goes every week. So a lot of our business is education based actually.  They don’t ask you if you want to have a healthy hair journey or healthy skin journey. So basically we use all natural, hair care/skin care products and knowledge about professional. Best practices ect to get people on the right path.

Ok so you spoke about a cofounder. Who is she and tell us a little more about her.

That’s Georgina Johnson Jones she is my business partner and other cofounder of Hair Skin Love Jamaica. She is very apt with styling. She has a very very wide knowledge base about hair as well. She started her hair journey because she has special needs. She has eczema. Her hair is not the typical type of hair. So she started her hair journey wanting to find what would work for her. What people were telling her in the industry was not working.

So how did you guys meet?

We met through Ettenio which is an all natural hair care line made in Mandeville Jamaica. So we worked for Ettenio for a little less than a year as promoters.  We did some marketing with them as well. Basically we learnt so much about hair care but the most valuable thing that we got was the exposure with people who have these conditions. They have separate dermatitis, they have eczema. They have seriosis. They have traction alopecia. They’re transitioning. We have a lot of clients who are transitioning and don’t know how to properly transition. They just do stuff and when it doesn’t work then they’re set back. So we met through Ettenio and later on we decided t get together and do this.

So you use that particular brand. Why did you choose to use that band in your business?

Well Ettenio works extremely well. To do hair well you need to know the porosity of the hair which is basically how well it absorbs water. So the molecular structure of Ettenio products is very small because the creator Antoinette Davis uses all natural ingredients. Some of them hand grown by herself and so the molecular structures are very small and very easy for the hair strand and the scalp to absorb. So it has a very high success rate.  It’s hypo-allergenic it doesn’t usually cause trouble with people.  We’ve had a lot of success with that brand so we use that brand. And it’s all Jamaican so we support the Jamaican brand, to the world.

Where are you located?

We do not have a location currently.  We are a mobile service so we go to our clients.

Your hair is natural and you’ve said you’ve been natural all your life. Do you see a conflict of interest in installing weave in clients’ hair?

Well it depends because there is a right way to do everything and a lot of times Jamaican hairstylists don’t practice industry standards. For example you’re not supposed to install too much hair.  If you’re putting in weave as a protective style or crochet braid, if the person only has a couple inches and you give them waist length hair. That’s going to tug on the roots and cause traction alopecia. So whatever we do we use industry standards. Professional practices to ensure that you get the best results. Relaxing, for example We don’t do any chemical treatments but as an example some people don’t know you’re supposed to relax up to half inch above your roots. They relax everything. They don’t use a base. So it burns the scalp. A lot of things get absorbed into the scalp that’s going to cause a build up of toxicity. So that’s where we come in. So we can tell the client when you’re doing a relaxer. You need to make sure your stylist does this or they base it with that. You need to make sure that they don’t leave it in for so long. Because they (stylists) don’t know these things. They just go with the flow.

As this is a woman’s magazine. How would you describe your style?

I keep it very very natural in everything I do. If I put on make-up I don’t put on a lot of make-up. I’m not focused on what’s in fashion. Usually it’s on what makes me comfortable.  I prefer to support Jamaican brands as it concerns my Jewellery.