Lee, Stanley, and Lanard attend Natural Hair class at St. Louis Center
Residents, staff, and community gathered for an evening of learning on March 6th, 2024. Through grants funded by the Chelsea Community Foundation and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, St Louis Center has launched a new project to bring cultural awareness classes to the center. These classes are to help educate the residents, staff, and community on cultural diversity issues facing the world.
The first Cultural Diversity Class focused on hair care and how the techniques differ for different ethnicities. This class focused on “Natural Hair” which is hair that is unprocessed. Â While everyone has a hair texture of some sort, textured hair refers to strands that have shape, especially tight or kinky curls. Textured hair is also sometimes used as synonymous with natural Black hair.
Nikki Lewis, licensed cosmetologist and owner of Nikki’s Beautiful Blessing in Jackson, Michigan, loaded up many of her styling products and brought her expertise to the center for a workshop.
Nikki is originally a self-taught braider, born and raised in Albion, MI where she graduated with honors and went on to complete 3 years of college before deciding that hair was her calling. Since the age of 12, Nikki has been drawn to all things hair and hair care. As a detail-oriented hair stylist and now licensed cosmetologist with over 10 years of experience in natural hair care and styling (specializing in locks and braids with a love for custom hair colors), Nikki has taken her knowledge and skills and created a brand encouraging the beauty of all-natural textures.
Motivated by a love for constant improvement and the latest trends, she prides herself on providing services to a wide range of clientele. With an outstanding work ethic and entrepreneurial mindset, her main focus is continued education and striving towards open communication to maintain a comfortable environment for exceptional customer service and satisfaction while being able to spread her knowledge to other people along the way through her hair care and styling classes.
During the workshop, residents were able to learn which products work best for their hair type. Staff also learned which techniques would work best with their residents. This information works hand in hand to bring the best care to the residents of St. Louis Center.
Read the entire issue of St. Louis Spirit here!
