From Beauty to Business with Kiyah Wright

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Speaker 1: Keep It Positive Sweety is available on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search keep It Positive Sweety. That's Sweety with an Ie to listen. Hello, and welcome to this episode of Keep It Positive Sweety. I'm Christinete Hazlet and guys, guess what we are in Los Angeles. I finally brought kIPS to La Guys, I want to sit down and talk to some of my friends here that couldn't get to Atlanta, so we are here. I am so excited. I want to thank thirteen Loon. We are here at this beautiful black owned establishment owned by Nikayo Graco, where ninety percent of her products that she sells are Bipop founded. Guys, make sure you stop by right here in the larch My area. If you don't know where it is, just google it and pull up on my girl. For this episode, I am talking to someone that I'm very close to that I've known four years. I'm so excited to have her is responsible for a lot of the hairstyles that you've seen me rock on red carpets, and so many other people, just to name a few, Tyra Banks, Angela Bassett Shaka Khan, Laverne Cox Sierra. It's so many people that if it's flies, she probably doesn't need it. I'm telling you, but I have with me. Kaya right, guys. Kaya is a two time Emmy Award winning celebrity hairstyles whose genius has not only set the president for image making, but has redefined the appearance of sexy, successful and confident women. Kaya is a fashion powerhouse with expercise ranging from signature hairstyle designs to overall beauty consultation and transformation. As a charismatic visionary, this creative trendsetter has established her mark in the industry and continues to inspire with cutting edge developments and groundbreaking achievements. Ladies and gentlemen, Kaya.

00:01:52
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, I am so excited to be here.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: I'm always liked can tell everything y'all with the shows you keep podcast.

00:02:07
Speaker 1: I just appreciate your continued support over the years. Today we want to talk about continuous invention, and that is what I think about you. You have reinvented yourself over the years. You've been doing this for thirty years, and you have been doing it. You know people wish they could, Oh, you've been doing it for thirty years and when I think about you, I think about this quote and it says there are no shortcuts in evolution. We should be consistent in evolution and adapt to the new without ever losing our essence or our integrity. And I feel like that is something you have done.

00:02:44
Speaker 2: Like that little integrity. Oh that's what I love that. Oh, I love that.

00:02:51
Speaker 1: That's what I think about when I think of you. You are constantly evolving with the times. I was telling my team, I said, I feel like there are some artists and you can tell by their work that they literally learned whenever they learned years ago and never kept up with the times. With you, like I can be like, how did you like?

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Speaker 2: Oh got it? Like you're on it, Like you keep up with the times.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: Whatever's in you know how to do it, And a lot of times you're ahead of the times. That's all I love about you. You can be like, no, we need to do this, and then you see a year later people are doing what you said.

00:03:20
Speaker 2: Do a year ago exactly. That's exactly how you are. We met.

00:03:27
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I don't want to say that came of the year.

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Speaker 3: It was the Jamie Fox and Gabrielli because I was doing gab you were doing jail right, oh, t exactly on the show. And yeah, the year it was, it's over ten years. Yeah, it's over ten years. And ever since then we've been.

00:03:44
Speaker 2: Like, yes, love I love it.

00:03:49
Speaker 1: I remember meeting you and we worked I think it was three months on that movie. Yes, it was hot Atlanta summer.

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Speaker 3: Yes, and we were backstage. We got to talk every day, catch up, chit chat a whole bit.

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Speaker 2: Yes. That.

00:04:03
Speaker 1: So I want to go back to your growing up, your background. I want to know more about Kaya and where she really started from. Now. Were you the type of girl that played with dolls and liked the.

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Speaker 3: Hair, yes, and don't play with my dogs, like I would be real territorial too, like had the little barbies, you know they had the head and then with the big head, and then you can put all your little accessories, like right in the little pie right in the front.

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Speaker 2: Then I had the barbies.

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Speaker 3: Grandma would buy me all the barbies, like, please don't touch my barbies, Like I would be real territorial with the styling and putting the clothes, like, yes, it really did start there. And then I I would sneak friends into the basement to get their hair done and charge them.

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Speaker 2: I was doing hair, nails everything.

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Speaker 3: I was fourteen, fourteen, My mom had just passed and she put.

00:04:51
Speaker 2: Me in hair school.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 3: So back then hair school was in a was as you took it as a train, so like back then it had carping electrician and I could take up cosmetology. So I took up cosmetology, paid one hundred and fifty dollars for the kid boom. I started doing hair like from that moment on and I probably graduated.

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Speaker 2: My mom passed away.

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Speaker 3: It was like literally she put me right in hair school right before that, and she probably passed.

00:05:19
Speaker 2: Away like a month later.

00:05:21
Speaker 3: So that really was like it really did spearhead. That gave me a jump start at like making it a career, right, you know what I mean. I didn't know it was going to be a career. I just thought, like, I'm hustling to make money. My mom just passed away, my grandma and them they not really giving me money. I'm hanging out with the hot girls or whatever. And I'm like, I mean, buddy, you know.

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Speaker 2: What I mean?

00:05:42
Speaker 3: So I started doing hair sneaking people. I didn't have to sneak. I had the whole basement, and my grandma would let me do people's hair.

00:05:49
Speaker 2: I would do the little hump nails and if the little I did. Yes, I did everything to just make money, you know.

00:05:58
Speaker 3: So that's really really how I started.

00:06:01
Speaker 1: Wow, that's how I started at home, right, And I'm sure just your mom looking down is like super proud that the sea that she sold a long time ago. Yes, the room that it's made for you in your life, yes.

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Speaker 3: Is incredible.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes, it's been a it's been a I didn't go for it.

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Speaker 3: It was just it kind of I've never had another job.

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Speaker 2: I didn't go for it. I didn't go for it, you know what I mean. I never had another job ever in my life.

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Speaker 3: Like, I don't know, you know, I went from fourteen, I was trying to hustle to make money.

00:06:35
Speaker 2: I tried to sow drugs.

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Speaker 3: You know, said my book, Like I was just like I need.

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Speaker 2: I need to make money, you know what I mean?

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Speaker 3: Because what was I gonna do my grandma My mom had just passed away. My grandma ned been taken care of me, and I'm just like not really just kind of no guidance. And hair was so natural for me, you know what I mean, just kind of sneaking people in doing hair. And then it was a salon that did all the popular girls, these gay boys. They would walk up and down Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland and just be like fabulous, like fabulous, And I was like, I want to I want to work with those guys.

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Speaker 2: And I went in there and.

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Speaker 3: They trained me like boot camp. They would be making fun of me for being slow. I mean, by like a year later, I had it and I was like, boom, I'm one of those people. I could watch you and watch things and I.

00:07:21
Speaker 2: Could just copy it. Yeah, really good at that. And I just.

00:07:25
Speaker 3: Got really good, and in two years I was like making like two thousand dollars a week.

00:07:30
Speaker 2: And from there I knew. I was like, okay, I want to do all.

00:07:32
Speaker 3: My friends, all the drug dealer girlfriends.

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Speaker 2: I was like, I'm gonna do those.

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Speaker 3: Were the celebrities at that time, drug dealer girlfriends.

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Speaker 2: So those were the girls that I sort of started with.

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Speaker 3: And they helped me like become a trendsetter.

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Speaker 2: You know. That was the beginning, you know, DC doing those girls.

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Speaker 1: D I always had trade DC to where I found myself because after college, I moved to d C. I'm from a s long time. I did not know that I worked on.

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Speaker 2: Capitol Hill right out of car Yeah.

00:08:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, d C where literally fashion found myself, you know, and my identity. So I attribute a lot of who I am today to d C.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we fly are.

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Speaker 2: Fly. Yeah from the core.

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Speaker 3: New York was like cooler, they had the fashion, but DC women were just like really into you know what I mean. And that's where I learned how to do short haircuts because the halle Berry was out Boomerang Salt and pepper with the little axymmetrics stack curls like ooh.

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Speaker 2: I take it back out.

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Speaker 3: And I was really just I just wanted to be the best, Like I want to be the best.

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Speaker 2: I want to make money.

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Speaker 3: And I started with those guys two years and I just remember saying like that was the beginning of me becoming an entrepreneur. I said, if I go to them, and I wanted to ask them. I was like, can I work on my own? You know, can I not be on commission anymore? And they were like no. Now before I went to them, I said, they say, no, I got to have a plan. Beat, yes, you do so I went down the street and I set it up just in case they said no, And sure enough, I went back and they were like, no, we don't think you're ready yet. And I was like, okay, cool, and I left and.

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Speaker 2: I went down literally down the alley and.

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Speaker 3: I took my entire clientele and that was the beginning of me becoming an entrepreneur.

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Speaker 1: WO right there, so talking about entrepreneur and a lot of people don't know after DC, you did so many things. Walk us through the journey to get us to where you are now. Because people think that entrepreneurship the way we make it look is easy. They see you have your ONW salon, you do the celebrities. But walk us through what it took to get to that point, starting from leaving that one salon.

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Speaker 2: I think that helped me make the decision.

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Speaker 3: Like I always say, there's no plan B, but I had to have a plan after when they said no, I was like, what am I going to do with this huge clientele? I have to I know what I could be making. And I think you start to realize, like, wow, okay, I learned earned I worked under the best, because I think that's key.

00:10:04
Speaker 2: I always give that as advice.

00:10:05
Speaker 3: Work with the best, be around the best, so you don't have to search for it. Come on, you know what I mean, Like, yeah, I was never and don't be intimidated by it. Like I want to go work with the best, like where they're at. That's where I wanted to work, so I could learn and absorb everything and I wouldn't have to go find it because people always ask me, how do I build a clientele?

00:10:24
Speaker 2: Go find the best, Go find.

00:10:25
Speaker 3: A mentor go work for someone who's better than you, who you want to kind of be like And that was the decision that I had to make at that moment.

00:10:34
Speaker 2: Really did just aspire one to so much more. Then I met Puff.

00:10:38
Speaker 3: Puff was like, you know, going to Howard doing parties and he had just started bad Boy Records. So now I'm like, you know, going back and forth to New York. I was like, shoot, I want to live in.

00:10:49
Speaker 2: New York City.

00:10:51
Speaker 1: This is it.

00:10:52
Speaker 2: You know.

00:10:52
Speaker 3: I had kind of, like I would say, kind of conquered DC.

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Speaker 2: You know, I'd done four years.

00:10:57
Speaker 3: In DC, did all the drug dealer girlfriends, did all the hot girls in the city. I'm like, I want to go moved to New York met Puffin. That is really when it turned over a bit, you know, and I was like, I mean, just even how I got to New York, My life has always happened by chance.

00:11:13
Speaker 2: Moving to New York.

00:11:14
Speaker 3: The salon I robbed, They threw everybody, eleven people in a bathroom. They were scared to death, and nobody wanted to work there. Boom, here comes Kye Wright. She came and swept up a clientele. Same thing in La the people died from their leaplane crash. Kye Wright came and I swept up the whole clientele. So I've had very fady moments in my life, unfortunate that were blessings kind of for me, like not in a good way, but kind of sort of you know what I mean. And timing, I think timing really did was also in faith, really having faith to move to Los Angeles. Yeah, moving here from New York was a big step, and that was COVID. I'm sorry when the plane nine eleven. So all these monumental moments just kept happening in my life and kept me on point because you got to be able to hang with the shift, you got to be able to pivot. So it started very early on pivoting for me moving from d C, which I had a huge clientele too. And I know because I used to do Christmas cards and I used to write them out personally, and I would be like four hundred later and I would be like, I'm tired. Whoever is after four hundred woman getting a card? And so and then from there and I was like, you know, I moved from DC to New York and then.

00:12:32
Speaker 2: On September eleventh, Tipen.

00:12:34
Speaker 3: I killed New York for eight years, nine years. I did everything from the press, from Vibe to Double Excel, all the magazines I got really you know, big in the editorial world, because you want to get into the editorial world acrossover as a black artist, and I just the black magazines. I wanted to be crossover. I'm always wanted to be global in some sense, you know, and I just try, you know, I became popular and naturally now the soelebrity's looking for you, you know. I also, I'm a salon girl, so I wanted to work at the hottest salon in New York, which is Warren Chacone, a beautiful white salon. They created the most beautiful salons in the city. They were right next door to Arista Records, So they did everybody, and I was like, I want to work there. They did and I did not.

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Speaker 2: Oh you did not. They did not.

00:13:20
Speaker 3: Oh it was no black people that worked in there but one black girl. And you have to start from the fries to the top. And if I had to let go of a huge clientele that I had on forty thirty Fifth to now move on forty second Street and fifty seventh Street and Fifth, I would have to let everything go to work in there, to start at the bottom, because you got to start at the shampoobo and you have to learn to be an assistant to then become a stylist. So that would have been another four years and I just couldn't do it, and I could.

00:13:53
Speaker 2: I just couldn't do it.

00:13:54
Speaker 3: But what happened later is I ended up moving to LA eight years later and I ended up working at Warrant You Collie for thirteen years. Wow, look at upt me do it so wasn't for you, but you and just I had to season up, yeah, season up, just you know, just grow my craft. I was doing so much. I was touring a lot. I toured fifteen years of my career. Twelve years of my career with Faith, Mary, Little Kim One, twelve, Biggie everybody for twelve years.

00:14:25
Speaker 2: When I moved here, I was like, no more, no more touring.

00:14:28
Speaker 1: So what was it like touring with those you just ain't a lot of amazing like iconic people.

00:14:35
Speaker 2: What was it like? The best?

00:14:37
Speaker 3: It taught me how to be fast, because you got to think, Mary J. Blige has just launched my life album. You are going from four three am in the morning to one pp at night and so pop they would be like, you gotta be ready, you gotta be ready. I never toured. I don't know what this is like. What is it like to be on the road with a girl. I'm going through all the Mary J. Blige growing pains, I'm going through Kye right and not knowing how to be on tour. And I was with Faith first, and then Mary and her stylist had got into it, so we swaps. Puppy said you go with Mary now, and then her style is gonna go with Faith. So that's how I end up with Mary for like a year, and this is the beginning of her career. I'll never forget that that show that my life album tour. I would go out and watch the show every single night, So I had to learn how to be fast.

00:15:26
Speaker 2: I had to learn how to pick up the speed. You got to know how.

00:15:29
Speaker 3: To like, if they don't want to wake up that morning, you gotta get her ready in twenty minutes.

00:15:33
Speaker 2: Nobody cares that you couldn't get it ready.

00:15:35
Speaker 3: No one cared that, you know, you know, the time it didn't work out, no one cares. So it taught me very early on be ready, be prepared, have options, like they could change their mind at the drop of a dime. And just and be good because your work is gonna be featured on Natural telling me right, and you're gonna get murdered if it doesn't look right, and be like, oh yeah, happened to me too, so you know, yeah, so just you know, I think life really taught me so much on just you know. And I've had so many stages of my career, you know, like starting out as a salon Style.

00:16:13
Speaker 2: Is touring for years, then Boom moved to LA and now I meet Tyra.

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Speaker 3: J Manuel introduced me to Tyre's like, I think you need to, you know, do this work with Tyra. She's like great she's launching this TV show, and I was like, uh, TV, it's not.

00:16:26
Speaker 2: A lot of money. I don't know if I want to do that. I'm killing I'm just growing my clientele.

00:16:31
Speaker 3: After like a year in LA in the salon and I'm like in freelancing, so.

00:16:36
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't know, I'm making good money here. Should I leave this to do TV?

00:16:42
Speaker 3: Finally she kept asking two years and I was like, for two years.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: I didn't get the concept.

00:16:49
Speaker 3: I didn't get the concept because I was making money and I was working with all the celebrities just freelancing.

00:16:56
Speaker 2: And then finally I was.

00:16:57
Speaker 3: Just like something said just do it, and it was life changing. I got to work with an iconic woman who taught me so much about professionalism. She taught me about like how to show up on set, remembering how to model lighting, Like you know, I'm the one now that go behind like the celebrity told me, ky goo check the light. I'll tell the director the light ain't right and the hair too hot at the top, Like I just know from working with her for so many years. They spent three hours on lighting on top model. Wow, because they lit so many different shades, you got a chocolate caramel, so you have to light differently due brown skin. So it taught me so much, just her working with her, like no matter what she was going through the pressure. She had two three TV shows and she would come in I mean she would just lay on.

00:17:48
Speaker 2: The bed and like, do my hair and make it. She would be exhausted, editing.

00:17:52
Speaker 3: All night long, like you just see it, and never had an attitude when she came to work.

00:17:57
Speaker 2: Never. I was like, that was just everything, because when you work with women, you get all type of you know, attitudes, that's whatever.

00:18:04
Speaker 1: That says a lot about her and her character.

00:18:06
Speaker 2: Cool all the time.

00:18:07
Speaker 3: I was like this, it just taught me so much, you know, how to treat people on set. And just you know, the disaster for me happened on TV too. They all people wrote in on a show that she did, and we had it had went from top model that morning to the talk show.

00:18:25
Speaker 2: Those two worlds don't match, right when you're doing hair.

00:18:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I did this crazy editorial thing and she was like, I'm tired. I just I just can't today. I gotta I gotta, I just I can't. I just gotta go on and do it.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: And she had these too, a ball here, the boy here, ball here.

00:18:42
Speaker 3: And a million people wrote in, Oh my god. Two months later they come to me, they say, kaya, I just wanted to come and ask you. You know, two million people, a million people wrote in about this one episode that Tyro's hair was a little crazy, and they said, would you mind if we do a show on this?

00:19:04
Speaker 2: Oh wow?

00:19:05
Speaker 3: I say yeah, but we're going to give you your own show afterwards. And I have.

00:19:11
Speaker 2: And we're going to insert the footage here.

00:19:14
Speaker 3: It was even when I looked back and saying that was kind of crazy, but anyway, and it was like the first time on TV I realized, like, the two worlds don't mix, so that editorial and daytime TV hair are two different.

00:19:26
Speaker 2: I learned a big lesson.

00:19:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you got your show.

00:19:31
Speaker 3: Exactly it works exactly, so so many life lessons just with the journey. You know.

00:19:37
Speaker 1: So you made it to LA and you decided to open up your own salon. I think it was in twenty sixteen. Muse suits and with everybody knows what the entrepreneurship and with all in the salon, it has its ups and downs. You were faced with the pandemic, you were faced with the strike, and a lot of people didn't realize how this strike just didn't affect people like me who were in front of the camera. It affected people like you who worked with other actors. It affected our grips, are electricians, our PA's, everyone who worked on set, behind the scenes that people don't even know about that actually make everything come together and actually work.

00:20:14
Speaker 2: It affected you all as well.

00:20:16
Speaker 1: Can you tell us how your faith had to take a take a seat, how your faith had to play a part in getting you through, because I know the pandemic was everybody.

00:20:25
Speaker 2: But a few years later you get here with the strike.

00:20:27
Speaker 1: Girl, because we talked during the strike and you were like, girl, yeah, but let's.

00:20:31
Speaker 2: Not forget right now. We're on a strike.

00:20:33
Speaker 3: Hair makeup and teamsters could possibly right now today we're on strike right now.

00:20:40
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, right now.

00:20:42
Speaker 3: But we I don't know if we're going to actually strike, but we're in the heavy negotiations. If the teamsters do not go to work, there will be no one going.

00:20:50
Speaker 2: So they're not going to play games with them, no, you know what I mean? And I would and I.

00:20:53
Speaker 3: Would say, like even for hair and makeup, how important we are.

00:20:57
Speaker 2: So I'm out of COVID.

00:21:01
Speaker 3: You know that was a big time for me because I'm like, right now I'm about to launch my line. It's twenty nineteen. I done got my big loan. I'm ready to like launches kaboom. I will never forget to day when I and my salon is not a big salon. I've never been big on owning a salon. I just never felt that that was where the money was. I am, you know, I'm about products, education like things like that. That's really where I see the next part of my career path. I've always saw it thin. So I opened up a suite here in Beverly Hills. The salon business has really changed. First off, it went from like salons they're more in the South and things like that. But now with the salon sweet business that has really taken everybody forefront in business, you know what I mean, entrepreneurship, boss women, everybody want to be a boss. So the sweet business is like the perfect transition. So that's what I kind of moved into back in twenty sixteen. I went from a salon the warrn't you call me my dream salon right into a suite and so I get my money I'm about to go through, and I just go through, uh you know, funding my own brand, and the strike happens. I never forget the day because I was like always praying for like time off. Damn. He's like you want, oh God, here you go, time off. You'd never forget it because it felt like like when you watch those movies like that Will Smith movie when the World, when everything went out in the world and the world legend, yes, and everything just stopped. When I tell you when that happened that day, and they said, when all the noise kept happening about their main shure down, the businesses d D you kept watching the news, the DADA and.

00:22:47
Speaker 2: It's just getting worse and worse and worse. She's like, this is not real life. This is just what I see on TV.

00:22:52
Speaker 3: And when they said it that day and they and the salon closed and they said you will be shut down indefinitely. And Beverly Hills didn't play old games, Lane didn't play no games because.

00:23:02
Speaker 2: Actors were like whoa, Like they were just like super paranoim. Yeah, it was like COVID death. It was like the two words went together.

00:23:09
Speaker 1: And Atlanta was like wow, I like, well, Covid and Florida.

00:23:14
Speaker 2: Yes, and Florida was going to Florida.

00:23:16
Speaker 1: I definitely went to Floriday on the boat open air.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: We're outside outside, no out here.

00:23:27
Speaker 3: We were like girl like zombies walking around here like and I was just.

00:23:33
Speaker 2: Like, God, what is gonna happen? And I just.

00:23:37
Speaker 3: Remember crying, crying like boohooing on Instagram.

00:23:41
Speaker 2: I was like, well, guys, it's real. I'm like, godamn, Like Brian, I was like whoa.

00:23:48
Speaker 3: And it was real because then you felt like, I'm never going to get to do hair again.

00:23:52
Speaker 2: I'm never going to use my hands again.

00:23:54
Speaker 3: So I had to take my home office turn into office, gets the wallpaper or build it up. I remember, make it like and I got a deal, a deal with another deal with Procter and game six figures.

00:24:05
Speaker 2: I gotta do this to do it. God, thank you.

00:24:08
Speaker 3: So now I'm like, oh my God, thank you so much.

00:24:11
Speaker 2: And I'm like and they made me like.

00:24:13
Speaker 3: I just went online and I talked to families about you know, like hair, home makeovers at home.

00:24:19
Speaker 2: I just spent it any way that.

00:24:20
Speaker 3: I could and just I had time off to think, wow, ride my bike, hang out with friends exactly.

00:24:27
Speaker 2: We were going to bars on the bike every day child.

00:24:30
Speaker 1: We was no masks my bike since twenty twenty.

00:24:33
Speaker 3: Literally it lies on my bike every day of the year exactly. Like it was a really good year for me. It went by really fast. I think the next year was even harder because now it's twenty twenty one. You know, it's the fear factor is lessening a little bit. We're getting ready to go back to work in twenty twenty two, where we're just going back then boom, yeah, you here to hit us with a strike. So faith is the only thing that you have for like really, like I have to when when my mom died, my mother died in front of me, So it was like boom, oh shit, like aneurism.

00:25:12
Speaker 1: Should my mom died of aurism? Why did I know that?

00:25:17
Speaker 2: So when she died, it was like sudden, you have to shift immediately, your.

00:25:23
Speaker 3: Mind has to shift, like I gotta you gotta take care of yourself, like what you're gonna do?

00:25:27
Speaker 2: You gotta take care of yourself.

00:25:28
Speaker 3: Like there was no mom, grandmother, nobody, like everybody died in five years.

00:25:34
Speaker 2: Mother, father, well father wasn't really there.

00:25:38
Speaker 3: Grandmother, thank you, I was liked. So it's Okay, you have to immediately take a shift in your mindset. I'm fourteen, Yeah, I'm fourteen, so I'm becoming a young woman. I'm seeing what she's going through an abusive relationship and just having a pull out a night to stab this dude because he's trying to beat my mom up like craziness, and she's like, I'm out of here, I'm moving. So we move in with my whole family and I said combustion. So it's like six bedroom house and it's just like way too much. And my mom fussing at my aunt about sitting her fat ass on the couch.

00:26:15
Speaker 2: I'll never forget it.

00:26:16
Speaker 3: And in booms, she falls on the floor because my mom had to white couch yiad with the plastic on it, yes, and my aunt.

00:26:21
Speaker 2: Used to just sit on it every day and watch TV. So she was just not having it and she.

00:26:26
Speaker 3: Just falls out of an aneurysm. And that was the last day. And that's the day where my mom was the type that was like you. She didn't say I love you. She never said I love you to me. It was always I'm gonna show you I love you than to say. So that's the energy that you take on as a young child, you take on that armor. That's your armor, that's your defense, that's your you know, that's how you make it through life. Like you know, I have to show up. I gotta be, I gotta, I gotta be whatever it is. Like, she raised me with self esteem.

00:26:55
Speaker 2: Hold your head up, hi, you know, she put me a hair school.

00:26:59
Speaker 3: Like all these little things just like fell right into place. So when she passed away, it was just like you're on your own. You got to figure this out. And I think I was already raised. She was like, and take care of your brother. And my mom literally like three days, two days after Christmas passed away.

00:27:15
Speaker 2: And I remember them saying, go in there and tell her you love her. But we never said that.

00:27:19
Speaker 3: So it was hard, you know, and I.

00:27:22
Speaker 2: Never said it. And she passed away and that was that.

00:27:26
Speaker 3: And I didn't get to see her or anything because she was at the hospital. And I don't think families understand like mental health therapy, none of that.

00:27:35
Speaker 2: So you just functioning in life.

00:27:36
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, my mom died yesterday. I'm back at school, you know what I mean. Like it was just nothing, and.

00:27:42
Speaker 1: That was that.

00:27:44
Speaker 2: That was that.

00:27:44
Speaker 3: I remember graduating and throwing the test in the trash.

00:27:47
Speaker 2: I through my last test in the trash and I passed. I don't even know how, you know what I mean. Like life has always.

00:27:53
Speaker 3: Sort of covered me in a sense, like she's just watching over my life, you know what I mean. So it's gone through many highs and many lows, and one thing about the journey for me has just always been about just staying relevant.

00:28:09
Speaker 2: You've done that, staying relevant.

00:28:11
Speaker 3: It's gonna be times where you super popular, you're all the way at the top.

00:28:16
Speaker 2: But my whole goal is always to stay good.

00:28:21
Speaker 3: Just be a good hairstylist and be well known and be easy, you know what I mean, Easy to be in the room, easy to get along with, like you know what I mean, and just be really good about what you do. And that's really really is what's kept me working, you know what I mean.

00:28:37
Speaker 2: And you're not.

00:28:38
Speaker 3: Gonna be popular all the time, that's the thin way. Yeah, my game was going on in one route for twenty something years. Now I'm on a new route and it's very very different from the route that I was taken. Because when you're on the road to become a celebrity stylist, I'm yours all day. I can't work on kaya right. That's why a lot of celebrity stylists don't have anything, because you're on someone else's journey the whole time. I can't sit over here and be working on Kaye right while I'm with you, because I'm an attentive stylist. I'm making sure every curl everything on your shirt. I'm your clothes, I'm everything to you. I'm selfless when i'm with you as a as a real, real select, as a real celebrity stylist.

00:29:22
Speaker 2: To me these new ones on the phone shop, I.

00:29:25
Speaker 3: Gotta get up to do the touch up, right, girl, that's a compilations, right.

00:29:33
Speaker 1: I was very because so looking crazy and I'm looking you see the hell like your.

00:29:42
Speaker 3: I'm prass, I'm behind every camera I'm looking see.

00:29:45
Speaker 1: But you are like a celebrity's favorite type of styles, right because you never had to worry. Am I looking crazy? Or is like my hair sticking out? You know what I'm saying? Whatever the case, you you tell to make a person, hey, do you see this? You attention to the whole everld we all together?

00:30:00
Speaker 3: It's not the Kaye Wright show, right, it's our show because we're all gonna look good together. Like, even when you have to share clients, you may not always be so searian, not gonna call me all the time before she's gonna call another artist. You can't be feeling a way about it. You have to just know that you're good in your art and you got to move on and on and on.

00:30:22
Speaker 2: And move to the new lane and pivot. Like you said, just keep pivoting.

00:30:26
Speaker 3: And that's really been my goal is to stay relevant and to pivot and not to compete.

00:30:32
Speaker 2: That's a that's a nugget.

00:30:35
Speaker 3: I compete, pivot, but don't be so competitive.

00:30:38
Speaker 2: I'm competitive with.

00:30:39
Speaker 3: Kaya saying like even like looking at Instagram, I'm following people.

00:30:44
Speaker 2: I don't do that. I want people. It's nuts keep watching. I don't even knowing the following you. You might be the sweetest woman. I'm know girl. You know so.

00:31:08
Speaker 3: He me petty pause since I okay, okay, exactly.

00:31:18
Speaker 1: So can you tell us anything about your product line, anything specific that you want us to know about.

00:31:22
Speaker 3: Yes, So basically, Muse hair is my line. A muse for me is someone that inspires you. So I've always been inspired by my artists, like yourself. Different talent, and I'm your muse as well. So Muse Hair was inspired by just you being my muse and and and and inspiring me to create.

00:31:45
Speaker 2: That's number one.

00:31:46
Speaker 3: And I decided as a stylist, I wanted to have styling products. So a styling line is really what I focused on with my product, Muse Hair Styling products so big.

00:31:57
Speaker 1: I love that, Yes, I love it. You also wrote a book called From Beauty to Business, The Guaranteed Strategy to building, running, and growing a successful beauty business. Can you share some of the nuggets in your book that really can help people who are trying to jump in any type of entrepreneurship, but specifically in a salon business well.

00:32:17
Speaker 3: As a stylist, I think that first you should work on your craft.

00:32:21
Speaker 2: Perfect your craft, be good at what you do. First. Let's just start right there.

00:32:26
Speaker 3: Let's start with like really perfecting your craft, spending time with it. I say three years is really what you should really really focus on as a stylist. Three to five to be good, to find your niche find out what it is that you love about styling hair, because don't do it to hustle and to just to make money.

00:32:44
Speaker 2: You know what, I mean.

00:32:45
Speaker 3: And also I think now with Instagram University, I think that a lot of these stylists now just find one thing that they're good at, like I only put on lace front wigs, And what they'll soon find out is like that's going to play out And now where.

00:33:00
Speaker 2: Are you going to lie?

00:33:02
Speaker 3: Where are you gonna find yourself in this world beauty? So finding your niche is a real big deal. And the big question is always what is your why? Like why are you doing this? Where is it coming from? Like what do you what is it that you're you know, passionate about in this whole thing?

00:33:18
Speaker 2: What keeps you going every day?

00:33:20
Speaker 3: Mine is making women feel and look their best. After every styling, there's a hug to get a hug. It's so endearing from a woman like she feels beautiful and she started dancing.

00:33:35
Speaker 2: That means happy and that's.

00:33:38
Speaker 3: What you want when your clients leave you and if you're not doing your friends, you're probably not that good.

00:33:46
Speaker 2: So and just.

00:33:50
Speaker 3: For me, also, it's no plan B, Like this was it for me And I'm not going to stop, you know what I mean till I get to where it is I want to be.

00:34:00
Speaker 2: And I think that's what you have to know as well. That's so yeah, I love it.

00:34:04
Speaker 1: Ke KaiA right, thank you so happy we got to do this. Yes, yes, this is so good.

00:34:09
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:34:11
Speaker 1: So when I think about your journey, I see a very driven woman who has been so focused on her career. How have you balanced that with love?

00:34:21
Speaker 3: Well, I think there has been some sacrifices. I always wanted children, so.

00:34:26
Speaker 2: I haven't had any kids.

00:34:28
Speaker 3: I did freeze my eggs, so there's still possibility making space for love. Is funny enough that you said that. When I was younger, I used to be obsessed with Tony Robbins and he asks really like for me, at like eighteen nineteen years old, I'm like obsessed with this guy, Like grab up, please, can I get the forty eight CDs?

00:34:49
Speaker 2: You know about motivation and da da da da. So he taught me.

00:34:53
Speaker 3: Really early on, like about manifestation and like really like putting it out there.

00:34:57
Speaker 2: Whatever you believe, see you can have.

00:34:59
Speaker 3: And so he asked this one question, he said, what are the priorities in your life? And this is intense for like an eighteen nineteen year old, but I'm like okay, So because I used to journal, so I wrote it down it was success, money, power, something, and family is number five. This five is so symbolistic to my I don't even know if that's a word.

00:35:29
Speaker 2: But this word symbolic.

00:35:32
Speaker 3: This is so symbolic to my life because I'm at the fifth chapter of my life.

00:35:37
Speaker 2: I'm fifty wow. And family was number five.

00:35:41
Speaker 1: Wow.

00:35:42
Speaker 3: And my current boyfriend now always says I love you, he stops me, and I love you, and I'll be like, I love you too. I guess I should say that, yeah, ooh, you.

00:35:51
Speaker 2: Know what I mean. But I feel it at my heart.

00:35:54
Speaker 3: But because my mom always said I can show you better, I can tell you that always kind of it's kind of my love language is showing you my love of some sort, you know what I mean.

00:36:05
Speaker 2: I think that now.

00:36:07
Speaker 3: That's all I am made up of, is looking for love, not even looking for it, just being like, let me be more love, let me have more time for people. I miss weddings, I've missed big dates, like just being so.

00:36:22
Speaker 2: Detached from those things.

00:36:24
Speaker 3: Because when you lose someone so significant in your life, it's like you deal with a little bit of abandonment, and the abandonment is masked by this protection that you keep around yourself. So that you're not hurt and you don't even sometimes allow yourself to be loved because you don't even know how. You don't even know how, you don't even know how to be loved because you're like so busy moving, going, dodging and ducking it because you gotta and whatever comes has to fit in my life has to fit in my life. Yeah, And I had to realize, like, you know, I even with dating certain men if it didn't fit in my life, because if you take me out my journey, I don't know if this is gonna work out.

00:37:09
Speaker 2: It has to fit in my life.

00:37:11
Speaker 3: So like even when I talk to women about relationships, I don't like women that help that that encourage me to bash or talk bad about men, because I have to be encouraged to love kaya you know, I have to be like if you'd be like, girl, he ain't shit, D Like, I know, he ain't shit. But I have to be encouraged more the other way because I could be tough on that side.

00:37:30
Speaker 2: I like to be like, be more loving and be more testing.

00:37:33
Speaker 3: Yes, I like that conversation better than like the bashing kind, So I have to keep it in my life. I put it on my priority board, I write it on my inspirationuy, my journals.

00:37:44
Speaker 2: It's all around me, just like love.

00:37:46
Speaker 3: Like so it's been a sacrifice, but now it's kind of like it's time for it.

00:37:53
Speaker 1: Yes, people ask me, I do feel like a part of success is sacrificing love because sometimes what man needs you can't really give that to them when you're so busy trying to make your dreams come true or to strive after certain things. So I definitely I'm in that same boat. Still don't have a man, still single, but I feel like that's a part of the sacrifice. And I know that when it's time, God will make provisions and everything will be in place.

00:38:19
Speaker 3: Yes he will, and I believe he will make space. Like when people it's a saying in that lad they always say there's no man in that lady, there's no man.

00:38:28
Speaker 2: No, I'm like, that's not true.

00:38:29
Speaker 3: That might be true for you and your truth, but the truth is really what you believe it really is.

00:38:36
Speaker 2: I think the same thing.

00:38:36
Speaker 1: For Atlanta.

00:38:39
Speaker 3: I don't think, I don't believe it. I believe because if that's the matra in your hair, your man could.

00:38:44
Speaker 1: Move to Atlanta.

00:38:46
Speaker 2: Come on, now, he could move there. He really could move there, and he's just for you.

00:38:52
Speaker 3: That's just how God is like, even like you know I'm dating now, the man is said my life, he was sent here for me even and if it's for a time, he's here for me. And God will only give me what I need.

00:39:04
Speaker 2: Absolutely he really would.

00:39:06
Speaker 3: Like that's it's like He's done that for me in my life so many times, so many times. So hey, thank you Guderious.

00:39:15
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.

00:39:16
Speaker 1: This has been amazing.

00:39:17
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.

00:39:18
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you.

00:39:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love you, so I.

00:39:24
Speaker 3: Love I love you.

00:39:26
Speaker 2: Now I can say there we go.

00:39:28
Speaker 1: There we go. So we're gonna do at the end of the show, we do what's called positive outcomes. This is where our listeners right in and we give them advice. Okay, so this one says Crystal. I absolutely loved Eva's episode, and I love how she makes it a point to wear her lots no matter what character she plays on screen. Lots get such a bad name and have been reluctantly associated with beauty. I have a twenty three year old daughter who works in corporate and it's having a hard time coming up with professional ways to style her lif I constantly reinforced that her locks are beautiful and she shouldn't have to wear a wig at work to fit in. Can you please give her some advice on how she can feel comfortable going to work rocking her natural hair. There's a law pass called the Crown Act where now that we can wear our hair how we we've seen fit and it's okay, you know. So I would tell your daughter to one like you, tell her your natural hair is beautiful, is what God blessed you with. And we as African Americans have certain ways that we show our blackness, and a lot of times it's through our hair, you know, whether it is walking or yes, braise locks, our afro, our curly hair, whatever the case may be. For so long we thought we had to straighten it to feel pretty. And I have fallen into that for a long time because I worked on Katholin Hill, so I felt like I had to wear my hair a certain way to fit in. So I totally understand where she's coming from, but I think it starts within knowing that you are beautiful the way God made you, and understand and that however, no matter I think it was Indira, I am not my hair like however, you rocket is good, you know. So what we're gonna do since we have the legendary KaiA right, I don't have locks, but I got braids. So Kai is gonna play with my hair and give you a little you know idea. Here, let me get behind you.

00:41:21
Speaker 2: We can talk about this. Okay, I'm start here. Okay, we're given some drama.

00:41:28
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll give a little dramatics here. So, Kai, do you have women that work in corporate America that have natural hair that you may have to help style.

00:41:38
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:41:38
Speaker 3: One of the things that I'm loving about from braids all the way to locks right now is first things First, what I would appreciate is if you keep them groomed, because sometimes I think people feel like because they have locks protective styles, they can just grow it out. It looks a little uncapt and I feel like just keeping it fresh, a little bit of edge control can refreshing them, even if you do just the hairline. Eep them fresh, pep them, groom and shape them.

00:42:02
Speaker 2: I like shapes.

00:42:03
Speaker 3: Shapes really do help you just have a style.

00:42:07
Speaker 2: You can kind of create your own crown.

00:42:10
Speaker 3: I think perception is still perception no matter what you know what I mean, They're gonna still see you having locks, no matter what the crown X says or.

00:42:17
Speaker 2: Anything like that.

00:42:18
Speaker 3: Yes, it's okay, but the perception is still the same. Oh you have locks, people, because it's still new. It's very new, and I'm loving how the girls are putting Look at this, they're putting hair in between, so it softens up the braid look and it takes a little bit of that beach summertime effect off and just kind of create shapes as long as it's not in the face, they're not hanging down, and you create some sort of look with them. I think that kind of will help people see you differently. It's almost like wearing like a ponytail, but you kind of creating a shape of whatever you like with these locks. I mean, that's what I think when I think about locks, I just want to see like beautiful shapes and I want to say, see the edges groomed really nicely, and just shape that hair to match your face. That's really what my goal is, Like, not too many pieces hanging down. I think that also makes people feel like, you know, they can see your locks. You should be able to see them, But I think they should feel shaped of some sort like yours.

00:43:17
Speaker 2: They're so nice.

00:43:18
Speaker 1: Yes, we love. I should have pulled you in here. Okay, while you're doing this, Kyle, we're gonna do what I'm going through and what I'm growing through. And this is a part of the show that we do. And right now I am going through balancing everything that is on my plate. I feel like, even if I'm not working, people like, what are you in your time off? I'm still working. So I feel like right now it is balancing everything that I've prayed for. We said before when we before we sat down, Kyle like, are you so busy? I'm like yeah, and You're like, well, this is what you prayed for. And I'm like, it is so going through adjusting to how busy I am, but also balancing it all.

00:44:06
Speaker 2: What about you, I would say mine is.

00:44:11
Speaker 1: True.

00:44:11
Speaker 3: You hit it transitioning. I would call it. I'm going through the big transition. Wow, And it is extremely uncomfortable. And I know that God wouldn't give me anything that I couldn't handle.

00:44:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, it won't. And I think transition is good. I think it's.

00:44:34
Speaker 3: Next level too, you know what I mean. Like, if you just stay in the same place, you won't grow. So transitioning is obviously a part of the next level.

00:44:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

00:44:47
Speaker 1: And if we had to leave the people with keep feeling the blank, we call it keep it blank, sweetie. If I want to leave people today, I would say keep.

00:44:56
Speaker 2: It Oh that feels good too.

00:45:00
Speaker 3: She don't even have no nothing.

00:45:03
Speaker 2: I can't eat a sweet woozle. You know I can't see.

00:45:08
Speaker 1: I would say, keep it fly, sweety. So how would you feel in the blank, Keep it blank, sweetie, keep.

00:45:13
Speaker 3: It reinventing, Sweetie.

00:45:15
Speaker 1: I like that.

00:45:16
Speaker 2: I like that's what you do.

00:45:17
Speaker 1: You do it very well, exactly, Kyle, thank you so much. With little hair down, little half up, half down, Thank you guys so much for tuning in to this episode of Keep It Positive.

00:45:30
Speaker 2: Sweetie. If you want to.

00:45:31
Speaker 1: Write into our Positive Outcomes Listening letter, write in to Keep It Positive sweety at gmail dot com and that is Sweetye with an ie. You can follow me on all platforms that love Chris Sorinee. That's l U V Christorinee.

00:45:42
Speaker 2: Kyle.

00:45:42
Speaker 1: Tell the people where they can find you kaya.

00:45:44
Speaker 3: Write one on Instagram or Kia write dot com.

00:45:47
Speaker 1: All right, guys, in the meantime, in between times, you know what to do. Keep it positive, sweetie. Listee you guys next time. An