Social Sharing
When Luke Ignace thinks about the matters he misses most about his home in the Bahamas, he cannot help but think about his barber.
“Back home, I love going to the barbershop,” Ignace said. “Having an area in which you may experience representation is one of those things that is so rooted in our records, like going to a barber and having a black barbershop, and having black products and going to the salon.
“That’s cultural, and we type of need that.”
Since transferring to P.E.I., Ignace said he finds it challenging to discover a barber or hairdresser who is aware of reducing his hair. He stated he’s been to a minimum of three exclusive barbershops in Charlottetown. While they all made him experience welcome, he said he hasn’t been able to find a barber or salon that focuses on, or focuses on, slicing black hair.
“People need to recognize, right, we do not have identical hair. The same concepts, the identical rules don’t practice while you’re cutting our hair,” Ignace said.
In some cases, barbers have advised him they do not know how to reduce his hair because they haven’t performed it before or are not at ease with the method concerned, which he says lots of his buddies have learned.
“I feel like I can not discover with the store; you understand, I feel like there’s no illustration for me here,” Ignace said.
He stated that even as he’s met many skilled barbers on the Island, he finds it challenging to discover a place that feels like it reflects his tradition and heritage.
“My stories in barbershops have, in reality, been nice over here. However, they will be better. There may be plenty of extra network behind it,” he stated. “Business is a commercial enterprise ultimately, and you want to ensure you are representing exclusive ethnic bodies in corporations, especially in barbershops.”
Hard to discover products
Kiara Fernander, who moved to the Island to look at the business at UPEI, also works as a freelance makeup artist. She said she’s additionally struggled to discover a salon that gives the offerings her hair calls for, in addition to beauty merchandise.
“There’s a large loss of no longer most effective like black-owned beauty brands, however additionally brands that cater to girls of coloration,” Fernander stated. “When I’m in a state of affairs where I cannot find a basis that fits my skin tone, it is a huge problem.”
Fernander stated she regularly has to reserve merchandise online or wait until she can make a trip off-Island to get what she needs. She said this might be a massive challenge for her commercial enterprise; however, it can also take a toll on the vanity of folks seeking out those products, but don’t see their needs met at the cabinets.
“To be brutally sincere, it almost looks like we are an afterthought,” Fernander said.
She stated she would like to open a beauty salon that caters to the black network on the Island and has even considered establishing one herself. But until that occurs, she stated she and her friends rely on each other to finish their hair instead of going to the salon.
Cutting hair in Fin’s living room
Ignace has also taken things into his hands. When attending UPEI in 2014, he began imparting loose haircuts to his pals and classmates.
He said he nevertheless has humans knocking on his door seeking to have their hair cut, and he attempts his best to create that barbershop feeling he has been missing, proper in his living room.
“Barbershops, they’re an area for networking. They’re an area for verbal exchange,” Ignace said. “It’s a lifestyle inside a barbershop that you can’t certainly discover everywhere else.
“I truly feel like a barbershop might be this kind of remarkable region for the network to be constructed across the black tradition,” Ignace stated. “Not having that on P.E.I., it impacts you.”
Hairdressers’ affiliation looking into solutions
Sherri Runighan, president of the P.E.I. The hairdressers’ Association said at the same time that there are some hairdressers and barbers trained within the strategies to reduce black hair, but there are many who say they have never had the risk to analyze.
She stated the affiliation would study extraordinary approaches to fixing the problem, including organizing a list of barbers and hairdressers who are trained and making those records available on their website.
“It is crucial because I think our populace is developing with immigrants that come to live on the Island, and of course, they must have all their wishes met,” Runighan said.
Runyan said the Association could even talk about the choice of bringing more excellent training to the Island.
Ignace says he hopes to elevate attention about the need for a community area like a barbershop on P.E.I. and hopes to one day open one himself. Until then, he stated hopes to look for more salons and barbershops to start to provide the services contributors of his network need.
