We had the good fortune of connecting with Nina-Simone Jones and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nina-Simone, why did you pursue a creative career?
Honestly, as a child I always was pampered. I would get my hair done with my mom or go to the nail salon with her along with my dad’s sisters, so I was introduced to beauty at a young age. However, with hair specifically it was something artistic about it that I would go home and mimic what I saw hairstylist doing on my dolls. I told my mother when I was 8 years old that I wanted to do hair, but it wasn’t until I taught myself how to do a sew in on my Barbie mannequin head and showed it to her that she decided to put me in cosmetology school.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I mainly wanted to specialize in hair extensions, custom coloring, and natural hair care. However, my journey was not easy at all. The very first salon I worked in the owner treated me so bad. You rarely see it now, but when you graduate cosmetology school (I graduated 2016) you typically start out as a apprentice stylist, which I did. That often times involved shampooing clients, prepping for other stylist, quick services, reception, cleaning, shadowing other stylist, all that good stuff. She said to another staff member how I didn’t know anything when I was standing right next to her. Now YouTube University started becoming a thing and I learned to bleach knots just like everyone else. I was bleaching a frontal for one of her clients and she quickly came over and took over claiming she didn’t want me to mess it up. She would ask me everyday if I was a licensed professional, which I was, and I had proof of my work that included wigmaking. I came to work just to see that the shop was closed one Saturday morning. When I called the owner she told me they were closed, but when I came to work that following Monday the makeup artist asked me why I didn’t come in on Saturday and when I relayed to her what the owner told me she said they weren’t closed at all. I got fired two days later. That was the longest week and a half of my life.

Before people knew me for my specialties, I was the stylist who did braids, I was the stylist who did locs, I strictly did blowouts at one point. I was still building my clientele and this was before you could go on social media and type in a hashtag and find a beauty provider in your area. I walked up and down the street handing out business cards, leaving them in local stores, I would be the first one in the shop last one to leave, I took walk ins. Keep in mind by this time I was now a booth renter, so I wasn’t even suppose to get walk ins, but the shop I worked in from 2017-2019 was so poorly managed that the commission workers would never be there, just me alone. I cleaned that shop every Sunday, because no one else would. I did inventory check which is something learned to do when I interned at Jakari J Salon. Again because no one did it, not even the owner. But I was a still was a booth renter and the owner reminded me of that on plenty of occasions.

I worked in some toxic spaces between 18-21. Being as young as I was on top of being a shy person I never wanted to cause problems, so there were plenty of things I let slide. However, when I went back to school for my Bachelors in Marketing, that’s when I learned that I have to start demand what I wanted, not allowing anyone to walk over me, and remembering to put myself first, because the next person isn’t hesitating to look out for themselves. So what I want everyone to know about me is yes I may show only my success, but there was plenty of failures and tears that came before my wins. People have learned things from me, but I’m still a student time to time myself. I worked hard to get where I currently am and I’m still working to get to where I want to be. However, I’ve learned to be patient and trust God’s timing. That’s helped me with my imposter syndrome, feeling as if I’m not worthy of being where I’m at. My brand currently is just me being more inspirational and educating both peers and clients, with customer service being my main priority.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m not going to lie, I am a homebody (laughs). But one thing about NYC there’s endless things to do, and many visitors don’t know that every borough has its own culture, and within each borough every neighborhood is occupied by different ethnic groups. The food depends really on where you go. I live in Queens, so it has to be some sort of special occasion for me to go to Manhattan or whatever I’m planning to do must be located out there. Other than that I stay between Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island.

But I can give some ideas for a week trip though. For food spots, and I’ll go by the area. Queens I like to go to West Bar Lounge, the local Caribbean spot and depending on who you ask everyone has their own, my spot is Hot Pot, Margaritas Pizza, Pio Pio, Steinway in Astoria has all the hookah spots. Long Island I visit Cold Stone, The Pantry but it’s always busy, Grand Luxe, Benihana, and I don’t care what the people say on TikTok I love me some Cheesecake Factory. Brooklyn has a lot of West Indian cuisine around Flatbush and Crown Heights. Manhattan has good restaurants like Lagos, Negril, Pergola, and honestly there’s lowkey spots that aren’t popular at all but you can walk in and get some good food. There’s museums, we have ice skating in the winter, arcades, bus tours, custom perfume shop. Around summer time Brooklyn has plenty of street fairs going on especially around Juneteenth because that’s where a lot of African Americans, Caribbeans, and Africans live. New York City is a city you can’t experience everything in one visit.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First I want to shout out my parents because they supported my talent early. My mom is the one who found a high school that had a cosmetology program, which allowed me to graduate with my certification and apply for my NY Stateboard exam by the time I was 18. My father is a barber, and he would give me advice here and there when I first started working in a shop. When it came to me actually learning the industry it’s my cosmetology teachers Ms. Crosby (10th grade) and Ms. Lingstuyl (11th grade). My other cosmetology teacher Ms. Quartuccio who was my 12th grade teacher, who also had me assist her after I graduated teaching demos and even wrote me a recommendation letter for when I apply for jobs. Also, Shanel who is the manager at Jakari J Salon that I worked as an intern for her. She even had girls that graduated from my high school to become licensed stylist and work in her salon. Since that salon particularly specialized in natural hair my 12th grade teacher felt that was perfect for me to intern.

Website: www.hairgoesnina.shop

Instagram: hairgoesnina

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-simone-jones-088578205?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hairgoesnina?mibextid=LQQJ4d

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