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Nafisa Carter: Creating Beauty Within Beauty

Nafisa Carter is no stranger to hard work and hustle. That’s why she has been so successful within her lane in the beauty industry. Read on to learn how her creation of beauty has manifested beauty in her life.

 

Corletha:                    

Ms. Carter, you’re an internationally-known celebrity hairstylist. What inspired you to embark on a journey into the hair industry?

Nafisah Carter:          

I have a lot of inspirations. My mom inspired me. Also, I worked for a celebrity hairstylist, and she was my inspiration. My mom had a business growing up, and she always traveled and had to go to shows. She would fly to New York in one day and fly back home with my sisters and I. I saw how hard she worked, and she definitely inspired me as an entrepreneur and traveling and staying busy.

As far as hair, Rita Hazan inspired me. I worked at her salon in New York. I saw her travel all over the world and color people’s hair and work with a lot of different celebrities. I knew I wanted it to be like that, so she inspired me as well.

Corletha:                    

So pretty much mom laid the foundation, and you had a mentor come along and you followed in that direction.

Nafisah Carter:          

Correct.

Corletha:                    

What has been your experience with working with celebrity clientele all the time?

Nafisah Carter:          

I love it! It’s been really great. Everyone’s been really nice to me. It’s fun, it’s exciting. I like to meet new people. So it’s different than going to the salon every day and working. I really do love it. I like to travel, and I love meeting new people. It keeps me going.

Corletha:                    

Can you tell me about the first time you booked a celebrity? Like, how did you feel? What went into that process? All those sorts of things.

Nafisah Carter:          

My first experience going out of town with a celebrity, I was an assistant. I remember I was working in New York, and it was my first time going to Miami. It was for Tamia Hill. She had a photoshoot there, and I was an assistant. I was so excited because I had never been to Miami. I had never worked on a video shoot, and it was just so amazing. It was really nice.

Corletha:                   

I could imagine. Besides being excited, were you nervous at all?

Nafisah Carter:          

Oh, yeah! I was extremely nervous.

Corletha:                    

What did you do to get yourself over the jitters, over the nervousness?

Nafisah Carter:          

Well, I do it now. I just have to calm down, breathe, tell myself it’s okay. “Everything will work out.” I just always do that.

Corletha:                    

I think that it’s a great thing for individuals that may be coming up in the same industry to know that just because you’re coming up doesn’t mean that someone that is already where you want to be doesn’t go through some of the jitters and nervousness.

Nafisah Carter:          

Oh, yeah! We still get really nervous.

Corletha:                    

Can you tell us about your story? How is it that you’re a single mother but have maintained this amount of longevity in the hair industry?

Nafisah Carter:          

I started out in Durham, North Carolina. I graduated from Dudley’s Beauty College. Then I knew I wanted to work with celebrities, so I moved to New York, my son and I. I moved there, worked a few years. It was hard because I am a single mother, but I did have my family to help me. I had my sisters, my mom, my grandma there, my aunts. So I’ve always had a support system.

I worked there, and then I moved back to North Carolina and opened up my studio. At the same time, I’m still juggling a lot because I am a single mother, so it is very hard. But I think that if I wasn’t a single mother, I don’t think I would have worked as hard. When it’s just you, you have to do it. You have no other choice. You have someone looking at you, and you just have to make it happen.

Corletha:                    

You mentioned having some support from sisters, support from your grandmother. Generally speaking, with a lot of things that we do in life, support is very, very, very important. Would you say that you had the support that you wanted or needed when you chose going into the hair industry?

Nafisah Carter:          

I definitely was very fortunate, very blessed to have the support that I needed. My sisters, my mom, my friends, my clients, they support me. I have a big support system. My child, my nieces and nephews. I do have a really big support system.

Corletha:                    

That’s amazing. Particularly, there’s a lot of individuals, even myself that I come across, that they have these particular dreams and aspirations. But when they mention them to the people that are closest to them, like moms, dads, aunts, whomever, they shoot them down and say the worst things that could happen or whatever the case may be.

Do you happen to have any advice for unsupported young ladies or young men that are considering the hair and beauty industries as their career path?

Nafisah Carter:          

I say don’t give up, because I think that a lot of times people don’t understand. Whether it’s family members or your friends or whoever, they don’t understand your vision. Just don’t give up. Of course, people are going to say, “No, you can’t do it.” Don’t listen to them. Do what you want to do. Do what you feel is best for yourself, and just keep pushing and not giving up.

Corletha:                    

So you have an international tour coming up. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what it consists of?

Nafisah Carter:          

I’m kind of all over the place. I will be going back to Australia for Black Hair Australia, and then I’ll be going to Paris. I’m working on a project in London, so I’ll be doing that, too. I’ll be doing a little bit of everything. Teaching, working on clients, working on shows.

Corletha:                    

Are you privy to mention any of the shows that you’re going to be working on?

Nafisah Carter:          

Not yet. I’ll mention them later when we get closer.

Corletha:                    

Anything in particular with the international tour that you were absolutely excited about? Like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening”?

Nafisah Carter:          

I was like that about Australia, but I’ve been to Australia now. I had never been there, so I wanted to see the koalas and the kangaroos and things like that. I was excited about that, but now I’m excited about going to the Eiffel Tower because I’ve never done that. I think that’s the biggest thing, going to Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

Corletha:                    

When it comes to going on tours, working with your clients out of town, things of that nature, it sounds like you need to balance work and play with this. How does that work out?

Nafisah Carter:          

Oh, that’s extremely hard! Because a lot of times I say that I’m going to do it in the beginning. I say, “I’m going to work three days and then I’ll play two days. I’ll work three days.” But it never works. A lot of times I end up working way more. But I try to get in that day of doing whatever I want to do, relaxing or sightseeing or whatever. But it is hard to balance those two.

Corletha:                    

When it is that you’re generally successful with balancing the two, what sort of magical formula do you use to make that work, that you’re able to have the time to play or relax along with the work?

Nafisah Carter:          

I have an online schedule, so that’s just number one. I have to have that schedule. I go off of my schedule. I also have a journal. I have my online schedule, and then I have my journal. I look at in my journal, I have a checklist. I look at all the things that I do want to do. Then I have my online schedule, which are the things that I have to do.

So I do all the things that are on my schedule online. Then I’ll go to my checklist, and then I start checking off the things. I’ll go to the top of the list, and I’ll do that. Then I’ll go to the next one, and I’ll go on like that.

Corletha:                    

With making some of these things happen, do you have any other individuals assist you or help you with getting things in place for yourself and your balance in work and play?

Nafisah Carter:          

My family. My niece is here right now and my sister, so they’ve been helping me. My family helps me a lot. They really do.

Corletha:                    

That’s amazing. So, as of late, there have been new additions to the world of hair extensions. Am I correct that you have your own line?

Nafisah Carter:          

Yes.

Corletha:                    

Can you tell us a little bit about your line?

Nafisah Carter:          

I have a line. It’s called Pyara Hair. It consists of different types of hair. So I have Indian hair, Brazilian hair, Peruvian hair, Cambodian hair. I have everything. Curly, straight, wavy. It’s really high quality hair. It doesn’t tangle. It doesn’t shed. It colors very easily, and it lasts about two years with proper care.

Corletha:                    

When it comes to proper care, what does that consist of?

Nafisah Carter:          

Using the correct shampoos and conditioners, and just taking good care of your hair. Shampooing your hair, conditioning it. If it’s a sew-in, when you take it out, shampoo it, condition it, hang it up, let it air dry. Not putting too much heat. So it’s kind of like what we would do with our natural hair. You don’t want to put too much heat on your hair. You don’t want to damage your hair. You don’t want to over-process it with color. So just taking care of it like you would take care of your own hair.

Corletha:                    

With hair extensions, there are all of these new innovations or inventions, for lack of better words, in the world of hair extensions. For example, there is frontals, there are 360 units. What would you say has revolutionized the extension game?

Nafisah Carter:          

Honestly, it’s really not even new. Celebrities have been doing it for years, forever on TV and in photoshoots and things like that. So it’s not really new. I think now that we have social media, it’s getting around and people are realizing how to do it on their own. Microlinks is still not new, but that’s kind of like the big thing on social media right now. People want microlinks. Of, course the wigs and the frontals, and then now the microlinks.

Corletha:                    

Can you explain what microlinks are?

Nafisah Carter:          

There are a lot of different types of microlinks. You can have the individuals, and so they’re closer to the keratin bond method. It’s safer on your hair. You just kind of clamp the strands in. Then when it’s time to take them out, you unclamp them. Then you may have a track with the beads, and then you attach your hair into the bead. Then you just clamp it in, and that’s it. It’s really easy. It’s low maintenance. You can wear your hair up and down. A lot of people are beginning to like the microlinks, but there are about four different types of microlinks.

Corletha:                    

With yourself individually, what influence do you hope to place on the hair industry to change the game?

Nafisah Carter:          

I would just like for people to be themselves, because that’s what I am. I haven’t changed my style of hair. I see where people, one thing will come out, and then they’ll go do it. Something else comes out, and they go do that. I just like a very natural look. That’s just me. I like for things to look real. So I just feel like be yourself. I’m just being myself. I’m doing what I like to do, and I feel like that can take you further than trying to jump around and do what everyone else is doing. Just be yourself. Do what you like to do, and you’ll do great.

Corletha:                    

Do you have any advice or direction in terms of someone finding what it is that they like to do or finding their own particular lane in the hair industry?

Nafisah Carter:          

That can be a little difficult. I usually tell people to figure out what they do during their downtime. It’s like what is it that you do during your downtime? I think that you can kind of figure it out then, because that’s the time when you’re bored and you’re doing something. Whatever it is, that’s what you like to do.

Corletha:                    

Kind of like taking that hobby and honing in on that hobby.

Nafisah Carter:          

Yes.

Corletha:                    

So what legacy do you plan to leave behind for your child?

Nafisah Carter:          

I plan to leave a lot for my child. I’m working on a few things now. Definitely some businesses. I don’t want to talk about them right now because I’m really working on these with him. I’m so excited about them because I think they’re going to be amazing. Working on some really good, solid, very successful businesses.

Corletha:                    

I can definitely respect that. No pressure whatsoever in terms of details. With your actual hope of what it is or your plan of what it is for the overall outcomes in terms of building a foundation for your son, what do you want that to look like, without sharing details about the businesses themselves?

Nafisah Carter:          

I definitely want it to help people. That’s what I’m always trying to think of, how I can help the next person. So it will definitely help people tremendously.

Corletha:                    

In terms of helping people, with you being within the beauty industry, what could you say or what could you speak on in regards to a link between someone’s perception of beauty in direct correlation to mental health? What sort of relationships have you seen over the years between beauty, or the perception of beauty, and a person’s mental health?

Nafisah Carter:          

I’ve definitely felt that, because I’ve come across a lot of clients and a lot of people deal with mental health, as a hairstylist I do feel like we’re therapists. I’m literally talking to people all day long about different issues, about their problems and advising them on if they should definitely get professional help. So I think that it’s good.

I went to school for child psychology. I started off with child psychology. So I always think to say that I use a little of my psychology while I’m working. But I think that it’s definitely, for me, I like being a hairstylist and it’s helped. My clients were able to talk things through, and if they need to get other advice, professional advice.

Corletha:                    

If someone, celebrity or not, wanted to book an appointment with you, how could they go about doing that?

Nafisah Carter:          

They can do it online. I’m on Style Seat, so they can go to styleseat.com and then enter my name, Nafisah Carter. You can follow me on Instagram or Facebook. It’s Nafisah Carter. Or email me or reach out to my publicist, Ebony. All of that information is on my social media.