Local hair salon featured for National small business day

SALISBURY, Md. – For National Small Business Day, the Good Morning Delmarva team visited a local hair salon that’s been in business for over 30 years;
black, female-owned at that, and the owner shares how a passion has blossomed into a lifelong career.  “It’s not work, I’m in my playground, this is my play area, these are my toys, and I love it,” says Cheryl Wallace, owner of Divine Inspiration Hair Studio LLC.

As strange as it may sound to compare work to playing, Wallace means it wholeheartedly. According to her, if you’re doing what you love, it will never feel like a job. “A lot of people take on jobs just because of the money, but you’re not going to be as good at the job if you don’t have the passion for the job.”

This is a passion that sprouted when Wallace was just seven years old, she says after an unfortunate haircut, she wanted to take control. “I just started doing my hair, and even if I didn’t have the utensils at home to do it, I would go in the kitchen and get a fork and I would just start styling my hair with the fork.” Wallace adds, “It’s just something that I love to do and so I just decided, let’s go to school, so after I went to school, it was on and popping.”

34 years later, Wallace has kept the same passion, and an even more passionate drive to help others feel beautiful inside and out. “A lot of women come in and they don’t feel beautiful, none of us feel beautiful when our hair is not done.” Wallace goes on to say, “But I like to make it a job to show you how beautiful you are on the inside first, and then do your hair so you can see how beautiful you are on the outside as well.”

Wallace tells us, she takes a different approach when doing hair. She says it should be clear how passionate you are about caring for others, while also creating lasting relationships that go beyond the chair. “Knowing that I know what I’m doing and because I know what I’m doing, I’m showing you and I’m telling you, so that kind of gives the client confidence as well.” She adds, “I try to make sure that I continue my education, keep up with styles and everything that’s going on, what people are wanting and what people are needing. You can’t still be living in an 8-track world when now we have streaming, so you have to change with time.”

Now Wallace tells us, that her grandmother also wanted to do hair, but she lived at a time where doing hair was looked at as “easy,” or for people who had little to no skills. However, she tells us, that’s far from the truth, and she’s happy she now has the chance to showcase her knowledge through her passion. “More research on trichology, your scalp, what you eat, drink, what you’re putting in your body.” She adds, “Now we should be able to look into your scalp and tell you whether you have cancer.”

She says taking on this mindset in her line of work, has in part helped her stay in business for now over 30 years, all while helping those in the community especially black women to feel confident and beautiful. “I love the versatility of our hair, of black women period. We can do natural, we can do straight, we can do wavy, we can do anything we want to our hair,” says Wallace. “I just want to show any woman, that you can still do it, just because you’re in your 50s, it doesn’t discount that you can be an entrepreneur.”

Through her passion for people, hair, and entrepreneurship Wallace tells us, she hopes to keep doing hair for the next 30 years. “Women are very strong at times that they don’t realize how strong they are, and the accomplishments they can do, but when you put your mind to something and put God first, it can happen for you.”

Beyond hair, Wallace owns the barbershop next door and also has open chairs for hair stylists, aestheticians, barbers, and even make-up artists. She also partners with the Fenix Youth Project for their hair me-out events that teach young people how to care for their natural hair.

You can find Divine Inspiration Hair Studio at 210 Hazel Avenue in Salisbury.

Stay up to date with any future events and other community projects by visiting her Facebook page.