Walking across the stage at hair school is an exhilarating moment. You’ve mastered the color wheel, you’ve survived the mannequin heads, and you’ve finally earned your license. However, for many new stylists, the first year in a salon feels like a cold shower. While beauty schools are excellent at teaching technical safety and foundational skills, there is a growing consensus that two major components are missing from the curriculum: Mentorship and Business 101. MENTORSHIP I

In 2025 a Black woman filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court on behalf of her and her seven year old daughter, alleging discrimination ( NYCHRL ) at an Ulta beauty salon on the upper East side of Manhattan New York. The suit alleges a violation of New York Civil Rights Law 40, which guarantees all persons full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges in places of public accommodation. The suit claims Ulta beauty created a segregated service m

Forget the MetroCard. The real gatekeeper in New York City history was the yellow cab that wouldn’t go to Brooklyn. If you didn’t live through that era, you don’t know the grit it took just to exist here. And if you weren't sitting in a salon chair for six hours in Bed-Stuy during that same era, you have no idea what getting your hair done really meant. New York City isn't just a place, it's a context. And nowhere is that context more complex, layered, and historically fraugh

Exploring Why Negative Outliers Drive Reviews More Than Consistent Positive Experiences Academia often paints a broad-stroke picture of consumer behavior, but the view from the front lines of business ownership tells a different story. A landmark study by Ben-Gurion University, spanning a staggering 1.2 billion reviews, suggests a world where women are the "benevolent graders" of the digital age-leaving higher star ratings than their male counterparts and remaining 10% less l

In high school, I was convinced college was a NASA-grade launchpad. I thought I’d board that vessel and blast off into a galaxy of hyper-competence where everyone spoke in profound metaphors and solved world hunger between classes. Then I actually got to campus and realized the rocket was mostly a refrigerator box held together by duct tape and student loans. I was ready to debate that religion and sororities can blur the line between community and quiet indoctrination-but h

The internet has a way of digging up the truth, and the recent story out of Cambridge, Maryland, is a chilling reminder of how some people use authority as a weapon. A homeowner reportedly hired six Guatemalan roofers for tens of thousands of dollars in labor. When the job was $10,000 away from completion, she didn't reach for her checkbook-she reached for the phone and called ICE. She even handed the agents a ladder. Thankfully, one of the workers, Bryan Polanco, recorded th