At Howard University, a haircut in the dorm is now a career move

Two new salons on Howard University’s campus are making it easier for students to start the fall semester in style — and brush up on their entrepreneurial skills.

HU hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the C. Alan Grooming Lounge and the C. Alan Hair Salon, newly-renovated spaces in residence halls that provide professional hair, nail and skin care services to students and faculty. The salons, which opened for business earlier this month, were brought on campus to give college students a quick, convenient and affordable way to receive natural hair care, while also serving as a career training ground for students interested in becoming licensed cosmetologists.

On-campus hair salons and barbershops have opened at several historically Black colleges and universities, including North Carolina Central, Florida Memorial, Alabama A&M, Southern and Florida A&M. But some HBCU salons haven’t been able to maintain a consistent on-campus presence, widening the opportunity for students to informally start side hustles as braiders, locticians, wig stylists and barbers from their dorm rooms.

Many students do hair to pay their way through college, Chandler Ryan, a marketing senior and licensed stylist at North Carolina A&T State, said: “You have to be able to support these service providers. That’s how we make our money. That’s how we eat. … That’s how we survive.”

Howard used to have an informal barbershop in Drew Hall, one of the men’s residence halls, where a licensed barber would occasionally set up shop, but the program shuttered during COVID, Howard’s Director of Student Housing Candy Dennis said. A beauty salon concept was built in 2019 at The Quad for freshmen women with communal bathrooms to be able to wash their hair, she added, but it never took off due to regulations and liability concerns. So Dennis reached out to Howard alumnus, entrepreneur and cosmetology instructor Chet Alan Bennett to revitalize the spaces and “take the vision forward,” she said.

The new venture also represents the culmination of more than 30 years of Bennett’s life’s work. In 1996, Bennett started his own beauty school, now called the Bennett Career Institute, a few months after graduating with his master’s degree from Howard. He’s since received an honorary doctorate and trained thousands of students who have gone on to work in salons across Washington D.C. and beyond.

“We’re introducing to [students] the importance of grooming and the importance of beauty culture” with the Howard salons, Bennett said. “But we have to remember, we have a whole lot of people on campus who are eager and determined to have their own businesses. … We’re also bringing workforce development.”

He added that the salon and barbershop will complement the work of students who informally do hair, leaving a chair open at the grooming lounge for students who have the skills but need the training to get their license.

“We do appreciate entrepreneurialism,” Dennis said. A lot of the students are “near professionals in terms of their natural craft. … But it’s another thing to get the true training that you need to be a professional beautician or cosmetologist or esthetician.”

Eric Brown used to be a campus barber, cutting hair in his dorm while getting his business marketing degree at Howard. But as he struggled to land a corporate job, he took a friend’s advice to contact Bennett late last year. “It’s been up since then,” he said. 

Brown graduated from Howard earlier this year and is now working as an apprentice at Howard’s grooming lounge, growing his client base and social media following, receiving mentorship from older barbers and inspiring budding barbers.

“It’s giving me a platform to reach back and bring some people up with me,” Brown said. “It’s paying it forward.”