When Greensboro hairstylist Deborah Whitaker was in high school, she would spend hours in her room brushing, curling and styling the hair on a toy Barbie.
“Every Friday night when I came home, I would make sure that I rolled her hair up and put the rollers in so I could set it,” she said. “The next day, Saturday, I would have all day to style it and play with different styles.”
In those early years, she thought she might grow up to be a beautician. In college, her passion grew as she learned how to braid her own hair, though the result wasn’t always pretty, she said. “I wish I had a picture of that, because I know that was a hot mess.”
Not long after, she took up hair braiding when she needed a job, and improved her technique by shadowing natural hair stylists in Atlanta and Baltimore and attending natural hair conferences…