Meet Nneka Slade, 49, and her son, Kameron Coleman, 25; they are the owners of Play Beauty Supply in Richmond Heights, OH. The duo recently signed a seven-figure deal to purchase another beauty supply store, Star Beauty Plus in Maple Heights, to serve customers throughout Northeast Ohio, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
The store has been supplying wigs, hair products, and tools and was previously owned by a Korean family for 50 years. The mother-son-duo now owners of the store said they are the business world equivalent of the Cavaliers’ 2016 NBA championship duo LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
“We learned a lot about each other,” Slade told the outlet. “I’m more of the left brain-organized, structured, and Kameron is more of the right brain-creative, risk taker. There’s a nice balance that happens.”
“She leans on me to bring in the new 21st-century ideas, the delivery, websites, marketing,” Coleman said while agreeing to the “the perfect LeBron-and-Kyrie combo” description. “It’s a balance with each other.”
Prior to their joint venture, Slade worked as a cosmetologist for more than 30 years. However, she took a step back from directly working with clients and went into the selling of hair extensions online in 2018.
Three years later, she and her son bought their first store, Play Beauty Supply, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. After setting up Play Beauty Supply, she and her son built connections with hair salons and stylists to bring greater attention to their products.
The business duo now wants to scale the second business acquired in March by establishing a location in Akron as well as offering new services, including a barbershop, events, and classes to support hair stylists and entrepreneurs.
For Slade, the growth of their ventures, while a dream come true, was not something they expected. “We never dreamed about this happening,” Slade explained. “We didn’t know what was going to happen but if we failed, we were going to fail big, something like this doesn’t happen.”
“People that come in now to the store are excited to see that it’s Black-owned,” she further stated of their second store. “They come in shedding tears because they can buy the products they need for their hair. People come in from all over either around or out of town, and most are coming from Akron and Canton areas. We are so happy about the support we have received.”
