Amazing story of Dana White now the 1st Black woman in U.S. to franchise a salon business

Dana White recalled walking into a Dominican salon to have her hair done. Like many other Black women, she canceled everything she had to do on that day because she was going to the salon.

“I walked in at 11, I was done at 12:30, and I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘I can meet you for brunch!’ I’ve learned by watching, you know what? There’s got to be a better way to do this. I just no longer have the time to sit in the salon for four to six hours,” she told Franchise Time.

This led her to establish her salon, Paralee Boyd, which she named after her grandmother. Paralee Boyd is an innovative walk-in-only hair salon franchise that provides a unique solution to getting women in and out in a timely manner.

She designed her salon to meet the needs of African Americans with thick and curly hair. The salon is equally open to Indian women. She owns two salons in the Detroit area but has now launched a national rollout via franchising. According to Black Business, this makes her the first Black woman in history to ever do so.

“What can an efficient, confidence-building salon do for women who look like me? That’s my ‘why,'” White told CNN. “That’s the drive. I’m just so excited to be a revolution in haircare.”

She is projecting to have 20 locations within two years and 100 locations within five years. And according to Mlive, her franchising efforts are assisted by the 2020 Rocket Mortgage Detroit Demo Day.

This was after she earned the top prize of the fourth annual entrepreneurship competition organized by the Rocket Mortgage Detroit Demo Day. She won the top prize with $200,000.

According to CNN, White has incorporated data analysis into the everyday routine of the salon which allows her to monitor how long clients are spending at each step of the blowout process. This innovation, White said, allows Paralee Boyd salons to operate as walk-in only, typically getting clients in and out of the salon in under two hours.

“I opened Paralee Boyd to solve for a problem that women with thick and curly hair were facing everywhere. I wanted to create a space that provided quality hair care, was timely, and committed to customer service. Like several of us, I had grown tired of spending my Saturdays in hair salons,” she said.

White is a Kalamazoo native and attended Western Michigan University. According to Mlive, White graduated from Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program, and is part of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Access Network inaugural cohort.