KAYDIAN Hall, who dreams of someday owning a chain of salons catering exclusively to styling natural hair and locks, from all indications seems well on her way to accomplishing this feat given her growing list of clients and the increasing demand for her creative hairstyles.

Building her reputation as one of the best stylers of natural hair and locks, however, did not come without hard work for the 30-year-old Portland native who operates her booth kJania from a shop on Blake Street, Port Antonio.

“Sometimes I work from 6:00 am until 1:00 the next morning. I have to go to the doctor to get vitamins to be able to keep up,” she said. “When I leave home my kids are sleeping and when I get home they are already gone to bed,” she added, emphasising the long hours she has to put in to grow her business.

Hall said the hours are even longer during the busy Christmas rush, forcing her to work up to 3:00 am some days.

The single mother of five said she used to work seven days a week but has started taking Sundays off to spend some time with her children and attend church.

Hall’s journey to becoming a renowned hairdresser in the parish was quite an accidental one as that was never on the list of careers she wanted to pursue.

Her first love was food and nutrition, but that dream was derailed when she became a teen mother and could no longer afford to continue her studies.

Hall, who is affectionately known as ‘Kady’, said she first realised her talent when she started receiving numerous compliments from persons whenever she styled her locks and those of her children.

“Whenever I style my children’s locks people always say how good they look and say I should start earning money from it,” she recalled. After much prompting she mustered enough courage to rent a booth at a friend’s salon four years ago and began the tedious task of seeking out customers.

“When I started out weeks on top of weeks I never get one client because I had thought people would just walk into the salon, but to my surprise it wasn’t like that. I had no money, so I decided I would style my hair and walk the streets in the days and would go up to people with locks and tell them about me. When I started to get one and two work I began to print business cards and then an idea came to me that I could use my kids to advertise my hairstyles, so I would style their locks and give them some of the cards to give out if anyone asked,” she said.

Before long Hall was growing her client base simply on the recommendations of other customers who were pleased with her creative hair styles.

Her services became so much in demand that some of her clients opted to have their hair done on her verandah when she took time off to have a baby. In fact, Hall said she was “doing a hair” when she went into labour.

“To see how my clients are really dedicated to me is a special feeling because all kinds of professionals come to do their hair on the verandah where mi just have a makeshift pipe,” she told the Jamaica Observer North East.

She singled out one customer, Kerrydene, who spent an entire day at her house doing a hairstyle which would normally take no longer than an hour. “She came to do her hair from 7:00 in the morning and she never left until 10 in the night because the baby, who was two weeks old at the time, wouldn’t allow us to finish the hair as I had to stop and breast-feed him every second and she had to be holding him for me,” she recalled. “Sometimes I lie in my bed and pray for my customers because I really appreciate the support,” said an appreciative Hall.

Hall noted, however, that it was not only her original styles which have attracted clients but the awesome customer service offered when they come to her booth. “I am big on customer service and people come back time and time again because of that,” she said.

“Mi never know seh mi name would be so good because now me have teacher, nurse, police, all types of clients hair doing now. But that is because mi spend time on mi ting, making sure it is unique and properly done,” said Hall.

“I had prayed to God to provide work so I can help others and in one year he did it,” said the petite and unassuming woman, who has since employed an assistant to whom she gave on-the-job training.

She also hopes to someday be able to pass on the knowledge to more people and plans on becoming certified as an instructor.

She said that despite the long hours and hard work it feels good as a single mother to be able to provide adequately for her children, but lauded her mother for helping to care for the children while she is out working.

“My mother Minerva Lawrence Thompson is a million-dollar mother because I don’t know how I would manage [without her],” she said, explaining that her mother ensures the children are properly taken care of while she is working.

“I am from a poor background and with my skill and hard work I can make a difference in changing the cycle of my family and I see myself as a household name internationally and locally and I want to leave a legacy for my children and my generation to come,” she said.