Ideas can hit you in the dead of the night; while belting off-key notes in the shower; or spotting a random sign on the road. For 23-year-old Monique Grant, the name for her finger coiling business venture — Don’t Touch My Hair — came while on a country bus from her hometown of Brown’s Town, St Ann.

She describes the moment as an epiphany. But her fascination with natural hair and its glorious kinks has been long-standing. The third-year psychology major at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona has been styling natural hair as a hobby for over three years.

It would take a clustermate on the Aston Preston Hall (where Grant resided) to plant the seed that would germinate, push through the cracks, and later bloom into something ‘untouchable’.

“When I started university, I realised that the females around me had really nice hair. And my clustermate introduced me to finger coiling. She did my hair once…[and] I fell in love with it. She told me what I should purchase to maintain it. She introduced me to products for my natural hair, and taught me how I should take care of my hair,” Grant told the Jamaica Observer.

But trying it herself after the one lesson didn’t go quite as she had expected it to. What she knew though, was that she had it within her, so she set about mastering the craft.

“The first time I did it myself, I looked like a ‘young Ras’. I went on YouTube religiously to watch videos on finger coiling and then I started to practise it. Then I started doing my friend’s hair,” Grant said.

Conquering self-doubt would become one of Grant’s major hurdles before she actually considered it a viable business.

“I didn’t take it seriously because, in my head, I was saying, ‘Nobody wants to pay money to finger coil their hair’. I felt like everyone could learn it by using my method. And one of my friend’s said, ‘Even if you’re not thinking of doing it as a business, let them pay you like $500,” Grant recounted.

Even after that, Grant said she continued to downplay her abilities, while her pro bono services were costing her time and money.

“But they liked it, so I continued doing it,” she told Career & Education.

Fast forward to 2018. Grant said she had eliminated some of the self-doubt and by the summer, had decided that the time was right to ‘take the plunge’. But then life happened.

“I got really ill and I didn’t start school until October. Even then, I was hospitalised so I had to focus on my health and how I would handle school being sick and in and out of the doctor’s office,” Grant revealed.

When her health improved, the drive for the business venture started to wane. That’s when her friends intervened.

“My good friend, Danielle Black, created the Instagram page out of frustration at me not moving as fast as I should have and to this day I [can]always very grateful for that because if it wasn’t for her, I don’t know if I would have started it at the time and I feel like that time was the best time to start because exams were winding down and people wanted to get their hair done for the holiday and it just worked prefectly,” Grant recalled.

Since then she said the support has been overwhelming.

“The general response from people has been very good. Whenever someone tells me that they like it, I get very emotional. I get emotional about the hair. I get emotional overall. To see that I did it. The pictures [compared to] seeing it in real life, is different. When you see it in real life, it looks far better. I have a lot of repeat customers,” Grant said.

Every entrepreneur knows the initial struggle of figuring out how “this all works”. Grant learnt that quickly. She recalls experiencing fatigue and burn out in the initial stages since she was juggling her new-found business with her studies.

“At one point I called Daniel and Abigale and was like, ‘Mi ago stop do dis. Mi dun! It nuh worth it’,” Grant said, describing the despair she felt in the early days .

But she has since taken steps to ensure that she strikes a balance. For one thing, she sticks to a strict schedule, explaining to Career & Education that preserving her mental health is paramount.

“Remember, you’re taking a lot of energy into your space every day [so] I now have set times for appointments and I only allow drop-ins on an emergency basis. I’m also very strict on time; strict with my schedule. If you’re 30 minutes late, I can’t take you; you have to reschedule,” Grant explained.

Grant, who has plans to embark on graduate studies upon graduation, intends to continue building her business by establishing a brick and mortar store and developing natural haircare products. For now though, she reflects on the life lessons the journey to date has taught her. Chief among them, she revealed, is conquering self-doubt.

“I’ve been wanting to do a lot of things, but I’ve been doubting myself. I always feel like I’m not good enough to push out big. If I come up with one idea, I think about 50 reasons it’s not gonna work and then convince myself not to do it. In my head, I can do anything now,” said Grant.

As for the business name, Grant said it’s a tongue-in -cheek reminder to admirers to not dishevel freshly done tresses.