FROM Kingston to the United States, Susan Peterkin has spent more than 40 years building a career around natural hair, professional education and, increasingly, the health of the scalp and hair.

When she left Jamaica at 16, she did not expect hair to become the focus of her professional life. She arrived in 1981 with ambitions that had little to do with the beauty industry, imagining that she might eventually work in marketing for one of the major hair companies whose products were familiar to black women at the time. Instead, she found herself drawn to the relationship between a cosmetologist and her clients, beginning a career that would span more than four decades.

“There was something about the immediate gratification of being able to make a difference in someone’s life and see that difference right in front of you,” Peterkin recalled. “I loved the relationships I built, the trust clients placed in me and, quite frankly, I also realised that I could build a very good living doing work that I enjoyed.”

Today, Peterkin is based in Maryland and is the co-founder of PeterKINdred Hair & Scalp Wellness Center and S.T.R.A.N.D. (Stylists Training, Researching, and Networking with Dermatologists), an initiative that educates cosmetologists about hair and scalp concerns and strengthens collaboration between hair professionals and dermatologists.

Her path to this work began in the salon. Peterkin opened Jaha Hair Studio in 1996, building a natural hair business that eventually grew to a team of 10 stylists and served more than 20,000 clients. In 2003, she founded Jaha Natural Hair Academy to provide professional education in natural hair care.

Her work expanded into consumer education and industry advocacy, including creating My Hair, My Way and co-founding the Natural Hair Industry Convention.

But her own experience with hair loss changed the direction of her career.

Peterkin began noticing her own changes while also encountering scalp and hair loss concerns among her clients. Despite decades of experience, she recognised that there were things she was observing that she did not fully understand from a medical perspective.

“Looking back, that experience is important to me because it reminds me what it’s like to be a very experienced cosmetologist and still not have the education to understand everything you’re observing on the scalp,” she said.

Her search for answers led to a professional relationship with dermatologist Dr Chesahna Kindred. Peterkin eventually became Kindred’s patient and was diagnosed with central centrifugal cicatricial alopaecia (CCCA) and female pattern hair loss. The experience changed how she approached her clients.

“As I started seeing results and learning from her during treatment, I became much more confident talking to my own clients,” she said. “I understood more of the language. I understood more of what I was observing. I better understood when a scalp concern required a referral to a dermatologist.”

That relationship eventually led to PeterKINdred Hair & Scalp Wellness Center, bringing natural hair care and dermatological expertise together.

The idea came from a problem Peterkin and Kindred were seeing from different sides.

“Dr Kindred would talk about patients sometimes falling through the cracks after leaving the dermatologist’s office because they didn’t know where to go for knowledgeable and appropriate hair care,” Peterkin explained. “And on my side, I knew hair professionals were seeing things every day that they didn’t necessarily understand required medical attention.”

The answer was collaboration. “Neither profession needed to become the other,” Peterkin said. “We simply needed to learn how to work together.”

That philosophy became the foundation for S.T.R.A.N.D., which Peterkin and Kindred co-founded in 2024.

The initiative provides cosmetologists with education about hair and scalp disorders, alopecia, medical treatments and when a client should be referred to a dermatologist. S.T.R.A.N.D. has trained and certified more than 100 cosmetologists and developed relationships with more than 20 dermatologists.

Peterkin believes hairstylists can play an important role in early recognition because of the relationships they develop with their clients.

“If I’ve cared for someone’s hair for five, ten or fifteen years, I know her baseline,” she said. “I know what her density normally looks like. I know her hairline. I know her crown. I know how her scalp typically looks. I may recognise that something has changed before she does.”

She is equally clear about where a stylist’s responsibility ends.

“We don’t need hair professionals diagnosing medical conditions,” Peterkin said. “We need them educated enough to recognise change, understand when something is outside their scope, document what they’re seeing and make responsible referrals.”

For black women, that awareness can be particularly important. Hair loss can have multiple causes, including traction from repeated tension, scarring conditions such as CCCA and female pattern hair loss. Early recognition can make a difference, particularly with conditions that can cause permanent follicular damage.

Peterkin’s own experience has also shaped the way she talks about styling. She does not believe women need to abandon braids, wigs, extensions or other styles. Instead, she wants them to become more attentive to what is happening underneath.

“I don’t believe we have to reject wigs, braids or extensions to love our natural hair,” she said. “But I do believe every woman should have an opportunity to know, understand and appreciate the hair that grows from her own scalp.”

Peterkin urges black women to learn what is normal for your own hair so that you can recognise when something changes.

“You simply need to know what normal looks like for you,” Peterkin said. “Because when you know your baseline, you’re much more likely to recognise change early.”

More than 40 years after leaving Kingston, Peterkin is still working with hair, but her focus has expanded from styling to education, early recognition and collaboration between two professions that have traditionally operated separately.

“I want to leave this industry better educated than I found it,” she said. “I want hair professionals to understand that their eyes have value, their relationships with clients have value and their observations can have value — when they’re supported by education and respect for professional boundaries.”