Ever since Madame CJ Walker made history as the first Black woman self-made millionaire with her line of homemade hair care products, Black women have been carving their own path in the beauty industry and emerging as successful entrepreneurs. One New Orleans-based salon owner believes that there is even more money to be made. She wants other hair professionals to realize their worth and use social media to start earning more for helping their clients look their best. Gabrielle Allen, AKA Strawberricurls, is making it her mission as a stylist coach to teach others in her industry how to secure their bag with her online training course, “From Instagram to Instant Clients.”
Allen’s one-day virtual course gives new and veteran hairstylists advice on how to grow their social media following and post gorgeous photos of their work that will attract new paying clients. Allen tells her students how she grew her business organically to become a wildly profitable entity that earns her $10,000 every month and has new clients clamoring to get bumped up from the waitlist to spend time in her chair.
Allen’s path to becoming a social media influencer started with her own natural hair journey in 2009. After finding very few useful resources online, she was forced to do a lot of her own research and experiment with products and techniques before figuring out what worked best. The first in her circle of family and friends to make the transition, Allen eventually became their go-to girl for all things natural hair.
She realized that others could benefit from her knowledge and began sharing her natural hair journey on YouTube and her blog StrawberriCurls. She later went on to open her own salon, Shades Studio, in New Orleans.
Now, with 125,000 Instagram followers, Allen has secured a substantial following of stylists and customers alike who swoon over the gorgeous photos she posts of her work. She hopes her “From Instagram to Instant Clients” students can model her success.
And her students love it. In a glowing review, one course participant wrote, “I just want to thank you, Gabrielle Allen, for your encouraging words and more! I’ve gone up on my prices this year, especially my color services. Due to our convo, I’ve changed my color package to an hourly service, starting at $175 for the 1st hour and $65/hr after plus the cost of whatever the services are. I’ve also hired a personal/salon assistant and her first week was amazing. It feels so good to finally have help. She’s saved me so much time with getting my inventory together as well as helping me in the salon. I’m super excited about this year.”
Allen wants to continue to share her knowledge with as many stylists as possible so they can all grab a piece of the multi-billion dollar pie. “Social media has played a huge part in my success and growth as a businesswoman, stylist, and influencer,” she said. “The beauty and hair care industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. There’s room for us all! Through my classes, my goal is to help other industry professionals elevate their profile and scale their businesses in ways they could not have imagined doing on their own.”