Lifestyle
#IAmMissJessies: Miko’s Own Ah-Ha Moment!
Miss Jessie’s: Creating a Successful Business from Scratch—Naturally is finally available in stores, and we are continuing our celebration at Miss Jessie’s, by sharing the personal and professional epiphanies of some of our favorite natural hair vloggers and bloggers, as seen in our #iAmMissJessies blog from last week.
In Miss Jessie’s: Creating a Successful Business from Scratch—Naturally, Miko candidly shares all the secrets to her success, specifically how she and her sister’s resilience, determination, creativity, and strong work ethic lead them on the path to professional success. Together, Miko and Titi made their dreams into a reality, literally from scratch, and though technically categorized as a business guide, this story is so much more- it’s an inspiring, motivational memoir.
Therefore, in honor of the book release, we are continuing the #IAmMissJessies campaign, by sharing the “Ah-ha!” moments of our favorite curly professionals. An “Ah-ha” moment occurs when, after years of sacrifice and hard work, passion and ambition finally aligns with your desired career objective, and everything seems to begin falling into place as you always wanted, sometimes even better than you could have ever initially imagined. You come up with a plan finally allowing for exhaustion and failure to gives way to well-deserved success, and everything just clicks! It is our hope to continue to inspire young women to use their intelligence, natural intuition, and inner strength to boldly go after their dreams, even and especially when it appears the odds are against them. Today we are featuring the ah-ha supreme curly queen that started it all, Miss Jessie’s co-founder, CEO, and pioneer in the natural hair care movement, Miko Branch.
Source: MissJessies.com
As many of you know, my “aha” moment came at splash time, while I was giving my infant son a bath, on the 4th floor of our Brownstone in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. I was a single parent doing hair out of my home and did not want to send my baby to daycare, because as a single mom, it was important that my son and I cultivated and maintained a strong bond.
If you wanted to get your hair done by me, you had to come out to the hood, and I would service you on the 2nd Floor. At that time, you would also see me with curly, frizzy, and kinky hair, because I could no longer sport the straight look. Anyone that knows anything about naturally curly, kinky, and wavy hair knows you can’t keep it straight, once it is hit with water. So I decided to leave it in it’s naturally curly state, in order to make life easier for myself as I ran my own business and raised my son. That was how it had to be.
What I did not expect was the level of attention received, as a result of this decision. More and more customers came in, requesting this very style, after seeing me with my curly hair. It was at that moment, when my sister and I realized we were on to something.
While working with curly hair, I discovered women of African decent, whose texture had been typically generalized as ” kinky”, actually have tight, coiled curls! They have Curly hair!!! It was a discovery that I wanted to share with the world. For too long, a good amount of women with this hair type were made to feel as if their hair was more difficult, less attractive, and essential just not good enough. I knew differently, because I was working at becoming expert in all things curly. I realized that this tighter, coiled curl had all of the versatility and majesty it needed, to be regarded as great, beautiful hair. As result, I leveraged the free internet, and posted “Before” and “After” photos, showing off the beauty of curls, kinks, and waves. Soon, we had so many views on these photos, that the pictures actually went viral. These photographs ultimately changed the standard of beauty.
This was the “aha” moment of my career, and that is what the heart of our new book speaks to; intuition, using your God given talent to create opportunities for yourself, and being fearless in pursuing them.
Over the next few weeks you will read stories from several dynamic women who have had similar breakthrough moments. Thus, it is our intent to inspire and encourage you to reach for the stars, with the same bold and fearless spirit that Miss Jessie, our beloved Grandmother possessed.#IamMissjessies and so are you! We can’t wait to hear YOUR stories!
Love,
Miko
Source: Instagram, @mikobranch
Be inspired today curly queens! And don’t forget to share your Ah-ha moments with us, either in the comments, or on our other social media platforms! Tag us with #IamMissjessies- we can’t wait to hear from you!
