Cover Stories Hair is NOT a Hustle; Sisters and Co-Founders of DreamGirls Discuss the Creation of Their Business, and How They’re Revamping the Hair Industry
Sisters and DreamGirls Co-Founders, Sharie Wilson and Tonya Thompson, are on a mission to debunk the stereotypes that Black people often face in regard to their hair.
Wilson and Thompson are stylists and healthy hair experts who both have decade-long reputations of having “magic-growing hands,” helping Black people grow their own hair through DreamGirls’ Healthy Hair Program and 5-Step Healthy Hair Care System product line.
DreamGirls is a women-owned, family-owned, and Black-owned salon and haircare line set with the focus on negating the myths that Black women and men cannot have long, healthy hair.
The journey started with Tonya Thompson, who loved hair at a young age.
“I used to do hair for all my friends at school—I used to braid hair, flat iron their hair, play around with relaxers, and just doing anything you could think of.”
While in college, Thompson brought her sister Sharie into the mix. Tonya is five years older than Sharie, who started getting into the business when she was in high school. Never having the intention of doing hair, she’d continued it throughout college and even after as a way to make extra money.
“[Because] of the stereotypes and how people thought of hairstylist, I just never went into that field,” admitted Thompson.
The two went on with life—Sharie went onto college and got a job in corporate America, while Tonya worked in education—however remained doing hair on the side. With time, the sisters realized that doing hair was bringing them more money than they’re day jobs. The rest became history.
“I’d work a nine to five, and then come home and do hair form six to ten,” said Sharie Wilson. “And I realized I was making more money between six and then, so I deiced to walk away from corporate and dived right into doing hair.”
DreamGirls originally started as a hair line.
“We were one of the few in Sacramento and a very few if the people in LA that started selling hair,” Wilson told the Sentinel. The two opened a shop on Crenshaw and Manchester, and while selling hair, decided it would be a good idea to have someone there to install the hair.
“That’s how the salons ended up coming about,” continued Wilson. “Then we had our first salon in LA, and then I branched out and opened a salon in Sacramento. We’ve had salons in both locations ever since.”
The sisters have made it their expertise and their passion to help black women and men’s hair reach it’s greatest potential in both length and strength. Through their DreamGirls Healthy Hair Program, clients wear the protective style of a weave while the natural hair underneath the extensions is cared for and monitored by DreamGirls stylists.
Every three months, the weave is taken down, DreamGirls stylists treat the natural hair with the 5-Step Healthy Hair Care System product line, and then weave is reinstalled. After the course of the recommended time frame on the program, one will take out the weave permanently to reveal healthy, full, and long natural hair.
With doing hair, the DreamGirls founders wanted to make sure they were making a difference. They also wanted to make sure they didn’t treat their business venture like a hustle, but as a true career path.
“People normally treat the hairstylist world as a hustle, uneducated default type of position that you get into,” explained Thompson. “[However] we took and changed it into a real profession, and that’s what we’re trying to do with all stylist. We’re trying to create DreamGirls Certified Stylist, and show people that this is a real profession.”
Thompson continued, “This is the best thing I could have done because it’s a whole new world! It allows me to make a difference in the community, make a difference in our own people in general, talk with a lot of people…”
Currently, DreamGirls has a cosmetology school, and is looking into many more ways hairstylist can turn this craft into a profession with benefits, insurance, and so much more.
The DreamGirls product line was released during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and helped provide hair solutions to anyone at home who could no longer visit their salons. Over $1 million of products was sold within the first six months, and customers were blown away by the results. The Healthy Hair Care System became a trending online sensation because of the results customers were seeing.
Since then, the product line has expanded into curl and styling products as well as accessories. DreamGirls even carefully chooses the names of their products to chance the narrative around Black hair by leaving out words like “unruly” and “hard-to-manage, and instead uses words like “revival” and TLC” in the product names.
“Words have power,” enthused Wilson, “and we want our clients to speak life into their hair and we want our products to speak life into their hair as well. We want people to walk in confidence. We want to show Black women that if you choose to wear your hair straight, that’s fine. If you choose to wear it curly, that’s fine. Whatever way you want to wear your hair, you can, as long as it’s healthy.”
Wilson continued, “As long as your hair is healthy, it can grow as long as you want it to with no cut off. As long as you want it to grow, it can grow.”
DreamGirls products are sold exclusively online at www.dghair.com or in person at the Culver City Salon. For information on Sharie Wilson and Tonya Thompson check out their social media (@dreamgirlshair).