In The Chair With: Dezi Santiago
@dezi_s / Instagram By Akili King & India Espy-Jones ·Updated May 23, 2024 < /> “In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal hair and career journeys, what they’ve learned from their clients, and their top hair care tips. For Dezi Santiago, the hair salon is home. “I grew up in salons, so all things hair and beauty were a normal part of my life,” she tells ESSENCE. From a young age, Santiago’s dexterity was a gift, which at first, she didn’t realize she had. “My godmother picked me up from preschool, mind you I was 4 years old, and asked who did my hair,” she says. “When I told her I did it, she asked me to teach her how to part and braid neatly,” she says. “Barbie had not had a bob until my five-year-old hands cut one.”As she grew up, coloring and styling helped pay her way through Hampton University, turning her side hustle into a catalyst for what was to come. “My family didn’t have the finances to pay for my education at a private college, so my passion grew more so from a dependence,” she says. After graduation, she was taken under the wing of a world-renowned Atlanta hairstylist, as well as an unofficial stylist for her friends. Moving back to Detroit to open a salon, “people always ask me the question, ‘do you love what you do?’ and my answer is always the same,” Santiago says. “More than loving what I do, I love who I do it for.” Her intimate relationship with her clients, including influencer Tatianna Merritt, turns the salon chair into a space for not just hair but therapeutic connection. “Most of my clients have been with me for years so we have been together in things and through things,” she says. “I feel like the hairstylist is the nurse taking the vitals before you see the healer.”Below, Santiago discusses her favorite products, target="_blank"> View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tatianna Merritt (@ttmerritt) Her current favorite productThe Omni Restore Conditioning Mask preserves the integrity of my curl pattern and allows me to transition back and forth between heatrel="tag">black hairstylists black-owned salon haircareThe post In The Chair With: Dezi Santiago appeared first on Essence.
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