When Black women decide to start a business, it is inspired by one of two things: passion or frustration. Nicole Mason’s journey of creating Elegant Boutique Beauty Supply, Oregon’s first and only mobile beauty supply was founded with equal parts. Ownership within the beauty supply industry is almost exclusively non-Black. After one too many encounters of discriminatory treatment, Mason took matters into her own hands. Elegant Boutique Beauty Supply exists as a physical representation of what reclaiming our power as consumers can look like. Mason not only actualized her dream, but she also offers a line of accessibility for her community through her mobile structure. EBONY sat down with Mason to talk about the journey of building a business in an industry where Black women are the industry’s minority, how she pours into the community, and why her mobile store works.
EBONY: Take us back to the beginning. What inspired you to create Elegant Boutique Beauty Supply, and what gap did you see in the beauty supply industry that made you think, “I need to build this”?
Nicole Mason: I’ve always wanted to do something in beauty. I used to do hair years ago. I taught myself how to braid in seventh or eighth grade, I think. But as I got older, I’m like, I kind of want to do something else. Going into the two hair stores that we have here, I didn’t see anyone behind the counter that looked like me. There were a couple occasions where I was followed around and accused of stealing. We spend the most money in this industry, but we don’t get treated the same. Years kind of went by and I put my dream on the back burner. Something kept calling me back to beauty. I was like, “I’m going to open a hair store.” We don’t have a hair store here that’s Black-owned, and if we did, they are always closing.
Then COVID hit, and I didn’t want my dream to fall again. I had this idea, “what if I delivered hair stuff?” I didn’t know where to start [or] how this is going to work. All I knew was that I had a car, and I could figure out how to deliver. I knew my city. So I started doing my research about how to open a beauty supply store. I joined a Facebook group dedicated to beauty supply store owners. I got a lot of information there, made some connections, networked, and then came my beauty supply store, my mobile one.
Elegant Boutique Beauty Supply is the first and only mobile beauty supply store in Oregon. Why did you choose a mobile model rather than opening a traditional brick-and-mortar store, and how has that decision shaped the way you serve your customers?
I continue to choose the mobile route because I think people, especially in my community, love the convenience. A lot of parents, whether it’s a single mom, a single dad, or even a household with two parents, don’t always have the capacity or the time to get to a traditional brick-and-mortar. For me, it was all about reaching people in my community who are impacted the most, who don’t have reliable transportation or don’t have time to get to the hair store. Or might have to walk a mile to get to the bus stop. Some of my customers are in some of our subsidies where there’s no hair store out there besides Sally’s. That’s a big reason why I continue to do the mobile model. And I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback on it. People love it.
What has the journey of building this business looked like—from the initial idea to actually getting Elegant Boutique Beauty Supply on the road? What were some of the biggest challenges you had to overcome along the way?
The biggest challenge is honestly getting inventory. The hardest part is getting into this industry and getting major accounts. If you do not have a brick-and-mortar, you cannot get an account. There is no way around it. If you do have a brick-and-mortar, they send a representative to your area to come out and survey your store. They come to your store, look at the layout, see how far you are from another hair store. If you are too close to another hair store or they necessarily might not like the layout of your store, they feel like your store’s too small or something like that, they will deny you an account. [Also] our minimums are typically higher than our counterparts.
People have no idea what we go through as Black beauty supply store owners. And it’s not like we can get around it because when we apply for accounts, we’re required to submit our photo ID. So they’re going to see that we are Black. There’s literally no way to get around that type of prejudice. If we don’t get that continued support past the first grand opening weekend and maybe the second and third weekend after that, our stores typically fail and plummet if we don’t get that continued support. I’ve met some awesome women in this industry who have brick-and-mortars in other cities and states, and being able to build friendships and business relationships with them and order with them has saved me tremendously. If it wasn’t for those connections, honestly, I probably would have to shut down a long time ago.
For many Black women, beauty supply stores are more than places to purchase products — they can be spaces of community, convenience, and connection. What does it mean to you to create that experience for Black women and other underserved communities in Oregon?
It means so much to me because, just growing up as a Black woman and seeing my peers around me and hearing of their experiences when they go into these stores and they get watched, followed, accused of stealing, or attacked. For me to be able to provide a service like this where not only am I serving my community and the underrepresented community, it’s full circle. I know the feeling of going into a store and being watched or going into a store and asking about a product and they have no idea what the product is or if it’s going to work for your hair texture. I think that’s my biggest thing is I want our community to feel comfortable. Elegant Boutique Beauty Supply might not be a [brick-and-mortar], but you’re gonna get that same warm experience.
As you look at what you’ve built so far, what do you want Elegant Boutique Beauty Supply to become next? What is the larger vision for the business, and what do you hope your story inspires other Black entrepreneurs to believe is possible?
I want to get my business to a point where I am able to hire someone on a part-time basis. I want to be able to hire someone and pay them a livable wage. I also want Elegant Boutique to be the hair store that first comes to mind when people think of Black-owned beauty supply stores, especially here where I live in Portland. I also want to be known as the wholesale person because I do offer wholesale. I want people to think of me first when they want to buy in bulk. I want to continue to be in a position to give back. I just gave away a $1,000 scholarship for a person going to cosmetology school. Recently, I just volunteered at a back-to-school event and gave away some products for kids for back to school. There have been many times throughout this process, since I started five years ago, where I wanted to give up so bad. Comparison was the thief of joy at one point, and I compared myself a lot to businesses that I saw on social media. Orders were not coming in. But I had to realize my path and where God is taking me is not everybody’s path. There’s gonna be things that come along in business that are going to stress you out, frustrate you, make you think you need to give up, but don’t give up because it gets greater later. As long as you put in the time, the effort, and the hard work, you’ll be able to do it too.