Executive classroom honors area car dealer
July 1, 2008
Robert Edwin Crane Jr.
July 3, 2008
With over 100 businesses catering to hair and beauty needs, Houma seems like a good place to convene industry professionals and students looking to learn the trade.
That is exactly what Morgan City barber Theryl “TJ” Malveaux is doing Sunday, July 27, with Malveaux’s Multicultural Beauty & Barber Expo 2008.
“The area is growing, and you have several beauty supply stores, schools, salons, day spas and barber shops,” the owner of Morgan City’s Salon 360 said. “I thought I’d bring it all together; try to get everybody together to participate in this event.”
Hair-care providers will offer their services and sell products. Platform artists from New Orleans, and the local area will also create hairdos on the spot.
“At a hair show, you’re not going to see an everyday hairstyle,” Malveaux warned for the uninitiated. “You’re going to see something flashy with a lot of color.”
The event is not just for professional stylists and students, either.
“I have an MAC makeup artist coming, different vendors there selling arts and crafts, insurance agencies, clothing, purses, stuff like that,” said Malveaux.
New Orleans radio personality “Wild” Wayne from Q93 (93.3 FM) is hosting the expo.
Malveaux, 31, has been into hair grooming since he was in junior high school.
“I always took pride in working with clippers and grooming myself,” he boasted. “I used to get compliments on the way my hair was cut and stuff.”
After graduating from Grambling State University in 2001 with a degree in leisure studies with a concentration in therapeutic recreation, he decided being a barber was what he really wanted to do.
“I had an older cousin who was like a mentor to me … more like an older brother,” Malveaux recalled. “He moved to Atlanta and opened up a barbershop. He was always positive and kept me goal-oriented. I just followed in his footsteps in Louisiana what he did in Georgia.”
He completed an apprenticeship program, which allowed him to get his barber’s license.
In 2006, Malveaux opened Salon 360, a salon/barbershop, where he mostly works on the weekends.
Going to other hair shows around the country helped inspire the idea for organizing his expo.
“I attended a Bronner Bros. show in Atlanta and the Chew’s Multicultural Hair Show in Lake Charles,” he said. “I actually won first place in the ‘Traditional Cuts Barber Battle’ at Chew’s last year.”
Malveaux expects over 300 people to attend the expo. Although he has received calls from vendors around the country, consumer participation is going to be predominately from Louisiana.
Some may find hundreds of people talking about hair as superficial. For the stylists, and the stylish, it is a chance to get creative and have fun.
“Hair shows are normally for entertainment,” Malveaux said. “So you’re going to see people sporting a Mohawk who normally wouldn’t. There’s even a ladies’ version of the Mohawk.”
Morgan City Theryl “TJ” Malveaux, owner of Studio 360, is the barber behind this month’s expo.
