Entertainment
Beyoncé is investing in the cosmetology school her mother attended
Beyoncé is investing in the next generation of hairdressers and hairstylists with the newly launched Cécred x BeyGOOD student scholarship fund.
The initiative will feature the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer. give $500,000 for five beauty schools across the United States, including the black-run hair care institute from which her mother, Tina Knowles, graduated in the Nineteen Eighties, in accordance with the Franklin Institute. Other winners include Beaver Beauty Academy in Atlanta, Trenz Beauty Academy in Chicago, Universal College of Beauty in Los Angeles and Janas Cosmetology Academy in New Jersey.
Each school will receive a business grant through the Cécred x BeyGOOD Salon Business Grant, which is able to provide 25 students from each institute with financial scholarships of $10,000, and one other 25 salon owners will receive grants of $10,000. Schools chosen on the basis of market research will help fill a niche in the industry that requires a median investment of $14,000 Texas and $20,000 domestically to start out.
“One of the foundations of BeyGOOD is economic equality. And yes think about itat its core is inequality,” said Ivy McGregor, executive director of BeyGOOD.
“We believe that everyone has the right to development. So what excites us, even though our tenets are education and entrepreneurship, are both coming together in this program.”
This is a full-circle moment for the Franklin Institute in Houston. This helped Tina Knowles open the Headliners salon, which served as Beyoncé’s first stage as a toddler.
“She had a great salon here in Houston. It’s not like she just graduated from Franklin; she has truly made an impact on the Houston community with her salon,” says Ron Jemison Jr., fourth-generation owner of Franklin Institute.
His great-grandmother, Madam Nobia Franklin, founded the school as a hair salon in San Antonio, Texas in 1915. Since then, Franklin Beauty Culture School has had locations in Fort Worth and Houston, Texas, and Chicago before returning to Houston in 1934, where it is certainly one of the oldest Black-owned businesses still in existence in the country.
In recent years, Jemison transformed the school into the Franklin Institute, where they teach hairstylists and supply hairdressing classes to racially diverse students.
“This is the foundation. You have talent, but it’s essential know the rules and regulations. You must pass this test to maneuver forward because you’ve got people in your hands,” he said.
“You’re principally putting chemicals in their hair that may have the opposite effect (effect) and all the hair falls out. That’s why it is so vital to go to school. We call them doctors; they’re hair doctors.
Hot on the heels of Beyoncé’s launch of her Cécred hair care line, the scholarship fund supports her latest entrepreneurial enterprise and her passion for the hair care industry because of her mother, a hairstylist. The inclusion of the Franklin Institute gives the Knowles family the opportunity to present back to their hometown in a full-circle way.
“In her hometown of Houston, her commitment never wavered, right? Whenever she has a possibility to present, home is first on her list. That’s why we’re very excited to have the opportunity to make an enduring impact,” McGregor said.
“And that is a part of the goal; not only to create a wave that is just for now, but to create something that for a lot of, a few years to return, we’ll find a way to look back and say, “We lit a fire, but the fire is still burning and the fire is dying out” is still burning. “