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Koasia, born and raised in Camden, Ms was always ambitious and interested in exploring her artistic abilities. After her divorce, and death of her mother and grandmother Koasia knew she needed a fresh start in a different environment.
Moving to Chicago was one of the best decisions she has ever made aside from the choice to pursue nails. Koasia has been in and out of the industry for 11 years now beginning nail school in 2012 in Mississippi. She started Magnolia College of Cosmetology's Nail Program in 2012. After the birth of her son she was forced back into working 9-5 to make ends meet.
A few months after moving to Chicago Koasia visited her first black owned nail salon and she was blown away by the music, chill vibes, beautiful people, and precision of her nails. She wanted to be apart of this place and any others like it which led to the craving of creating her very own.
Since she was working in the medical field as a pharmacy tech the transition was not as smooth as she would like. She started creating her name, logo, and LLC while at work during the day and at night she practiced her skills and fully indulged herself into YouTube University.
Practicing consistently for years, she was finally comfortable enough to try her first salon. The first salon lacked the ability to communicate properly with clients and her so that didn't work, the 2nd was fun the lack of respect from the owner pushed Koasia to her third salon, the 3rd salon was ok but they did not offer acrylics so that was not a long term option. The 4th salon was the one she liked best of them all but the owner was unfortunately new to owning her own business and was a hairstylist. This was the first time Koasia experience not being paid on time and accurately by an employer. She was a college student, single mother, and full time nail technician so you can imagine how difficult this journey became. She built a strong relationship with the owner but unfortunately due to the disconnect with payment and the slow build of clientele this salon was not a good fit, either.
At this time Koasia really felt bad about the industry altogether. She decided to open her own salon suite in North Chicago. She marketed her low prices to customers and quickly realized she would not be able to afford rent that way. After all those attempts Koasia went back into the medical field fulltime in order to plan her next move. She decided that it was time for her to take a step back and figure out what she was doing wrong. She realized that she needed to analyze things from a consumer point of view. At work she would pay close attention to the ladies nails and she would do her own nails and share her work with the ladies. After eventually getting really good feedback, graduating college with her Associates in Business Administration, renewing her pharmacy technician license, and obtaining her nail technician license she knew it was time for her to go back into nails, but this time at a different angle.
The 5th salon Koasia was employed at most recently was commission based and very popular. It's located in Downtown Chicago and has some of the best nail techs in the field working there. This salon was also black-owned. After her interview she was hired and started that next week. Everything went fine for a couple of months until she realized people were literally stealing things, gossiping, spreading rumors, the owners had criminal backgrounds, some of the staff and owners were disrespectful, some technicians were not licensed, the pay days started to change frequently and some checks were short a few dollars here and there. There was a lot of favoritism as to the nail technicians that were being promoted and tagged online. When these things were brought to their attention there was no solution to the problems. The owners took no accountability and expressed their dislike for her speaking up. They let her know that not only have they been in business for 4 years but even if they are verbally disrespectful they will not change it because it works for them.
At that moment, the transition for Koasia began again. She started to inform her regular clients that she would be moving soon and gave them a way to contact her if they needed to.
While at the 5th salon Koasia built a steady clientele of very professional women that agreed to follow her.
Now Koasia is finally settled in a place that works for her little family in Hyde Park working the hours and days she desires. Koasia works at Barba for Mr. Mario M. She rents her booth and is still currently building her clientele. She plans to enroll in College again with a major in digital marketing and continue her studies in business to open up her own facility next year using the hands on experience she has gained over the years.
Thanks for taking the time to read about Koasia's Nail Journey! Nails are her passion always forever. Now, you can book your appointment knowing you have a professional that actually loves the art and is willing to go the extra mile for you and your nails.
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