NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Founded with the goal of providing a community space for Black women, both young and old, Puffy Girls Club has become a hot new hair-cutting parlor in Music City. Puffy Girls Club owner and founder Shaylla Smith said she felt inspired to open her business “to ensure that young girls are empowered to wear their natural hair or empowered to accept really their natural hair … before they put any additions in it.”
Smith said that young girls with Black lineage are often made to feel insecure regarding their natural hair texture from their peers and the society around them, simply for being something different from what is usually celebrated in the mainstream. “It’s hard to embrace because of the European styles are more embraced. More straighter styles,” Smith said.
Smith said she felt called to create a supportive environment for her daughter after one day her daughter was playing with two existing friends at school. However, it was on this particular day that the two other little girls told Smith’s daughter that they did not want to play with her because her hair was “too puffy.” Smith said she could relate to the pain her daughter felt that day around being left out, as she remembered always wanting straight hair and begging her hairstylist grandmother to straighten it because her friends around her had straight hair.
Smith said it was after this event that she felt compelled to put together a supportive space on the internet under the name ‘Puffy Girls Club’ in 2017 for Black women guardians raising girls, who were also looking to help these kids grow into their hair confidently. Smith said that it was in this space that guardians supported each other and posted videos of themselves styling their child’s hair in order to provide tips and ideas. She said it was three years later when she got a logo for ‘Puffy Girls Club’ made, that she began to really consider what more she could do with the community she had built.
Smith said her time working in corporate America prepared her to be as detail-oriented as needed to run her own business. Smith said one day she looked at all the times she allowed for another company to decide her paycheck, and in August of last year, she decided the time was right for her to become her own boss. “I had a passion, have always had a passion for hair anyway. Natural hair,” Smith said. “But, to empower young girls is just something that’s really special to me.”
Smith said it was her grandmother, who ran an independent hair care business out of her house, who inspired Smith’s lifelong passion for hair. Smith said that on Saturdays, she and her sister would go to her grandmother’s house and listen to the conversations the women were having while waiting for their turn to have their hair done. Smith said this continued in middle school when her cousin Rhonda opened her own shop for hair care, and that in her adult life, she often reflected on how these businesses often acted as group therapy sessions for the women who frequented them.
Smith said future announcements include updates regarding a children’s book inspired by her then-baby daughter that she began writing in 2020. She said the book promotes young girls to feel comfortable with their natural selves. To do this, she said the book shows different textures and styles of hair, different shades of Black skin, and different natural body types. Smith said more regarding Puffy Girls Club is available at puffygirlsclub.com and @puffygirlsclub on all social media.
