Female Disruptors: Tiffany Anderson of Tiffany’s Naturals On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
Three of the best words of advice that I have gotten is “Don’t Give Up!” These words have helped me manifest and cultivate my passions. It has helped me get over hurdles that I looked at as being unattainable. These words have allowed me to go beyond my past and open the door that serves my purpose. When you give up you leave a space for someone to come and share from a selfish place and not a genuine space. Everyday I have story behind these words but those also propel me to continue the process.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tiffany Anderson.
Tiffany Anderson is an author, certified trichologist, natural hair stylist, and motivational speaker, who uses her passion for natural hair to develop amazing hair care products and provide preventative services that help women with hair loss and restoring their natural hair.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I wanted to be an Attorney — that was going to be my contribution to the world and how I was going to change society and make an impact. I was in college and even landed a job as a legal secretary right before I was arrested for bank robbery. I was truly living a double life. I never anticipated getting arrested but when I did, I was scared and didn’t know what I was going to do. After serving three years, I knew I had to channel another trigger in me that was going to allow me to help people and make a difference.
As a child, I was always good at doing hair. I learned how to braid at an early age and whenever I would alter one of my barbie’s hair instead of getting “why did you cut your dolls hair?,” I would get praised for how the style turned out. I even did the ladies hair while incarcerated and was encouraged to pursue my skill as a goal. And that’s absolutely what I did! I came out on fire wanting to make a difference, making women feel good and look good. I also wanted to feel better about the turning point in my life that I had chose and what better way to do it than to be surrounded by Black women doing phenomenal things and me piggy backing off the same energy to inspire me. It became more than a fascination but a desire to transform people’s energy with my hands. I was here and ready to see what I could do to make this industry better. I started in the salon as a braider, moved my way up to becoming an apprentice working under the main stylist to get my cosmetology license but that wasn’t enough for me. I was not enthused by the chemicals, in fact, I developed bronchitis after my first year of working in the salon. I wanted to do more. I saw the need in natural hair and wanted to help women value their own hair and show them how their hair was enough, and the chemicals was just an illusion of what will never be.
I traveled to different states to learn different techniques and I attended classes. I figured out that cream base products were the gift to our Black women’s natural hair and that the cream created a real moisture for our hair to retain. I learned that our hair was never nappy but curly. I stopped referring to our hair as such and would not allow my clients to use such derogatory words when referencing their crowns.
After five years of working in someone else’s salon, I felt it was time for me to take a leap and open my own salon that offered services that were not being envied, specializing in natural hair services. From there I became a Trichologist — the study of hair and scalp disorders — and I went from encouraging women to love their hair to educating them that thinning and balding is not solely based on age and hereditary but the number one factor is your daily routine. From there I got an itch to reach more people, so I started writing books for kids and women to embrace and be proud of their natural hair and to teach them how and what it takes to really grow and prevent the stages of thinning and losing their hair. I had to formulate products that were going to combat these issues.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
When you are trying to get people to change their thought process it is very disruptive. The way you learn something is the way you live and no one wants to be told that they are doing something wrong and for a long time. People don’t want to be corrected unless they are looking for correction. So, I come along telling women that shedding, thinning, and balding does not have to happen to your hair, if you don’t contribute to it by doing X,Y, and Z, you are in control of your hair results. This is hard to receive especially when you don’t see it. So, I became disruptive by creating before and after experiences by writing books and doing speaking engagements on behalf of educating women on not taking part in any negative language and patterns that is not going to serve or represent how wonderful our hair is.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first started traveling to learn new techniques, I was anxious to get back and show everyone what I had learned. One particular style I was so excited about, the Senegalese Twist, also known as the two-strand twist w/hair added. I finally convinced someone to be my walking model. After 8 long grueling hours later the style was finished, and I just needed to seal it in with the hot water and rollers setting the ends in place. In just 20 seconds of the water touching the hair the style begins to unravel, every twist dissolving with the hot water. Imagine the anticipation she felt in seeing the end result and my face as all my hard work came to an end in the sink. That taught me that perfection is underrated. You have to perfect your technique and really know what you are doing and talking about before you share it.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I am a big fan of Talijah Waajid, a natural hair entrepreneur that inspired me to emulate her blueprint. I was trolling her before social media. I would travel to take her classes; I followed her journey with shows and I still knew I needed my own niche to set myself apart. I added Trichologist and Author to my list.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting is good because it’s a breaking point in a system that is not working. Even though we don’t know the amount of pressure it takes to end a flawed system, we do know that pressure has to be applied to resolve it. We know that systems put in place are supposed to benefit everyone, not just a group of people. We also know that certain positions are abused and that abuse has to be exposed. There is no comfortable way to disrupt but we can stay prepared and ready by not settling in complacency.
For me, I knew I had to disrupt the beauty industry by telling the truth and when you tell the truth you get backlash from people not ready to grow, so you don’t get the support you need but you hear the words that you have shared without getting the recognition. I felt like we were definitely taking our hair for granted and not reaping the benefits of how beautiful it is and we were embracing a movement not meant for us. I knew we relied on our hair as a self esteem builder and I wanted us to value it by the way we cared for it.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Three of the best words of advice that I have gotten is “Don’t Give Up!” These words have helped me manifest and cultivate my passions. It has helped me get over hurdles that I looked at as being unattainable. These words have allowed me to go beyond my past and open the door that serves my purpose. When you give up you leave a space for someone to come and share from a selfish place and not a genuine space. Everyday I have story behind these words but those also propel me to continue the process.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
When you are an influencer you kind of already know that your work will never be done. I have created a cookbook designed with recipes that are solely to promote hair growth and to prevent damage to the hair. We do know growth starts on the inside and what your body intakes reflects how it looks on the outside.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
In my opinion, the biggest challenge faced by “Women Disrupters” that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts are our voice. A woman’s voice is not welcomed like a man’s voice and that can be used to our advantage. When you are not expecting something, you don’t prepare for the impact. That’s why we are able to come in like a wave and wash away the BS. We are underestimated but we don’t underestimate ourselves and we can’t especially today.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
I love reading autobiographies and one of my favorite autobiographies is Malcolm X. Malcolm X decided to go against his odds and to grow beyond his circumstances and in doing so he had a revelation that he did not respect people who did not wear watches. He felt that they did not respect time. Chadwick Boseman also had a profound claim with time he said, “take your time, but don’t waste time”. These are significant disclosures that individuals held onto while navigating through their time while on this earth realm. It was time that held their attention to continue their works and it was also their time exit and be revered for their works. In knowing how precious and necessary time is, I move in appreciation for what it allows me to accomplish and I move towards it embracing the present and not focusing on the past.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, it would be the “Black Love” movement, not just between a man and a woman but for our culture. Our love goes beyond the resistance of defeat, it transcends to a language that is unspoken that allows us to influence other generations and replicated by societies that lack the depth.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
A life lesson quote is “keep your head up.” I was huge Tupac fan back in the day and still. I felt like by doing hair would make more women keep their heads up. I realized early on that hair was an esteem builder and that’s how Black women made themselves feel good by making their hair look different. That’s how we channeled our pains by going to get our hair done. It was our freedom.
How can our readers follow you online?
Your readers can follow me at the following social media handles:
Instagram @iamtiffanyanderson @tiffanysnatural @ilovemynaturalhairkids
Twitter @tiffanysnatural
Facebook Tiffany Anderson
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Tiffany Anderson of Tiffany’s Naturals On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.