Nadine’s Hair Braiding in Bowie, Maryland, has seen its business skyrocket because of the owner’s fresh ideas, along with help from a viral TikTok video. Nadine Djuiko, an immigrant from Cameroon, cut prices in her shop and began using two stylists per client, sharply reducing the braiding time. A client was so pleased with the result, she showed off her braids on TikTok, highlighting the reasonable price and the brief time she was in the chair.
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“We did her hair and the next morning my phone rang 200 times. I counted … I received 200 phone calls. I had never received 50 calls a day since I opened my business. That day, I received 200 people calling me and [saying,] ‘I need the TikTok special.’ I said, ‘What is the TikTok special?'” said Djuiko, a mother of five. “It blew [up], it was a million views in a day and that changed my life for good,” Djuiko said. Her innovation of using two or more stylists for each client reduced six-to-eight-hour hair braiding visits to as brief as two-and-a-half hours. Faster, better, cheaper hair braiding caught on and people were coming to her shop from far and wide. “I have people coming from New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina. I don’t know if they are coming because they have some other things here to do,” Djuiko said. “But some people told me they drive just to come and get their hair done and go back.” She’s expanded the hours of the shop at 13631 Old Annapolis Road and expanded the braiding operations from one to three store fronts. “I’m thinking about making it better. The issue we have now is the space … we need a larger space. I’m hoping that I can get a space in Bowie, a hall, where I can get at least 100 to 150 chairs,” Djuiko said. The hair braiding shop’s hours used to be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but not anymore. “We started having some clients who wished to come at 5 a.m. and then it went from 5 a.m. to 4 a.m. and now people are coming at 3 a.m. … Officially, we are saying 4 a.m., but the truth is 3 a.m. because clients are there in the parking lot at 3 a.m.,” Djuiko said.
