Meet Sharmele Smiley” West-Smith | Certified Hair Replacement Specialist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sharmele “Smiley” West-Smith and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sharmele “Smiley”, how does your business help the community?
This is the short version. Lol

I’ve been a licensed Cosmetologist from Boston, MA since 1989.

I opened my 1st salon in Providence, RI in 1993. Back then I just wanted a salon because I was just young and loved doing hair. Since then, I moved to Ft Lauderdale, Fl in 2000 and felt like Florida was College for me. I learned a lot about the business there and the beauty industry there changed my life. While there, I worked on Movie sets, TV Shows, Music Videos, Hair & Fashion shows and was featured in major hair magazines.

After working in a couple of amazing salons and learning from some extraordinary business minded Salon owners and authentic Master Cosmetologists, I opened my own salon in Coral Springs, Fl in 2003. While working in Florida, I began to see the changes I was making in women’s lives by using and making hair additions and bringing back their self esteem. My mother being one of them. I would travel to Atlanta to perform Hair Replacement services on my mom to help keep her self esteem up because she was losing her hair in her crown dramatically.

I moved to Georgia and opened my salon in Chamblee, GA in 2006 and noticed hair loss becoming more and more prevalent in black women of all ages and my clientele began to change more and more dealing with clients with those issues. I began doing my own research on hair loss and taking classes in hair replacement. I went from 20% Alopecia clients to 80% Alopecia clients by 2008. The clients became younger and younger as well. I realized this is a serious epidemic and more Cosmetologists and Barbers needed to get educated on this so we can stop being part of the problem and start becoming the repairer of the problem.

That lead me to teaching certification classes on Hair Restoration and Hair Replacement. I began touring for 1 year teaching these classes and have continued to offer these classes in Atlanta.
I later found out there are ways to get health insurance Companies to cover some of theses costs, which led me to become certified in Mastectomy Fitting for people who suffer from breast Cancer. I then added Insurance classes to my Hair Replacement classes.
I say all of that to say, my business helps the community in a few ways. My entire staff is Certified in hair Replacement so although they each are master stylists who have their own specialties (like locs, Color, Cuts ect), they each are passionate about the way women and children feel when they start losing their hair. To the clients who come in, we give compassionate consultations, we cry with them, we hug them, we love on them and let them know we will bring them back to who they once were. When they come in for the service and we’ve accomplished their goal, we love on them, we happily cry with them, they hug and squeeze us and we welcome them into our family.
Our ultimate goal is to make every woman or little girl who is suffering from hair loss feel EMPOWERED and BEAUTIFUL once again. And 99.9% of the time, that’s what we do.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I think I may have answered this question in one of my others. Sorry. once I got started I just couldn’t stop typing. Lol

But if i didn’t please let me know and I will refill this part out. thank you

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m a free spirit and my friends know that about me. So depending on which best friend it is, My “around the way” Friends, we’d go and watch Open Mic for singers one night, Open mic for Spoken Word another night definitely the bar because all my friends and I love going there. Lol Or someplace with a live band. We also would have to go to the spa at least once during their visit.

When it’s my “bougie” friends, we’d have to go someplace like Buckhead to eat or any place that’s 5 stars. That’s what my 2 Bougie friends require. Lol

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Ok…The funny thing is, GOD has blessed me by always putting supportive people in my life. I have some of the most awesome friends who have always pushed me and said “You got this Smiley.” (Not to say I haven’t had my share of fake friends, because I’ve had enough of those too.) But I feel they were there to teach me lessons that I needed to learn in order to be who I am today.

In beauty School, the owner Valerie Gregory (who is deceased now) 1st allowed me to enter the Cosmetology School when they didn’t allow it. I was in in High School and back then you had to already have a diploma or a GED in order to attend. But i was pregnant and I promised her I would finish school. She made me agree to bring her my report card from school every quarter in order to stay enrolled. So I went to High school during the day, and Beauty School at night. (The crazy thing is I was in a popular singing and dancing group and a Musical play all at the same time. So it was extremely tough.)
She became like my “other mother.” She treated my baby girl like she was her grandbaby too. Any time I felt like I was ready to give up, she would fuss at me and stay on my back. I finished Beauty School months before I graduated High School and then graduated from High School on time.

My father was a Fascinating man.
He tried to keep me away from “No-Good” Men. He made sure to take me places and show me things, so I wasn’t easily impressed by men. He spoiled me. My aunts called him my “Welfare System.” What ever I wanted, he would make it happen. When he and my mother divorced, I was 10, but i couldn’t tell because he was always around. Taking “US” out to musicals, movies, concerts, dinner… wherever he could. (my mother filed the divorce and he was trying to stay. Lol) He moved 10 minutes away from us and stayed there until I graduated High School. (even after he remarried. She lived in Connecticut and he stayed in Boston at his house until then. Weekend visits to the wife. Lol) He expected greatness from me and being a daddy’s girl, I was trying not to disappoint.

The most Incredible and Astonishing person would be my mother.
When i was young, she put me in everything. She was 30 when she had me, almost died giving birth to the premie. I was 4lbs.
I am the youngest of my parents children they have together and the only girl. She took me everywhere, showed me things some of my friends would never get to go and see. We traveled and went to operas and so much more. Anything I said I wanted to try, she signed me up and was always right there cheerleading me on. We went through a rough time, after the divorce I rebelled and ended up getting pregnant at 16. I think that had to happen to reel me back in, and rebuild the relationship between her and I.
I didn’t understand how good she was to me until after my 1st child. Then I really began to see what she’d been through and how much she really loved me and wanted me to succeed. She always said she never wanted me to be stuck in a situation where I couldn’t take care of me and mine. Her story would be for another time. But she once told me, after the divorce she couldn’t manage some things she felt she should have known, but my dad took care of so she had to learn it all the hard way.
Her teaching me strength and independence was a blessing and a curse. So I was overly independent for a long time.

I couldn’t fail…. At Anything.

but all in all My mother would come to my rescue if it seemed as if I was falling and stand me back upright. She knew the right words to say and the right questions to ask. She had this thing where she would keep asking me questions about the situation until I’ve talked so much, that I’d figure out the problem and fix it during the conversation. Did I mention she was a Psych Nurse for a long time?
She was amazing. Show would run the front desk at my salon from time to time too. My brother said, we had become co dependent by the time she passed in 2013. Maybe so… But she was my ROCK. And I’ve rambled on about her, so I’m sure you can tell how much i miss her. Smh

Website: www.smileyshairclinic.com, www.sharmelesmileywest.com, www.smile4newlifefoundation.org, www.nauniesintlcuisine.com

Instagram: smileyshairclinic_NBHI, nauniesintlcuisine, smile4newlife

Linkedin: sharmelesmileywest

Facebook: SmileysHairclinic, Smile4newlife

Youtube: smiley’s Hair Clinic

Other: TikTok: smileyshairclinic nauniesintlcuisine

Image Credits
Barry Roosevelt of Roses Poses Photography