Meet Trailblazer Nihya Henley-Brown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nihya Henley-Brown.

Nihya, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Well, I started doing nails when I was 16 years old. I was just polishing and designing then. I used to design my best friends nails and do some of my class nails for like $5 or $10! I used to sit there for HOURS, lol, but I loved it. I didn’t think I would ever be doing nails professionally because it was just a hobby! But eventually, I got better and better. After graduating from high school in 2010, I didn’t want to go to college so my mother pushed me to do nails. Not knowing anyone who did nails and only seeing the Asians own nail salons it discouraged me from doing it, but my mother pushed me to go to nail school. Once I enrolled in Georgia Career Institute in Conyers, GA in 2011, I fell in love with doing nails. I was one of the top students in my class. I graduated in 2012 and immediately went to work in a salon where I was treated the best by the manager, but I was determined to do nails. I shop hopped for a while due to not being happy in the environments that I was in, so again my mother encouraged me to work from home! Around that time is when Instagram started booming. So, me bouncing around from shop to shop, doing great designs, great nails being so nice and sweet leaving impressions on my clients, the word spread about me around Atlanta. I started traveling to peoples houses and kept promoting my work on Instagram. As I progressed, I started getting booked more and more until October of last year, I had to take the link out of my bio because I was booked until December! Now, I’m booked two months in advance!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Yes, there were obstacles. Being young straight out of nail school (I was 20) I felt like the older women were slightly threatened by me but allI wanted was guidance and insight from them because they were seasoned. I had a few who helped me in the salon I worked in and I was so thankful for them. I wasn’t comfortable in the salons due to the cut corners that they took, mistreatment of me and other clients, the unprofessional and lack of unity. I moved around a lot, so I didn’t keep clients because I wasn’t stable. I didn’t work another job. All I did was nails and it was slow starting off, so a lot of the time I don’t have any money. My mother held me down because she wanted me to follow my dreams. My prices were so cheap that I was getting customers who only came when I had a special, not loyal clients. It wasn’t until I started working from home that I got steady clientele who stayed down with me. I appreciate my clients who have turned into friends so much for following me through my struggles. Through my trials and errors, I practiced doing nails every moment I had. No client? I was practicing, not hanging out? I was practicing, couldn’t sleep? I was practicing. I used to see different types of art and imitate the art on nails. I posted my practiced work all the time to show my growth. Being a new nail tech, who didn’t use a drill, I use to work on one client for like five hours sometimes. Some clients nails didn’t last and I was trying out new products because I didn’t find the one I liked. But once I found a technique that got my time down, tremendously, lol, a product that I worked well with, that lasted on my clients and finally got stable, my clientele grew and I was booked more than ever! Being an independent nail tech is the best career ever if you are passionate about it. No passion? You won’t last.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about WhoDidYourNails – what should we know?
I’d like to think of myself as a well rounded Nail Technician. My mother says I’m a nail artist but I that limits me to only doing nail art. I care for my client’s nails. I don’t use harsh products to damage their nails. I love applying acrylic and doing a bomb set of nails. If you look on my Instagram page where I display all of my client’s nails, you will see a wide variety of nail styles that I offer! Short nails, plain nails, artistic nails, ghetto nails, you name it, it’s on my page! I originally started just doing art which is my strongest point and that’s what got me into doing nails but as I’ve worked over these past six years, I’ve grown to love everything about doing nails, hands not feet, lol. But don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind doing pedicures, I just don’t have time to do them with such the high demand to do my client’s hands, lol! I actually do great pedicures! I can paint almost anything on nails. The nail art is what gravitates people to me. I’ve painted the most beautiful to obscene things on my nails and it’s because I’m creative and I like to deliver whatever it is that my clients want on their nails! With me, perfecting my craft, it has caught the eye of other aspiring nail techs. So much so that people started asking me if I could teach them! What did I know about teaching nails? I just stayed in my little bubble doing my clients. Not working with others I had no choice but to try things out, everyone wasn’t teaching classes six years ago, so with the help of a few YouTube videos, I developed my own technique combined with my school training to apply acrylic that was easy for me! Maybe around the 10th girl who asked me, I hosted my first class to teach my technique and just share my knowledge of nails in October 2017! The class went so well that the girls gave me great reviews and told me to do more, since then, I have taught 13 classes and guest spoke at three beauty schools including the school I graduated from! Even held a class in New York and I am having my 15th class in Houston this coming October!

Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
I have always been artsy. I used to draw all of the time even as a young child, my teachers would rave about my creative and artistic skills. I was born to be an artist. My father was killed when I was two years old, so I don’t remember him but my mother tells me all the time that I got the artistic gene from him! I’m a visual learner. Show me something once and I got it! School projects, art class even science class whenever art was needed I produced one of the best projects in my class. I didn’t have a hard childhood but I am no stranger to struggle. My mother being a single parent, did the best that she could with what she had. I was born and partly raised in New York. When we moved to Atlanta we were stable for a while and then I moved back to New York. Moving back to Atlanta later, we moved around a lot. And I think the moving around trickled into my business life. That’s why I never stuck it out long at a salon because I was used to moving. All while my mother always had my back and was supportive through everything. I never was mad at her because I understood what was going on. Bills weren’t paid, she told me. She was having an issue with something, she let me know ahead of time before anything crazy going on. My mother never lied to me about the struggles of what was going on, it molded me to be aware that life is full of choices and sometimes the choices won’t always be easy. Now, that I’m grown and business is great, I have my mom’s back. I hold her down. We are stable, secure and my love for art helps me give back everything my mother has done for me.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 404-643-0768
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @flynih__
• Facebook: Nihya Designns Nailss
• Twitter: @flynih__

Image Credit:
#whodidyournails, @flynih__

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.