Today we’d like to introduce you to Meca Sica.
Hi Meca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
At the age of 12, I started experimenting with my hair which led me to relaxing it. In school, I saw how other girls had straight and what seemed to be “desirable” hair. Over the years, I had my fair share of moments where I bleached and went through a phase of coloring my hair without realizing how much damage I was causing. What really got me into hair was when my brother asked me to give him some straight backs; also known as cornrows/corn braids. I couldn’t do a proper cornrow to save my life, so to save myself from embarrassment, I just began braiding my hair for practice. It wasn’t till high school I picked upbraiding as a hobby and not just as doing it for practice. As I got better, my cousins and aunts would ask me to do crochet braids/locs, feed in braids and box braids for them. Sooner family friends saw how good I got at doing hair and became my first set of clients.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It wasn’t a smooth road. To be honest when I started doing hair, it was more of a hobby. I didn’t know that I’d take this path, it actually chose me. So when I decided to take on cosmetology as a career, I had to sacrifice a lot. I was in my spring semester of college and I was the lowest point in my life. I wasn’t happy with myself nor did I feel motivated to continue on, so I made the choice to pull out of college and apply to cosmetology school. With just a hundred dollars to my name, I signed myself up for school and it was probably one of the best things I’ve done for myself. There were days I didn’t eat, and I had to make a choice of using the money I had for lunch to travel from home to school and from school to home. I spent 15 hours a day at school to make up missing hours if I was absent or just to get in extra hours to study, catch up on what I missed in class or to make extra money by doing wash and sets, color retouches or blowouts. At the end of the day, it was all worth it. I had my challenges, but now that I’m looking back, I’ve succeeded and I’ve achieved a huge goal.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a natural hairstylist and I specialize in braiding. I’m known for doing knotless braids and my signature “natty” textured locs. I am very proud of the way in which consistency and patience have encouraged me to invest in myself and to perfect my profession, which is a daily thing for me. What sets me apart from others is my creative style and mindset. I always try to do things out of the ordinary and create things that I haven’t seen anyone else do in the field. So when I do create, people can point out my work amongst others.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The lessons I learned during the COVID-19 pandemic were never to be too comfortable and to keep working even in the toughest situations. I felt stagnant during quarantine. I needed to occupy myself with something and doing hair is what kept me sane during the pandemic. Since I was unable to work for a short period of time, I took a risk and decided to go to clients’ homes to service them. I had to get in the habit of wearing PPE and doing double the cleaning and disinfecting of my supplies, but it was all worth it because that helped boost my business and made my clientele grow. If I hadn’t made this leap of faith and picked up customers during the pandemic, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today.
Contact Info:
- Email: stitchednslick@gmail.com
- Website: https://stitchednslickbymimi.as.me
- Instagram: stitchednslick
Image Credits
BEAUTE by Dom photographer/mua (Instagram: @beautebydom) Model: Nayhla Nazon (Instagram: @ nayz.ona) (Instagram: @theikphoto) Photographer Model: Kevin R Tate (Instagram: @kevinrtate) (Instagram: @davydchuk_com__) Model: Terri Aulder (Instagram: @lovelee_t) (Instagram: @kabiruloya) Photographer Models: Nayhla Nazon (@nayz.ona), Zenobia Bholi (@thebhols), and Kanealia Rodriguez (@queensapphiire)
