(St. Louis Public Radio) – Zariah Taylor has always taken pride in her natural hair. But in her first year at Washington University, she realized just how few options the campus had to maintain and style it.
“I was ordering through Amazon. Sometimes I would run out and just wouldn’t have [a hair product] for a week,” she said. “Taking care of my hair is a part of my identity, but it’s also a struggle if you do not have the right products.”
Now a senior, Taylor is the founder of TheHairVault, a hair vending machine on campus that offers 50 products for textured hair. It’s a dream realized, in part, through the mentorship of family friend Tam King-Krolik, who owns Lake St. Louis Beauty Supply.
“I thought it was fantastic. I mean, the overall concept, to me, is just mind blowing,” King-Krolik said. “[When] I went to college … there was nowhere to get the products that you would need for hair like mine.”
King-Krolik helped with connections and sources for products, but she emphasized that the creation of TheHairVault was “all [Taylor].”
“I just get to help put a little icing on the cake,” she said. “It’s really just passing information.”
Information is key, Taylor added, because she noticed there is often gatekeeping among entrepreneurs.
“It took me years to find a person to produce these machines and [have] it be reliable. Nobody’s going to tell you where they got their vending machine from. Nobody’s going to tell you where they got their hair products from,” Taylor said, “There was a lady on YouTube who was like, ‘I’m not going to tell you. You have to buy this information.’”
King-Krolik said she is happy to share wisdom so Taylor doesn’t have to go through the same challenges she went through as a young entrepreneur.
“I am a firm believer in building up your community and helping with the youth,” she said. “What she’s doing is awesome — it’s fantastic — and to have to go through the same struggles some of us did makes no sense to me.”
Since TheHairVault opened in September, Taylor has received positive feedback from WashU students and alumni, as well as students attending college across the country.
“There are people from different walks of life, different states, saying, ‘This was needed at my school. … We love this,’” Taylor said.
Taylor would like to expand TheHairVault to other universities and institutions in Missouri.
“It’s exciting,” she added. “Everything’s going to be interconnected.”
King-Krolik said she looks forward to seeing where Taylor takes TheHairVault in the years to come.
“I’m proud of you,” King-Krolik told Taylor. “I say do your thing and keep pushing.”
To hear the full conversation with Zariah Taylor and Tam King-Krolik, listen to “St. Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
This story was published as part of a content sharing partnership between The St. Louis American and St. Louis Public Radio. Click here to view original story.