A hairstylist from Charlotte, North Carolina, got an influx of new clients after a mugshot showing her box braids went viral.
Shia Yearwood, a 24-year-old mother of two, was charged with a misdemeanor after turning herself into police on Jan. 3. She had violated a restraining order against her ex in order to try to see her son, who was with her ex’s parents, BuzzFeed News reported Tuesday.
But when her mugshot was posted to Twitter, people only had one question: Who did her hair?
https://twitter.com/CharlotteMugs/status/948492619985932288
Police: “So, who do your hair?”
— Terri (@KingterriSHE) January 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/daleeshish/status/949554122084134912
People were obsessed.
Love the braids
— Hope (@Hope89660462) January 8, 2018
At first, Yearwood said, the inquiries were just from her regular clients. But then more people were asking about her braids.
“I thought it was just people being funny on my social media. But then I started to read the responses and I realized that they were actually very positive and uplifting,” she said.
Yearwood decided to post a promotion to her hairstyling business, which she usually runs by traveling to her clients’ homes. She tweeted her availability and prices.
#BraidsByShia 🤷🏽♀️ can’t hold me back either. https://t.co/03x1BwtFcB
— . (@Snag_DN) January 4, 2018
The post was retweeted thousands of times, and she gained a bunch of new clients. She’s “actually booked all week right now off new clients,” she told BuzzFeed.
Moving to charlotte & was gonna need somebody to braid my hair. Twitter is full of blessings in 2018 🙏🏾
— GUNZ 😇 (@CourtneyGunzzz) January 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/__beechanel/status/949628405347225602
She said going viral has been a lot to handle, especially given the nature of the original photo.
“It’s more embarrassing because it’s not like I went viral off my hair alone,” she said. “It’s attached to a mugshot, so people’s perception of me might change, and that’s the only thing I didn’t like. Once they see a mugshot you’re automatically guilty and that’s not true.”
But she decided to own up to the mugshot to show people “no matter what I went through I ended up on top.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd0ze9Phnqk/?taken-by=shiamilan
https://twitter.com/ShiaMilan/status/953396484392849408
“I took such a negative time in my life and negative situation and I made the best of it,” she said.
H/T BuzzFeed News
