Meet Jaida Day of Black Beauty Near You

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaida Day.

Hi Jaida, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2018, I began my journey as a Math and Computer Science student at the University of California, San Diego. As a young Black woman from LA, who now lived in La Jolla, it was to my surprise that the beauty supply stores that had products I needed were not around the corner from me like they were back home. I either had to wait on Amazon, pay for an overpriced uber, take an hour ride on the bus, or wait until I went back home to stock up on products. And honestly, as a STEM major who was also involved in organizations like the Black Student Union, the Black Resource Center, and Women in Computing, I did not have the time nor energy to keep going out of my way or waiting on administration to make the changes in their on-campus markets. So, due to this lack of accessibility to beauty supply products that I, and other folks like me on campus, need, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

October of 2019, starting off my second year of college, I created Black Beauty Near You. I started Black Beauty Near You to not only provide beauty supply products that cater to the Black community on UCSD’s campus, but other campuses around the U.S. Today, I am a UCSD alumni with a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science and have reached students on campuses in multiple states. With the support of family, friends, Black-owned businesses, and Black Student Unions around the country, I am constantly working on providing for Black students who attend Predominantly White Institutions and helping make the beauty supply products they need more accessible – as they should be.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Overall, running Black Beauty Near You has been a pretty smooth process. However, as far as finances go, the majority of it comes directly from my pockets – which does have an affect on what inventory looks like. Being able to provide more inventory for students would greatly help increase my impact on these college students’ lives as it would help make their day-to-day lives as a college students less stressful since I would be able to provide more products more often. Which would all-in-all allow them to focus less on where to get products to do their hair and more on the Chemistry exam coming up.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice is to JUST DO IT. Yes, of course get some of your ducks in a row beforehand, but to be honest you can never completely prepare for something new. For example, no one could have fully prepared me for my first year of college … Yes, hearing advice from folks, getting my financial aid together, and looking into classes beforehand helped prepare me – but I really had to be IN IT and experiencing it firsthand to know what I needed. So, if you are starting out and are scared to make that first post on Instagram or you’re hesitant about handing out those business cards … JUST DO IT. As people, we are always naturally growing, and it is okay to take our businesses with us on that journey. And just think about it … if you try to get everything “perfect” from the jump, there will be no room to grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blackbeautynearyou.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackbeautynearyou/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbnearyou
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@blackbeautynearyou

Image Credits
@iamkrenee_ in the photo holding the Beauty Box