Black Beauty Shop On Charleston’s West Side Is A Place For Community, Creativity And Legacy

This story originally aired in the Feb. 23, 2025 episode of Inside Appalachia.

When you walk into Nappy By Nature hair salon on the West Side of Charleston, West Virginia, you’re likely to hear lots of talk and laughter. The place is cozy and friendly, and it makes me feel nostalgic. This is where I got my prom hairdo.

Black hair salons, much like Black barber shops, have long been known as central hubs for the community. They’re a space where Black women can feel relaxed and accepted. 

That’s the kind of place that Tina Beatty wanted to create when she opened Nappy By Nature with her friend, Kelly Smoot, in the 1990s. They had both gone to beauty school during their last years of high school, and then went to work in other people’s shops. But Beatty wanted to be her own boss. 

“She was talking about starting her salon,” says Smoot. “She said, ‘We can do this. Do you want to come, would you come?’ And I was like, ‘Bet. Let’s do this.’”

They wanted a space where Black women would feel comfortable being themselves in their own hair, Beatty says, “wearing their crown proudly, not ashamed of how it makes them look or offend other people.” 

There are many Black hair salons on Charleston’s West Side these days, but back when Beatty and Smoot started their business, there were hardly any. So they wanted a name for their salon that let Black women know it was a place for them. “I wanted something that would identify with our culture, that people would look at the name and know that it was a Black hair salon,” Beatty says. 

Inspired by the hip hop group, Naughty by Nature, they decided on “Nappy By Nature.” “I mean, we are nappy by nature — that’s just the term of hair,” Smoot says. “A lot of people now say 4C or coarse, but it started out as our hair was nappy — so nappy by nature.”

Nappy is a word that’s long been used to describe Black people’s hair—often in a derogatory and offensive way. Under Eurocentric beauty standards, Black hair — with its kinks and coils — has been stigmatized, even within the Black community. For instance, in Spike Lee’s 1988 film School Daze, two groups of Black college students stage a musical battle, throwing shade about who’s got good hair and who’s got bad hair. 

Some of those negative stereotypes are starting to change. For instance, the CROWN Act, a bill introduced in Congress in 2020 and in 2022, would ban discrimination based on hairstyles and textures. More than 20 states have already passed their own CROWN Act (although West Virginia is not among them). 

But the stigma surrounding Black hair is still there. Smoot says Black hair salons are a place where Black women can feel confident with their natural selves. “There’s certain things that we can do and say that we need to do and say [that] we can’t say in some spaces or do in some spaces, because everybody is not going to understand where, as a Black woman, where we’re coming from.”

Historically, Black hair salons were also a vital source of education and information. They were spaces where Black women could learn about health, nutrition and other important issues. And Smoot says in some ways, they still are. “I want people to remember how I took the time with their hair, and tried to teach them not only about their hair, but about … sometimes what medication can do to their hair. Because a lot of people don’t know.”

While Smoot spent many years at Nappy By Nature, she now owns her own salon on the West Side. Meanwhile, Beatty keeps Nappy By Nature up and running with the help of her younger sister, Robin Bonner. “She’s been with me ever since she’s gotten out of beauty school,” Beatty says. “So, it just became almost like a family tradition.”

Beatty says even after all these years, she still loves what she does. “It’s just fun. Our hair texture is just fun to play with and to beautify it — to be able to take it and begin to work with it and style it and bring out the beauty of nappy by nature.” 

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This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.