21/07/2025
A Cameroonian hair braiding salon employs over 400 people and seats 150 customers
Nadine Djuiko is a Cameroonian; a visionary founder of Nadine’s Hair Braiding, a successful salon located in Bowie, Maryland, that operates 24/7.
Today, her multimillion‑dollar enterprise employs over 400 braiders and can accommodate more than 150 clients at once, across three storefronts on Old Annapolis Road in West Bowie Village.
Nadine arrived in the United States in August 2009 on a student vìsa, intending to study banking at St. Cloud State University.
However, she was unable to afford tuition and turned to hair braiding to support herself, earning her first U.S. income by braiding customers’ hair in Minnesota and even braiding a whìte man’s hair for $35 over about 90 minutes.
A few years later, she moved to Bowie, Maryland, and worked in over a dozen salons before launching her own small home‑based service while pregnant with her first child.
Her first brick‑and‑mortar salon opened in 2015 at West Bowie Village, where she initially saw fewer than ten clients per day.
To build clientele, she distributed flyers across the DMV area in places like Howard University, Largo, and Lanham markets frequented by Black women.
Her breakthrough came when a satisfied customer posted her braids on TikT0k, celebrating both the affordability and speed of service.
The post went viral earning a million views in a single day and the following morning Nadine received 200 phone calls, having never previously gotten even 50 calls in one day. Clients were specifically asking for what became known as the “TikT0k special”
To meet growing demand, Nadine innovated a “factory‐style” system in which multiple braiders work on one client simultaneously, cutting traditional six‑to‑eight‑hour braid sessions down to as little as two and a half hours.
This efficiency, combined with fair prices, attracted clients from across the region including Delaware, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina
Nadine’s journey from a student immimìgrant through home‑based braiding, to operating a state‑of‑the‑art salon embodies resilience, creativity, and entrepreneurial acumen.
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