One local salon and store owner says she’s in the business of making people feel their best — especially supporting those living with alopecia and cancer. Yetunde Dina, the owner of NY Hair says she wants everyone to feel completely themselves. “It’s just fulfilling,” she says. “This is really what I’m born to do. I don’t know what else I could be doing.” The store on Robertson Road in Bells Corners specializes in beauty supplies, wigs and extensions for all hair types. It also has a salon in the back. Dina says she opened the store twelve years ago, after graduating from Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business. Dina first opened a grocery store, and she says customers scooped up her hair extensions the most. So, after finding a market for it, she says she sold the grocery store and focused on hair care and her customers. “This doesn’t feel like work,” she says. “You get to communicate with them and know their style and actually order what they want. And so, when they come in, you’re like, ‘hey, I got you this!’” Dina says the products she sells are for everyone with all types of hair, and as the business has grown, many of her customers are those living with alopecia or cancer. “We’ll do our best to find something that you like and help you leave here elevated,” she says. “I think that’s the whole point, to leave you feeling better than you did when you walked in.” Other customers, like Ingrid Luster, say this is a space where they can find things to express themselves. Luster says she found this place after moving from Burkina Faso, and explains braids are important in her culture. “It feels amazing,” she says. “Sometimes when you leave your country, you feel like you left a lot behind and your own identity, to fit in something new.” “But having a store that represents or brings choices that are from different countries or from your own country, makes you feel like, ‘oh, my God, they care about me. There’s someone here who understands how I feel.’” Glora Yakoling has also been a customer for year and says Black hair has specific needs. Yakoling says she appreciates NY Hair because it can be a challenge to find what she needs elsewhere. “All the time when I get out of the building, I always look new and have something different, new colors in my hair. So, I really appreciate this place. It’s really nice.” After battling everything from the pandemic to tariffs and rising costs in the last 12 years in operation, Dina says she moved to a new location in December, and expanding her store, crediting the team she works with, including eight hair braiders. “I feel like the sky is the starting point.”
