Flatbush Hair Artists Celebrate One Year On Nostrand Avenue

Do Hair Biz Manufacturers, at 1667 Nostrand Avenue between Beverley Road and Tilden Avenue, is a small storefront housing two gregarious artists.

“People say, how interesting, two bald-headed men doing hair!” said Leo. “I kind of love it,” said Jeffrey.

Leo Brown, hair stylist and wigmaker, and Jeffrey Richardson, a finance professional-turned stylist, have teamed up to run a hair extension business with a unique mission: 100 percent real human hair with a genuine human touch, giving a wider audience access to practical, quality hair.

The phrase “100 percent human hair” is often misused, Leo said. “Legally, you can say that it’s human hair with as much as 30 percent synthetic fibers in it,” Leo told us as we thumbed through the hair samples hanging in his Flatbush studio. The market is oversaturated with synthetic hair products.

“A lot of younger women don’t realize that the hair packs you buy in the beauty stores are synthetic. They spend the money but it’s actually garbage, and they end up spending more in the long run,” said Jeffrey.

Many women are held back by the limitations of synthetic hair, said Leo. “There is a stigma with black women that you can’t get your hair wet, and nine times out of ten that has to do with extensions. If they buy curly hair and blow it out, they’ll never get those curls back. Our hair is 100 percent natural; we encourage you to go swimming, stand under the shower and wash your hair, color your hair, add highlights — anything you’d do with your own hair,” said Leo.

For stylists with a vision, hair can be more than just an accessory, it can be a revered art form. “We treat our hair like royalty,” Leo beamed. The pair travel around the world to hand-pick hair suppliers in India, Sri Lanka, Russia and the Middle East, to service clients from every corner of the globe (Africa, Switzerland, Italy, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador — just to name a few).

When the hair arrives at the studio, they inspect every strand and use an environmentally friendly solution to burn out synthetic fibers. Then it’s divided into sections and brushed, shampooed and steam-conditioned.

Then it’s all about customization: finding a color, texture, length and volume — loose hair or wefted — to match your style, from the coarsest African-American hair to full wigs for local Orthodox Jewish women. When we visited the studio, we got to watch expert sewer Elivira Escobar transform human hair strands into a finished weft.

“Every weft is reinforced to prevent shedding,” said Jeffrey. “With even texture and proportion from roots to ends.”

Leo, CEO and creative mastermind at Do Hair, has been in the business for more than 25 years. He has worked with with an impressive roster of supermodels, singers, movie stars, politicians; and created wigs for the MET Opera House and Broadway shows like Motown, Jersey Boys, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Carousel, and more. The last big editorial project Leo worked on was the Vanity Fair Hollywood Issue, where he was the only person of color out of 200 people on the project, Jeffrey told us.

Leo has been passionate about hair since his childhood in Jamaica. “My mother took me to the hair dresser, and her hairdresser was from Sweden. I was fascinated by watching this blond-haired blue-eyed woman transform my mother into looking like Margaret Thatcher or the Queen of England, which is not normal for a black woman. That’s when the fascination began,” Leo said.

Leo’s specializes in hair loss issues like alopecia and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and has studied the psychological effects of hair loss. At the heart of his business is artistry and human connection, he said. “The number one thing for me in this business is to know I can create a facade to make a woman without hair feel pretty.”

Wigs are Leo’s pet project. “This is what I work on at night when everyone goes home,” he tells us. Each wig is molded to the person’s head and then hand threaded in a meticulous process that could take anywhere from 3 days to 4 weeks.

While it was once stigmatized, wearing extensions is almost ubiquitous now. “it’s gotten to the point where everyone is wearing hair. It’s not about hiding it anymore, the trick is for them to say that’s fantastic hair — its blended properly, matches your color and texture,” said Leo.

But education is still a big priority for Do Hair Biz. Some people come in wanting hair that looks like Beyonce, but people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes to maintain it. “She has a team of people putting on wigs and replacing them each performance. And the wigs she wears cost $10,000. It’s not practical for everyday,” Leo said.

Brown fell in love with their Flatbush studio space, and wanted to “play it smart” when it came to choosing a location. “If we had gone further up [in Prospect Lefferts Gardens] that is already gentrified, so the rent would have been four times more,” said Leo. But it’s not all about taking, Leo and Jeff are committed to giving back to their community.

The Flatbush storefront has been open for one year, and though they used to do most of their business overseas, they’ve begun planting local roots. “We invite people in, whether you can afford it or not. We offer payment installments to make it more accessible for the community. We embrace it all,” Leo said.

In August, the duo worked with the Chamber of Commerce, local businesses and politicians — Jumaane Williams, Rodneyse Bichotte and Diana Richardson — to host a National Hair Loss Awareness Month event. The studio also plans to offer internships to local students, and seminars for hairdressers on working with hair loss issues. “Giving back really matters to me, it’s integral to my life,” Jeffrey said.

They’re even decorating with the local history in mind. “This neighborhood is coming from the Victorian era, so we put a mural of a Victorian woman with big hair on the gates. We found this awesome female graffiti artist and she knocked it out of the park,” Jeffrey said.

They’ve also transformed their trash-infested backyard into a lush garden and patio, growing hot peppers, bitter melon, cucumbers and tomatoes, thanks to help from a Bangladeshi neighbor. They are convinced that previous tenants ran a speakeasy; as they gardened they kept pulling up layers of glass from the soil.

Leo and Jeffrey have been working together for 5 years, but Jeffrey took a circuitous route to the hair business, starting in finance, radio, moving to fashion and writing, and then focusing on hair when he met Leo. “I’ve changed careers a lot — I’ve been fearless and a bit crazy,” he said.

But Jeffrey is become more observant as a hair artist, said Leo. “He’s becoming a connoisseur! When we walk down the street I’ll ask him, what kind of hair is that?”

Leo, on the other hand, always had a one-track mind. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Leo said. “We’re both from families where academics are everything. I had to be rebellious and stick to what I wanted to do. But it’s never work because I enjoy every day, I can never get enough — no matter what the request.”

Leo extends a special thanks to Jeffrey for all of his hard work and diligence for what they’ve accomplished so far. “I’m the creative force behind this but this would not have existed without him,” said Leo. To learn more about Do Biz Hair Manufacturers, check out their website and Facebook page.

(All Photos by Ditmas Park Corner)