Styles 4 Kidz Haircare Workshop

Tamekia Swint founded Styles For Girlz, NFP, in 2010. After teaching a hair braiding class on a mission trip to Poland to a group of students at an English Language learning camp, Tamekia heard two words, “kids and hair.” Upon her return to the United States, an associate introduced her to a transracial adoptive mom who needed hair care for her two daughters. Pleased with Tamekia’s work, Mary referred her to a network of adoptive parents who also required hair care services for their little ones. They found a safe place to learn how to properly care for their children’s hair without judgment and negative criticism.

Discovering that there was a need for Styles For Girlz not only among Mary and her friends but among multiracial families and transracial foster and adoptive families throughout Illinois, the organization grew from serving three clients in 2010 to thousands of clients throughout the United States.

In 2013, the organization expanded its mission to provide in-home hair care education, training, and services to children in foster care residing in residential facilities and children with special needs with textured hair, changing its name to Styles 4 Kidz (S4K) in 2016.

Eight years later, S4K opened one of the first nonprofit—501(c)(3) tax-exempt—salons of its kind, a salon where multiracial, adoptive, and kids in foster care are empowered to embrace their natural, ethnic crown. It’s “Hair Care With Heart.”

“I’m passionate about hair care education and healthy hair for kids to get what they need to have healthy self-esteem and confidence all over the world.” –Tamekia Swint, Executive Director.

Tamekia holds a B.S. in Community Health from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, an MBA from the National Louis University Chicago, and is a Licensed Hair Braider and Hair Braiding Teacher in IL.