As a Black woman, Piersten Gaines has had her fair share of hair salon horror story experiences. For the sake of time, she didn’t get into the details during our interview, but suffice it to say she’ll never forget those times. That’s why Gaines was beyond skeptical the first time she came across the concept of a blowout bar.

“I had never really heard about blowout bars,” Gaines told Fashionista. She had just moved to Boston to attend Harvard Business School and was on the hunt for a hairstylist in the area. A few female upperclassmen recommended that she check out a local blowout bar. “When I first started Googling and learning about what a blowout bar was, I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is for me.’ I was looking at the website and nobody looked like me or had my hair texture.”

Piersten Gaines. Photo: Courtesy of Pressed Roots

Her peers advised her to request one specific stylist: “A lot of the girls in the year above me were like, ‘No, you have to make sure you ask for this specific girl.…