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When doors continue to shut on you, an entrepreneurial path can become a necessity over a choice.
Though she’s been busy for 13 years now, it hasn’t been an easy journey for Angela Cromwell.
In the early 2000’s, after living in Toronto for 20 years working as a restaurant manager, divorce brought Cromwell, her son, and twin daughters’ home to Pictou County.
Her endless search for work here continued to result in disappointment. “Coming home and not finding anything was hard,” she said. “You weren’t going to find something appear, you had to create it.”
There are many tasks that come with relocating, and finding a new hairdresser is often among the difficult ones. For someone with ethnic hair, your options are scarce.
Countless calls to every town left her with nowhere to take her daughters to get their hair done. The girls wanted relaxer, a chemical hair straightener treatment. “They said, ‘just buy the pack and do it yourself mom,’” said Cromwell. “My brain said, ‘go back to school.’”
So, she began considering applying for the cosmetology program at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC). “I was thinking, ‘why was there still no one doing this?’” She couldn’t believe that in the 20 years she had been gone, there was still a gap in the services available for ethnic hair.
In 2003, at 40-years-old, Cromwell became a student again. She was the first person of colour to attend the cosmetology program at NSCC in 17 years.
When she finished the year-long course, she began her job hunt. She applied everywhere, some places multiple times, with no success. “They found ways to say, ‘we don’t want you here,’” said Cromwell. “I applied one place and was told they didn’t need anyone to clean their floors,” she said. “But I remembered my ex-husband saying I was never going to find a job, and I said, ‘want to bet?’”
She persisted in her employment search, and after facing constant rejection, she was offered a position at a salon chain from Halifax that had opened in the County.
Building her clientele was a challenge, but slowly, it grew. She was finally working, finally using the skills she had learned. She was enjoying her working life.
But she had a broader skillset she wasn’t utilizing, and desperately wanted to. Cromwell expressed her idea to start offering extension services but was turned down. Later, the salon chain would open an extension shop in Halifax.
The salon wanted her to charge more for her services on clients with ethnic hair, because it took longer. It didn’t sit right with her. “I thought maybe it’s time to leave,” she said.
“I became a hairdresser to make a living, not a million,” said Cromwell.
She worked in a few other salons before accepting that the only way she was going to do this the way she wanted was with her own shop, and she knew exactly what she would do differently.
She found a space and sourced equipment from a retiring hairdresser. All she needed was $10,000 for supplies to get started.
She was told her business plan wasn’t viable by various community resources. Her busy mentor had said to her, “can’t you figure it out yourself?’”
“So that’s what I did,” said Cromwell. “But you can only run into so many brick walls until you stop running.”
Despite her constant perseverance, her options were exhausted. Then one day, her father-in-law asked her, “how much do you need to make this happen?”
“If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have had a shot,” she shared.
She met her now husband just a few short weeks after moving home to Pictou County. “It was seriously love at first sight,” she said. The support from him and his family has been instrumental in Cromwell’s journey, and something she is grateful for.
With the funds finally acquired, Ansena Hair Salon, a place where anyone could go to get their hair done, was officially open.
In 2024, Cromwell is the only hairdresser working on ethnic hair from Truro through Cape Breton, with clients coming from around the province.
She’s facilitated seminars as NSCC, taken on students, and taught CCA ethnic hair care courses.
She has operated her salon with her clients as her top priority. “People are worth it,” she said. “They come to the hairdresser not just to get their hair done sometimes … I enjoy spending time with my clients.”
Making her clients feel their best is why she’s continued in this business despite every setback. A few years ago, she incorporated wig services into her repertoire.
When her mom was diagnosed with cancer, she went to Halifax in search of a wig that would help her feel like herself again. Cromwell described the wig she returned with, the only one she could afford, as a “red plastic wig.”
She sells her wig line "Zima," meaning “whole,” at cost. “Wondering if you can afford to replace your hair should not be a part of considering chemotherapy,” she said.
Since carrying her wig line, she has connected with the cancer after care program at the hospital. She recommends these clients see her before starting treatment so she can find a wig that best matches their real colour.
“I give back for my mom,” she said. “Having the wigs, it fills in that part that feels like it’s missing … It’s a great feeling when you see someone come in and know they’ve found what they were looking for, and if we don’t have it, I’ll find it,” said Cromwell.
Since opening, her business has grown and changed, as all businesses do. Perms are no longer the most popular hair treatment, and she now steers clients away from relaxers and chemicals that damage their hair. “The thing I said I’d never do; I do all the time.”
When her girls were young, they asked for braids. Cromwell spent an entire day and night braiding their hair. When they took them out at school the next day, the frustrated mom vowed to never do braids.
“And what did my first client want? Braids,” she said through laughter.
She has always run Ansena on her own, however, finding someone interested in learning about ethnic hair to join her has been on her radar.
“I will retire,” she said. “It would be wonderful to pass this on.”
She’s lived a full and exciting life, raising her family, running her business, and even performing for the Queen of England. “She stopped me and asked my name and told me I had a beautiful voice and would go far,” said Cromwell. “But helping someone, seeing them get out of the chair and know they’re feeling 100% their best, nothing beats that.”
Angela Cromwell is a firm believer that she was put here for a reason. She’s fought to accomplish every piece of her journey, facing prejudice and adversity but persisting, nonetheless. She didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur, running her own business and servicing a previously unserved clientele, but she is, and she has loved doing it.
“I’ll never make a million, but I love my job,” she said. That’s why she’s still here, doing business in Pictou County, where we’re so fortunate to have her.
Published April 2024