Doug Lee's Hair On North MCJ's Beauty Shop of the Month
Cleveland Douglas (top photo) and Tyrice Lee (bottom photo), owners of Doug Lee's Hair on North, recently styled customer's tresses at their shop. (photos by Harry Kemp)
by Kia Marie Cook
Does Milwaukee really have a "hair scene," complete with hair shows, intense hair competitions and stylists featured in national magazines?
If left up to Tyrice Lee and Cleveland Douglas, owners of Doug Lee’s Hair on North, the city recently named the No. 2 party city will soon be known for extravagant hairstyles and phenomenal stylists.
Lee, 26, and Douglas, 31, opened Doug Lee’s Hair on North in May after a mere two months of saving $25,000 and preparing to be entrepreneurs, they said.
Since opening, the two are on their way to making their establishment, located at 3201 West North Avenue, one of Milwaukee’s premier salons.
In fact, after five months of being open, Doug Lee’s is already etching its name in the sand. Two stylists from the shop recently won the Milwaukee’s Own Hair and Fashion Showcase and both Lee and Douglas have had their styles featured in several national hair magazines, including "Xtreme Hair" Magazine and "Prestige" Magazine.
I recently spoke with the two vivacious entrepreneurs about their new venture.
What process did you undergo to open your beauty shop?
Douglas: "We worked and saved; worked and saved. (We took out) no loans, and had no financial assistance."
Lee: "We had to go through a lot of paperwork. And we made sure to get all of our stylists together, so that we would have a hot styling team. We also looked at and selected all of the products that we would use and sell in the shop ... It was definitely a lot of hard work."
Now before you opened Doug Lee’s, what did the building house?
Lee: "It used to be a furniture store, a pizza shop and a convenient store."
Who did the interior design for the shop?
Douglas: "We came up with the whole idea and concept behind the decorations."
Lee: "We kind of just pieced it together--piece by piece. We started off with the painting, and got the color scheme together. Then we decided how we wanted our stations set up."
Douglas: "We ended up with an urban feel. We tried to for the London/Paris type of look and this is what we came up with."
Is there anything that Doug Lee’s is known for or plans to be known for?
Lee: "We’re known for our trendy styles."
Douglas: "We keep ‘upgrading’ and changing the styles that we do."
Lee: "We keep ourselves up-to-date on what’s new. We take classes, and we even offer classes to the public. We want to make Milwaukee a better place for hair, and get our name out there that trendy styles are here (in Milwaukee)."
As for the future, have you already started thinking in that direction?
Lee: "We have already thought about expanding."
Douglas: "Eventually we want to open up a spa within the shop."
Lee: "After a year or so, we’re going to look into adding spa services."
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Changing lives one graphic design at a time
Luc Monsanto, owner of Milwaukee’s northside business, Shekinah Printing and Design. (photo by Harry Kemp) by Kia Marie Cook
With a Bible and a computer, Luc Monsanto changed his life. About five years ago, Monsanto began his recovery process from a drug addiction. Devoted to changing his life, he armed himself with his "Bible" and busied himself with his computer’s desktop publishing program, completing various graphic design projects for his church, Greater Philadelphia Church of God in Christ. Within months, Monsanto, who had no previous experience in graphic design, had perfected his craft. After completing countless pro bono design projects for his church, Monsanto was offered money for completing a project for a friend. He soon realized: "maybe this could be a business." A business it soon became. Monsanto created his company: Shekinah Printing and Design, naming it after the church ministry he belonged to in Jacksonville, Florida, with the meaning of "the visible glory of God," he said. "I started my business in a closet in the Hillside Projects," Monsanto said. From the closet, Monsanto quickly moved to the living room, but not for long. "My wife didn’t have any room in her living room," he said, "When I finally had so much stuff in the living room that she got upset, I finally got my first office." After a year of being open, Monsanto moved his home-office to a little building with poor management on Fond du Lac Avenue. Shortly thereafter, he moved to an obscure, isolated office space on Silver Spring Road, until three years ago when he moved to his current location at 2317 North Martin Luther King Drive. "Our business really grew up when we got here," he said, "everyone knows the corner of Martin Luther King and North Avenue." As a business-owner in the Historic King Drive Business Improvement District, Monsanto has become very active in his new community, as one of the directors and vendors of the district, which extends north to south from Locust to McKinley streets and east to west from Second to Fourth streets. "This Business Improvement District has really given us an insight to see how the new businesses and things kind of work as a community on this strip," he said. Working as a community has been ever-important to Monsanto, who says his graphic design and printing company at times functions more like a consulting firm for small businesses, often educating clients on what’s best for their needs. "We’ve become almost like an ad agency or consulting firm because of the unfamiliarity that our market has with what we do," he said. "We constantly find ourselves educating our market." Educating and inspiring, Monsanto hopes that Shekinah Printing and Design will continue to impact his market, his community and his clients for generations to come, becoming a mainstay in Milwaukee. |
