Gifted Hands Salon & Spa celebrates 15 years, Black History Month

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

Gifted Hands Salon and Spa, located at the corner of Avenue D and First Street, celebrated 15 years of business with a product line launch and a Black History Month celebration Saturday afternoon. 

The event featured a kids’ fashion show, dinner, singing, an upbeat dance performance, a product launch of three hair products and ended with a final dance performance by the salon’s owner, Shanda Scott. 

Scott shared that she wanted to celebrate her own moments of Black History with this celebration event, in addition to the overall history and achievements of Black Americans. 

Located at 117 W. Avenue D, Gifted Hands Salon and Spa has been in business for the past 15 years. 

Scott said that she is the first black female veteran to own the property on Avenue D in Copperas Cove. The property is the former site of Baggett Drug store, a once-landmark business in town.

In addition to the salon, she also owns the dance studio, which has an entrance on South 1st Street. 

Gifted Hands Salon and Spa is a full-service salon and spa, offering barber services for men and boys, a hair salon experience for both adult women and girls (complete with a children’s salon featuring sized down seating), nail services, as well as facials, permanent makeup and massages (both individual and couples). 

Located in the middle of the salon is a small boutique area with clothes and health and beauty products available for purchase. The dance studio, Gifted Hands Dance Galleria, is located at the back of the salon. 

Scott said she is passionate about doing hair and working with the different textures of hair that her clients have and for building the client base she has over the past 15 years. 

“I’m a multicultural stylist so I have a diverse clientele,” Scott said. “That’s the one thing that I’m really proud of is that this is a diverse salon.” 

She added that a lot of people have expressed doubts that she could do their hair but end up surprised and become regular clients. 

“I just wanted to really express how diverse we could be and enjoy each other’s culture,” she said. 

At the celebration event, Scott shared how she got started with hair came from a childhood spent collecting baby dolls. While other kids played outside, Scott stayed inside and did her dolls’ hair. Her mother saw her passion for hair and continued to support her love of doing her dolls’ hair, she said. She began to do other people’s hair as well after they saw her doing her dolls’ hair.

Scott said that she would use her mother’s aluminum foil to put on the ends of the braids instead of rubber bands or beads. She eventually had to find her own way to pay her mother for the aluminum foil after using too much, and she became an entrepreneur, she said. 

Her grandmother taught her to crochet and knit, as well. She then made chair covers and seat covers and armchair covers and more for her neighborhood. 

Scott said her passions have always been doing hair, dancing and being a sign language interpreter for the deaf. In her high school psychology class, she was given an assignment to anonymously write one thing she wanted to do or become when she grew up.

“I struggled with that because I couldn’t determine which one was more valuable to me,” Scott said. “I love to dance. I love to do hair, and I also had a passion for sign language with Deaf people.” 

Scott said she put down all three. When her teacher got to her paper, she read it aloud and addressed the class. She told her to be the “best dancing, hair styling interpreter.”

“That stuck with me from high school,” Scott said. 

After Scott graduated high school, joined the military, and married her husband who also served in the military, and as they went to their different stations, Scott focused on her dream. She did hair wherever, even in Germany, she said. 

After she and her husband retired from the Army, she decided to make the jump to open her own salon. 

She said she faced struggles in getting her property and faced obstacles in getting the salon open. Even after opening the salon, she said faced discrimination and judgment from people who couldn’t believe she was the owner of the property. 

Scott said these things just made her more determined to be the best she could and expand her clientele and focus on hair. 

Scott said she began working on her product line several years ago, mixing things together and using them on her clients. One client suggested she sell her products because they worked so well. 

After lots of trials and struggles, Scott said she is finally able to launch her product line, called Welbourné, which is a nod to her name and means “well-made.” 

The product line includes three products: a hair and body souffle, a leave in conditioner and a hair growth oil. 

All products are made with 100 percent organic ingredients, with no synthetics and no fragrances, Scott said. Each item has a money-back guarantee, she added. 

Yvonne Miller was one of Scott’s clients who stopped by the event to support her. Miller said she has been coming to see Scott for her hair on and off for the past seven plus years. 

Miller said she hadn’t known what to expect from the event, but she was happy to be there to support Scott and her product launch success. She added that she was moved to tears at times during the speeches and dances. 

For more information on Gifted Hands Salon and Spa, visit their website at https://www.giftedhandssalonandspa.com/.