Shalom Baer Gee/MDN Lupita Coleman, left, braids Petrice Hutchinson’s hair last week. Coleman has worked out of People’s Choice Salon and Fashion on Main Street in Minot since March of 2021. She was cutting hair at SportsClips before she decided to start her own business.

People’s Choice Salon and Fashion on Main Street in Minot is a typical barber shop complete with a front room with comfortable seating, a front desk, and barber chairs.

In a slightly hidden back room, Lupita Coleman works independently offering braiding services.

“We got the Air Force husbands that come in, and they got wives, so it’s word of mouth,” Coleman said. “They see me in the back room and go ‘Oh, you got somebody back there?'”

Coleman said she has clients who travel to see her from Bismarck, Dickinson, Williston, Bottineau, New Town and Fargo, and her books are “overflowing.”

She earned her cosmetology license in Arkansas in 2010 after high school and was studying phlebotomy in college when she decided to move to Minot in 2015. Her brother lived in Minot and had told Coleman and her now husband about economic opportunities in the area.

“One day I got out of class, and I was like, ‘I’m doing good. Grades good, but where am I gonna be in 10 years?” I couldn’t see nothing, like it was blank,” she said. “I asked my boyfriend at the time, ‘Do you want to go up there, see what it’s about? If we don’t like it in a year, we can come back.'”

Coleman has now lived in Minot for 11 years with her husband and four children. She attended cosmetology school for an additional 300 hours to get her license in North Dakota. Coleman said that she didn’t like Minot at first, but it’s since grown on her, and she stayed in the area because of the schools and business opportunities.

“It’s a good place. You can get a lot of money here,” she said. “It’s good for the kids. When we moved here my two oldest sons’ reading level was low, but now they’re right on track with reading, so I love the schools.”

Petrice Hutchinson, a client of Coleman’s since October of 2021, said she moved to Minot last summer from New York City with a suitcase full of wigs that didn’t work well in the especially hot summer of 2021, so she decided to find somewhere to have her hair braided. She described braiding as an art and recalled going to salons to get her hair done from the young age of three.

“It’s definitely an art,” Hutchinson said. “I’ve always been a fan of braiding since I was a child because, as a young girl, my mom always used to take me to get my hair done. I’ve always been in a salon seeing people get all different types of stuff done. When I try to do it myself, I see how hard it is because they make it look so easy. I’m gonna go to a shop because I don’t have the time. I don’t have the skill. I don’t have the patience.”

Coleman said that she’s passionate about braiding and has gotten faster as she’s practiced over the years.

“My favorite thing to do is braid. I love to braid,” Coleman said. “It’s kind of scary when you think about, you know, getting your clients and trying to get out on your own and start a business. I just learned to really have patience when I moved here. Everything started going real good for me real fast, so I had to learn real quick.”

As far as whose hair she’ll braid, Coleman said she only has a few white clients, but that braiding is for everyone, although certain styles may not hold as well in fine hair.

“I don’t discriminate,” Coleman said. “A lot of Caucasian basketball players wear braids. I braid fine hair.”

Hutchinson agreed that braids are for everyone as long as it’s done respectfully and out of genuine appreciation for the style.

“I feel like braiding really is for everyone,” Hutchinson added. “Why some women take offense to it is when they do it in a caricature type of fashion, like a mocking fashion. When people are getting offended, it’s when they see a whole costume being put on like blackface, but if you’re just doing it as a choice, as a style, it’s not a problem.”

Owner Dru Pelfery said that People’s Choice Salon and Fashion has been open since 2013. Before that, it was a different salon that had been open since 2007. Coleman’s Instagram handle is @braidqueen2022