“In The Chair” spotlights the incredible hairstylists and makeup artists in our community who are giving us major inspiration. Each week, they discuss their personal beauty and career journeys, what they’ve learned from their clients, and their top glam tips.
Growing up in Nigeria, hairstylist and The Frontal Queen founder Adey Olaoluwa found community in hair. “Saturdays were for the salon. You’d wake up knowing that you were to spend the whole day there,” she tells ESSENCE. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but those moments were really shaping how I saw beauty and my own personal journey with hair.”
At 16, Olaoluwa moved to the U.S., went to college, then grad school, and even earning her ABD status in a PhD program. “But I always had a thing for hair,” she says. While transitioning from relaxers to natural hair during college (and practicing laying her friends’s wigs), wigs were the protective style she wore the most at the time. Self-taught, she ended up skipping cosmetology school, moving to LA, and jumping right into her professional career.
Except, “I was still constantly struggling to find products that worked for me and my clients,” she shares. “That’s how I began The Frontal Queen.” Known for her bundles, wigs, and most famously, her Lace Melting Spray, Olaoluwa became synonymous with her brand, often referred to as the “Frontal Queen” herself. “It was just always there.”
Read on as Adey “Frontal Queen” Olaoluwa tells all about her earliest hair memory, debunks beauty myths, and more.
Her Earliest Hair-Related Memory:
In my earliest memory, I had relaxers; that was just the ‘Nigerian thing’ to do. My personal journey and passion really came once I stopped the relaxers and started embracing my own natural hair care.
Her Favorite Part About What She Does:
It’s the look on my client’s face after they see their new look. Having someone come in being stressed out about something or being excited to try a new hair color, it’s about the human experience and being able to give someone that without them stressing about it because in today’s stylist climate, it’s hit or miss. One thing I pride myself about is really catering to each client and giving them that transformative experience. That’s my favorite part of it.
The Products She Can’t Live Without:
Our Lace Melting Spray is my number one tool I use on every single client that comes for a wig install, closure install, or closure sew-in. It works on all skin tones to disappear the lace and make it look seamless, laid, and you don’t need a lot of steps to get to the end results.
The second product that I’m absolutely obsessed with right now is the Hair Chaser brush we have. [Typically], you use the flat iron and a rat tail comb. But, what I love about this chaser brush is it grips your hair so as you’re flat ironing, it’s smoothing and holding the hair so you don’t have to grip the hair with a comb. And, when you’re flat ironing your hair, you burn your hand a lot because you’re holding that piece that just got flat iron. By using this product, it eliminates that burn so you can go in with multiple passes.
The last product I’m obsessed with is the Kiss Tintation Hair Color Spray. I use it on all my installs to perfect the middle part or side part. It just makes everything look very natural. If you over bleach, it helps recolor the hair to make it look back to normal.
Her All-Time Favorite Hairstyles:
My favorite hairstyle to do right now is the closure behind the hairline method because it lasts longer than the traditional closure install method with the glue in front of your hairline. Especially summertime the climate’s getting hotter, people want to be outside. They don’t want to worry about their lace showing. By placing the lace behind your hairline, you’re able to hack the install and extend the duration of the install as well. You have your real hairline out, so it looks more natural and you’re able to add in a lot of bundles to really give it that body and volume.
Her Top Tip for Healthy Hair:
My top tip for healthy hair is regular washes and keeping up with your actual hair care. With my niche being closure installs and wig installs, the styles are going on top of your real hair. And, scalp health is number one in making your protective style be a protective style. I always emphasize my clients on maintaining the upkeep on their scalp.
A Hair Myth She’d Like to Debunk:
A hair myth I would like to debunk is that glue pulls out your edges. I want to debunk this because it really depends on the products. When I started out as a hairstylist, I obviously didn’t have my products handy and I used a variety of wig glues and some of them pulled out people’s edges, some of them didn’t. That was another reason why I created The Frontal Queen, because I wanted to create not just another beauty brand, but something that was backed by science. I think that’s one big call out that I would put out there: read the ingredients of your products.
What She’s Learned From Her Clients
Discipline beats inspiration every single time. There’s days when the vision feels heavy, things don’t go according to plan, tariffs, whatever. But, showing up constantly, even when it’s hard is what builds that momentum and impact.
I’ve also learned that nothing can replace knowing your customer deeply. From interacting with my customers day to day behind the chair to interacting online in comment sections, when you build that intention from a place of real connection, your community is going to ride for you all the time.
What She Teaches Her Clients
I’m always giving words of affirmations. I would say that’s my love language to my customers. There’s just this like glow that comes from within that is indescribable that I really love. I’ve had people break down in my chair; I’ve had people that are going through divorces and I’ve had people that are going through stress-induced alopecia from abusive relationships. The list goes on and on and it’s about providing a safe haven for people to just be. They just want to look beautiful.
