Sharleen White-Davidson

With a passion for empowering others through their self-confidence, Sharleen, graduate of Haida Owned and Operated Cohort 3 is founding Shar’s Mobile Cuts ‘n Nails on Haida Gwaii. Shar’s Mobile Cuts and ‘n Nails is a salon service focused on helping busy members of her community have access to top-quality styling where it is most convenient and most comfortable for them. Through Shar’s Mobile Cuts ‘n Nails, Sharleen is expanding her current salon to bring it to her clients and meet this need in the community.

“The mobile thing came about by one of my clients, explains Sharleen. “I had been doing his hair for a few years, and I’d take all of my bags with me when I go to cut his hair. He suggests ‘well, why don’t you retrofit a motorhome, and that way you don’t have to pack your bags everywhere with you, you just take your mobile unit with you and you can have your own little shop on wheels, and it’s convenient for other people.’”

This inspired Sharleen to add a mobile unit to her business in addition to her base, not only to make it easier for her to bring the necessary tools to provide her service, but to reach more members in her community who would benefit from a mobile salon.“There are lots of people that have phobias and social anxieties, so it’s important to have somewhere that’s comfortable and convenient,” explains Sharleen. “I have a client base already; I’ve been hairdressing for 27 years. So I want to have a mobile unit, with a professional home-base salon with a mobile unit so I can go out and do that.”

Shar’s Mobile Cuts ‘n Nails will “make it [their] mission to give [their] valued customers friendly, convenient, mobile and quality salon services.” As Sharleen explains, Shar’s Mobile Cuts ‘n Nails “will strive to keep [their] professional skills updated and current with popular trends in the industry field.” Shar’s Mobile Cuts ‘n Nails will be providing services based on the latest skills and industry knowledge using one hair station and one nail station in the mobile unit, and two hair stations and a nail station in her base unit.

Sharleen explains that through her mobile unit, she “would like to be able to drive out to the logging camps or where they muster because loggers have such long hours and they are never able to make it into the salon. If I can bring the salon to them, then they can have the convenience of that.”

Sharleen also plans to travel to the fall fair, music fest, hospital days, weddings, graduations and other Haida ceremonies to provide her services to fulfill her vision of making her excellent styling services more accessible to members of the community. “My other half is a sports fish guide and they don’t have an opportunity to get to the salon,” describes Sharleen. “In the summertime they work from 5:30 in the morning to 8 or 9 at night, so if I can bring my mobile unit to closer to where they work, they can get the services they need.”

Sharleen’s base is also very accessible to members of the community. “The building is on Reserve. It’s on the front road so it would be easy access and is wheelchair accessible,” explains Sharleen. “I thought that was really important because no other place is very accessible for Elders and people who have disabilities, so that’s very important to me to have that.”

Going forward, Sharleen explains that during the first 6 months of business she’ll be working by herself, but plans to provide mentorship to youth in the community. “When the business gets off the ground…[I plan to] get involved with the schools for work experience: bringing students in and mentoring them.”

Currently, Sharleen is preparing to launch Shar’s Mobile Cuts ‘n Nails and will be offering her styling services to individuals as well as employers who are interested in providing her services to employees. If you’re interested in learning more about Shar’s Mobile Cuts ‘n Nails or inquiring about Sharleen’s services, send her an email at sharleenwd@gmail.com.

“Hairdressing has sustained me through everything else,” explains Sharleen. “I’ve done all kinds of work over the years and hairdressing has always been in the background. It’s a skill you can use anywhere, as long as you have the tools with you.”