Meet the Curl Whisperer Tameeka McNeil-Johnson

SuperNatural: The Play came to my hometown of Newport News, VA and I was invited to be a VIP guest blogger. SuperNatural is the funny and insightful play about natural hair journeys, where women from different backgrounds share their story. One of the writers and producers is also a Newport News native, so I was very excited to see this play staring Kim Coles come to my area.

One of the featured guests was celebrity natural hair stylist and curly hair specialist Tameeka McNeil-Johnson. She’s been dubbed The Curl Whisperer, and her mottos are “Curly Hair has NO Ethnicity” and “Healthy Hair is GOOD Hair”. Tameeka is based out of NY and NJ, with over 20 years of experience with curly natural hair. She is the Global Director of Education for the Curl Prep Natural Hair Solutions product line, where she conducts workshops for naturalists and natural hair stylists alike. I was afforded the opportunity to do a phone interview with Tameeka before the event to find out more about her and get the 411 on natural hair care. What was supposed to be a 30 minute interview turned into a 2 hour chatting session where we just so happened to be talking about hair.

I had to ask her where she got the name The Curl Whisperer. Here’s what she had to say,

“I was dubbed the Curl Whisperer by a client of mine. I hadn’t even known I had that name to be honest with you. It was trending on Twitter and someone was like ‘do you know you’re trending on Twitter?’. And I’m like ‘no, what is trending?’ [laughter] So I had no idea that you can trend on Twitter. But someone else dubbed me the Curl Whisperer and ever since then that name has stuck with me since then.”

One hot topic that I definitely wanted to ask Tameeka was the subject of bloggers vs professionals. Often times, I hear a lot of negative feedback from licensed stylists about clients who refer to bloggers or YouTube when it comes to hair care. For Tameeka, it’s not an issue. She said that as a stylist, it’s her job to listen to her client regardless of where they get their information from or how wrong it may be in her opinion. She will never make her client feel ‘stupid’ for doing his/her own research, and she recognized that not everything presented by a blogger is automatically unreliable. Instead she provides her knowledge and experience to the client; a stylist who is defensive about clients mentioning information they received from a blogger might be lacking confidence in their own work.

Another topic that we discussed was the ‘wash & go’. Tameeka said that anyone can wear a wash & go, regardless of their curl pattern or texture. She said it’s not so much about the product you use as it is the technique that you use. Being patient, taking the time to work the product into your hair, and then leaving it alone are just a few tricks to defining your curls. Now all wash & go styles will not look the same, as everyone’s curl pattern is different, but it can be done.

I was able to see Tameeka in action at the I Am SuperNatural bazaar that took place before the play. During the bazaar as well as her Transformations workshop, Tameeka did live hair demonstrations and showed attendees how to define curls they didn’t even know they had. All the women I saw her demonstrate on had type 4a, 4b and 4c curl patterns, which many feel cannot be defined. But Tameeka earned her Curl Whisperer title and brought those curl out and had them popping!

Tameeka truly has a calling to work with hair, and it was a pleasure to interview her and meet her in person at SuperNatural: The Play. If you’re in NY or NJ, definitely book an appointment with her, or catch her on tour with SuperNatural: The Play or Curl Prep.