After leaving her home country of Ghana in West Africa, Joyce Poku knew she had to have proper training if she wanted to realize her dream of being a Canadian business owner. To achieve this, she worked as a chief apprentice and learned how to do hair extensions and braiding when she settled in Calgary in 1996. “I started doing hair right away for my friends, out of my house,” says Joyce. “People saw it and they liked it so my friends brought more people to me to do it for them. “
Joyce enjoyed some success but wanted to educate herself more, so she went to work for someone else for a year. It was enough to give her the confidence she needed to officially start her own company in 2005: Joyce Hair Braiding & Extensions. “I decided to do my own instead of working for somebody because I had a talent for it,” she says. “I wanted to see if I could do it.”
