HI, MY NAME IS SARAH.
BROOKLYN. NEW YORK.
THAT RAISED
ME.
I'm Haitian-American, Brooklyn born and raised. And being from New York is one of those things that's hard to explain to somebody who isn't from here.
We mean mug. We look like we're annoyed when we're really just minding our business. We're considered rude until somebody needs help getting a stroller down the subway stairs, and suddenly there's five New Yorkers carrying it.
We crack jokes. We talk with our hands. We know the corner store guy who's known our family since we were in diapers. Somebody always knows somebody.
And don't let New Yorkers tell you otherwise, but we really don't care who you are.
You could be famous, rich, important, whatever. You're still standing on line.
We are the celebrities.
That's what I love about New York. There's confidence here without needing an introduction. There's personality everywhere. Everybody has a story, everybody has somewhere to be, and somehow everybody has an opinion.
I grew up in a low-to-middle-income family, so I learned early that you don't always get everything you want. Sometimes you make it work. Sometimes you wait. Sometimes you figure it out yourself.
But I never confused having less with dreaming less.
I was always ambitious. Even when I couldn't explain exactly what I wanted, I knew I wanted more for myself.
And then there was beauty.
I've always loved it. Hair, lashes, makeup, clothes, perfume, brows, getting dressed, creating a look, noticing what somebody else did differently.
I could walk into a beauty supply store for one thing and somehow leave with six.
I loved the transformation. The moment somebody looks in the mirror after getting their hair done and suddenly their whole attitude changes.
That little shift. That confidence. That “yeah, I look good” feeling.
I understood that feeling long before I understood that beauty could become a business.
I WAS JUST A
BROOKLYN GIRL
WITH A BIG VISION.
OR, AS I
LIKE TO CALL IT,
FAITH IN
MYSELF.
I've always had a ridiculous amount of faith in myself.
Maybe that's why I've been called ambitious. Maybe that's why I've had so many ideas. And maybe, sometimes, that's why I probably looked a little delusional.
Because I have this habit of seeing things before they're real.
I'll have an idea in my head and somehow already know what the finished version is supposed to feel like, even when I have absolutely no clue how I'm getting there.
But I believe that's part of dreaming.
You have to be willing to believe in something before everybody else can see it.
Because if I only believed in things that already made sense, I'd probably never build anything new.
I've learned to trust that part of myself.
I HAD TO
TEACH MY
HANDS A
NEW
LANGUAGE.
I had always loved beauty, but loving something and knowing how to create it are two completely different things.
So I decided to learn.
I became a cosmetology student and started teaching my hands a completely new language.
And let me tell you, your hands will tell you real quick when they don't know what they're doing.
Hair challenged me. It made me slow down. It made me practice. It made me stop expecting myself to be good at something just because I loved it.
I had to earn the skill.
And somewhere between the practice, the mistakes, the repetition, and the moments where something finally clicked, I started finding my rhythm.
That part means a lot to me. Because sometimes you don't realize you're walking toward your purpose until you look up and realize you've changed.
BLEH
TO
BAM.
I love creating looks because I have an eye for beauty.
Not beauty that says everybody should look the same. Beauty that notices what's already there and knows how to bring it forward.
I love the details. The right lash. The right shape. The right hair. The little thing that changes the entire look.
I love watching somebody see themselves differently when they're finished.
Not because they became somebody else.
Because they finally see what was already there.
A PLACE
TO FEEL
PRETTY.
LEARN.
AND VIBE.
I wanted the name to feel personal, which is why I chose my initials.
But the word parlor means something to me too.
A parlor is a place where you can come in, sit down, be taken care of, learn something, talk your talk, laugh a little, and leave feeling better than when you arrived.
That's what I want SK PARLOR to become.
Not just somewhere you buy hair. Not just somewhere you get lashes. Not just another beauty brand.
Comfortable. Beautiful. Taken care of. And completely yourself.
I DON'T DO
“GOOD ENOUGH.”
Life has taught me that if you're going to build something, build it with intention.
I've had seasons where I thought I knew exactly where my life was going, only to realize I was completely wrong.
I've changed directions. I've started over. I've had to figure things out again.
And I've taken loss after loss and still had to wake up the next morning and keep moving.
That's one thing about me. I might get knocked down, but eventually I'm getting back up.
Becoming a wife and a mother changed me too.
My dreams didn't disappear because my life got bigger. If anything, they became more important.
Now I'm building while being a wife, raising my children, going to cosmetology school, learning a new craft, and figuring out what this next version of my life looks like.
CLASS.
ELEGANCE.
DIGNITY.
POISE.
Luxury, to me, isn't simply about expensive things.
It's how you carry yourself.
It's knowing your worth without needing everybody else to know it first.
It's treating people well. It's having manners. It's paying attention. It's knowing that presentation matters, but character matters too.
That's the kind of luxury I want associated with SK PARLOR.
Beautiful things are important to me. But so is how they make people feel.
BUT NEVER EMPTY.
THIS IS ONLY
THE BEGINNING.
Leaving healthcare to pursue beauty was not a small decision.
Healthcare was a path I knew. It was practical. It made sense.
But there was another part of me that kept asking, what if?
What if I actually went after the thing I kept dreaming about? What if I stopped talking myself out of it? What if I gave myself permission to build something completely mine?
So I did.
I'm learning cosmetology. I'm building SK PARLOR. I'm learning the business. I'm learning the craft. I'm learning what it means to turn an idea into something real.
The vision is bigger than one chair, one product, or one city.
And honestly? I'm crazy enough to believe it can happen.
Maybe that's the faith.
BECAUSE
IT FELT
LIKE ME.
I created SK PARLOR because it was one of the first things I've built that didn't feel like I was trying to become somebody else.
It felt natural. Creative. Personal.
true to me.
It brought together so many parts of me at once. My love for beauty. My eye for detail. My ambition. My creativity. My New York attitude. My desire to build something of my own.
And after everything I've been through, after every setback, every restart, every moment where I had to find the strength to get back up, I wanted to create something that reminded me:
SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL.
That's what SK PARLOR means to me.
It's not just a beauty brand. It's proof that the dream can change shape, life can change direction, and you can still become the person you imagined yourself being.
I'm still becoming her.
But I'm building her one decision at a time.