Extension of style, passion, self Dark Shugar’s hair services seek to highlight beauty, confidence for women of colour Made in Manitoba
By: Aaron Epp Posted: 5:34 PM CST Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025

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This article was published 20/02/2025 (573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alexis Ojo found an unusual way to make money when she was in university: selling hair extensions.

When Ojo moved from her home in Lagos, Nigeria, to Winnipeg to study psychology at the University of Manitoba, she noticed a lack of quality hair extensions in the city. Seeing an opportunity, the 17-year-old researched reliable factories and analyzed the market.

Ojo used $500 — all the money she had at the time — to buy hair extensions and began selling them online. She decided to use her high school nickname — Dark Shugar — as the moniker for her burgeoning business.

Running Dark Shugar gave Ojo the opportunity to learn online marketing and figure out how to create an attractive brand. By her fourth year of university, the business was wildly successful.

“The more I did it, the more it blew up,” says Ojo, 30. “I always say: ‘I didn’t choose hair, it chose me.’”

From its beginnings as an online business run out of a dorm room, Dark Shugar has grown into a multifaceted company headquartered in a brick-and-mortar store in St. Vital Centre.

The luxury hair and beauty salon offers a range of services, including natural hair services, hair extension applications and wig installations. Clients can receive eyebrow enhancements, lash extensions and makeup services.

Ojo employs five people at the 1,286-square-foot site located close to the mall’s Hudson’s Bay store; another five stylists rent chairs at the salon.

Dark Shugar also sells wigs, hair extensions and a range of beauty products in store and online.

While the business serves customers of all genders and races, Ojo estimates about 70 per cent of her clientele are Black women. Working with Afro-textured hair is one of the salon’s specialties.

Ojo created the business in part to serve people like her: women from countries in Africa who now find themselves living in Manitoba.

For newcomers from cultures where hair is an expression of identity, social status, family lineage or spiritual connection, it can be hard to find places in Winnipeg that offer the styling services they need and desire.

Dark Shugar’s mission, Ojo says, is to help women of colour look and feel more confident. That may seem cliché or obvious, she adds, but for women of colour who come to Canada and feel like they’re losing their identity, it can make a difference.

“When women of colour come to this country, when they immigrate to this country, they lose themselves — they really do,” Ojo says. “One of my employees (once) shaved off her hair just because there was nowhere to go — there are no places to go to maintain it.

“So that’s my mission: to help them feel more beautiful (and) more confident through the services I offer.”

Ojo’s entrepreneurial drive is inspired in part by her mother, Mercy. More than 20 years ago, Mercy opened a clothing store in Nigeria called Alexis Boutique she runs to this day. There’s an Alexis Boutique display in one corner of Dark Shugar, where customers can purchase clothes from West Africa.

After graduating from the U of M in 2018, Ojo took a job as a personal banking officer at RBC. During her three years there, she learned important customer service skills, as well as what it means to effectively manage a team.

She kept running Dark Shugar on the side. In 2021, she quit her job at RBC so she could open her salon at its original location near Confusion Corner. She used her savings and a $9,000 loan from Futurpreneur, a non-profit that assists startups.

Eddy Paul, business development manager at Futurpreneur, who helped Ojo when she was applying for the loan, has been impressed by her business acumen and drive.

“We do have a lot of entrepreneurs like her, but most of them are dreamers,” he says. “For her, yes, it’s a dream, but she put (in) the action to make it happen. She’s tough and she never gives up. She perseveres.”

Perseverance is one of the key things Ojo has learned as an entrepreneur. Her business is successful and, on the surface, everything looks great — a store filled with glamorous products, energetic staff and a neon pink “Treat yo’ self” sign — but running a business is difficult at times and it can take a toll on mental health.

“You just have to keep going and remember your ‘why,’” Ojo says. “Find something that you’re passionate about, because that’s what’s going to keep you going.”

Showing up at Dark Shugar typically counteracts any discouragement she’s feeling.

“When I come to work, I just feel this relief,” she says. “My staff is so positive. They’re always encouraging. My clients are so encouraging. I just love being here. I love the people.”

Jenn Hildebrand is one of those clients cheering Ojo on. After the stress of her husband Aravind’s death in 2020 caused Hildebrand to lose her hair, she started going to Ojo for hair extensions.

“I just wanted to feel like myself,” says Hildebrand, 45. “I wanted to look how I always looked and I didn’t want that compromised because of something I was going through in my personal life.”

Hildebrand was self-conscious and going to the salon for the first time was a big step for her. Ojo made helpful suggestions and took time to put Hildebrand at ease and make her feel comfortable.

“For her, it wasn’t just about putting the hair in; she was looking to build community and build friendships at the same time,” Hildebrand says.

When Ojo moved Dark Shugar to St. Vital Centre at the end of 2023, Hildebrand attended the grand opening. She was struck by the diverse group of people who were there to celebrate the start of its next chapter.

“She has a really bright future with whatever she chooses to do,” Hildebrand says. “She’s one of those people we need to be watching out for and supporting.”

Ojo has no shortage of ideas moving forward. She’s completed a one-year hairstyling program through Systems Beauty College and wants to teach people to work with Afro-textured hair.

Getting involved with fashion shows, doing pop-up events, making motivational presentations to high school students and opening a second location are all things Ojo’s thinking about.

She is grateful for Dark Shugar’s success.

“To God be the glory,” she says. “Sometimes, I don’t even know what I’m doing, but it’s like I’m doing it right. It has to be supernatural.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca