Immersed in the beauty industry from childhood, attending professional conventions at 15 as a student, and ultimately inheriting her mother's clientele, Latecia Hankerson was shaped by a world most only glimpse. While her peers were preparing for college, she was already building a business at 17. Her entire early life was an apprenticeship. She catapulted through being a hairstylist and soon wanted more, to affect change on a deeper level.

Latecia is the founder and CEO of Hankerson Holdings LLC, the parent company of Salon BWhat keeps Latecia in this fight isn't the craft, it's the women. It breaks her heart to hear a woman say she feels unattractive in her natural state, or to listen to the stories of those who have been neglected by an industry that lacks the resources to care for them. She has sat with too many women who were hurting because they couldn't find the talent or the truth needed to upkeep their hair. She has seen the toll that takes on a woman's mental health, and she refuses to let that be the standard.

She founded Curls and Texture U because her own two hands weren't enough to fix the lack of options in the community. To truly change the landscape, she has to reach the stylists. What has always set Latecia apart is a visionary ability to identify a problem and architect a solution. A lifelong student of the Spanish language, she is building a global network of curl and texture experts to ensure that no matter where a woman is in the world, she has access to a professional who truly sees her. This is her legacy: turning her tears for this community into a global standard of care.

Featured on Tampa Bay 28 during Black Business Month as a leading voice in natural hair care in the Tampa community. Recognized in Byrdie, Black Enterprise, and Rolling Out.razyl, founded in 2006, and CATU (Curls and Texture U), founded in 2021.

Invited by Miami Fashion Week founder Beth Sobol to join the backstage hair team, an opportunity that launched her career as a talent in both hair and eventually makeup. Latecia went on to be hired by Spiff TV and Film as the lead hair and makeup artist for Maybach Music Group music video artists and models.

As a certified educator for Ouidad, a brand known as The Curl Experts, Latecia facilitated professional curl certification trainings for licensed stylists across the industry. She then trained at the elite Vidal Sassoon academy in Santa Monica, where she sharpened her cutting skills and grew more courageous with color. She couldn't help but realize that quality education increases income, a truth that would shape everything she built next.

There came a moment when Latecia looked up and the industry had shifted. Women were transitioning away from the chemical services and tension styles that had been breaking their hair and causing traction alopecia, and she wasn't ready. She searched for educational options that included highly textured hair at the standard she required. They didn't exist. Not in her city. Not in her industry. Instead of pretending, she did something rare. She closed Salon Brazyl for six months. No clients. No income. Just testing, experimenting, and training until she was ready to reopen with a singular focus: healthy natural hair, exclusively. No weaves. No keratin. No relaxers.

In 2019, Latecia created The Wash and Go Brunch, an educational event covering the basics of curl care that drew stylists from across Central Florida. Building on that momentum, she partnered with Salon Centric, a subsidiary of L'Oreal, to produce Coffee and Curls, a branded educational event that brought stylists together around curl education, community, and connection. That relationship led to her being selected as the featured salon for Nordstrom's Black History Month Pop-Up Shop, where she hosted the soft launch of her eBook, Matted Hair Reset: The Road to Healing.