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Desiree Nurse
Beyond the Chair: Black Hair Dignity and Community Care in Medway
TENS-2026-002 | 10 Black Voices of Medway 2026
Desiree Nurse introduces herself through service. In her TENS interview with me, she speaks about supporting family, community and the wider people who enter her space.
Hairdressing is the starting point of the conversation, but the work she describes extends into confidence, dignity and helping people find support.
Her story records how a business can develop by paying attention to needs that are not being met.
It also shows how Black hair knowledge, personal faith and local relationships contribute to the everyday heritage of Medway.
Beginning with a practical need
Desiree recalls moving to Medway in 2007 and continuing to travel to London for the hair products and services she needed. The journey made a gap in local provision visible. Her mother's response was direct: she could start a business herself. Initially, the suggestion seemed difficult to imagine. She had recently taken on a mortgage, and the money available had another intended purpose.
She describes beginning in a small space in the InShops market, using the resources she had. This was not an account of an effortless start. It involved deciding to act on a need she understood personally and learning how to meet the needs of others. Faith was part of that decision, providing a framework through which she considered the opportunity and the responsibility involved.
Her experience places a familiar part of community history on record. A resident encounters an everyday difficulty, recognises that other people share it and creates a service. The result changes what becomes possible locally, including whether people have to leave the area for something as personal as suitable hair care.
Listening changes the business.
As customers arrived, their requests shaped the stock and services. Desiree describes listening to people from different backgrounds and adapting accordingly. A business initially responding to Black hair needs has developed a broader range of provision, including different types of extensions and wigs.
After moving onto the high street, she encountered people seeking help with hair loss. Some were preparing for chemotherapy; others were living with alopecia, scalp conditions or longer-term damage. Their needs were practical, but the emotions surrounding them were equally important. A person asking for a wig might also be trying to preserve confidence during a frightening or unfamiliar experience.
Desiree remembers customers arriving unhappy with provision they had received elsewhere. She explains that this prompted conversations with a hospital and a move into supplying wigs through that relationship. This is her account of how the work developed. What matters within the story is the connection between listening, recognising unsuitable provision and trying to improve the route through which people received help.
Beyond the appointment
At the time of the interview, Desiree describes a newer space bringing hair and health conversations together. She talks about salon chairs, a coffee counter, an area for conversations and seminars, and plans for a room where more private support could take place. These details describe both existing arrangements and ambitions for further development; they should not all be read as completed clinical services.
The underlying idea is to use the time and trust already present in a familiar setting. Someone having their hair done may be more comfortable discussing a concern there than in an unfamiliar office. Desiree sees an opportunity to help people feel good externally while also making room for what is happening in their lives.
Her summary describes specialist products associated with cancer support, including wigs, breast forms and mastectomy wear. It also describes signposting to agencies dealing with matters such as employment, immigration and domestic abuse. These are distinct forms of help. The salon's role is to connect people with appropriate support, rather than to stand in for every specialist service.
Care and follow-through
Desiree's approach includes keeping in touch after an appointment. Her summary records follow-up through telephone calls or WhatsApp, checking whether someone has reached the support they need.
Care is therefore understood as a relationship that may continue beyond a transaction.
This perspective helps explain why the salon matters as a heritage setting. The history of a high street includes the conversations that happen inside its businesses, the people who become trusted points of contact and the knowledge exchanged informally.
These activities are easily missed if a place is documented only through buildings, business names or opening dates.
Her account makes listening visible as work. It requires attention, judgement and an understanding that the first reason a person enters a space may not be the only issue they are carrying. Confidence and dignity are recurring concerns because hair loss, illness and exclusion can affect how someone feels able to appear in public.
Turning unity into practice
The conversation also considers relationships within Black communities. Desiree questions the gap between speaking about unity and organising practical cooperation. Her examples include purchasing together and building stronger business connections. She is interested in what collaboration would actually do, rather than treating the language of togetherness as an achievement by itself.
She and Michi discuss mistrust, historical injustice and the effects of colonialism. These are reflections within a conversation, not a claim that every person in the diaspora has the same experience. Desiree's emphasis is on continuing to build possibilities for the generations who follow while acknowledging unresolved histories.
For Medway, her vision includes better connections between community organisations and agencies, so that someone approaching one service can be guided towards another. Her story asks readers to recognise the support already being created locally and to consider how it might connect more effectively. Through hairdressing, community conversation and practical care, Desiree documents a form of local leadership grounded in responding to the person in front of her.
The conversation makes clear that dignity is not a single product a business can supply. A suitable wig may help, but so can privacy, an unhurried conversation and a useful referral. Desiree's contribution records how those elements can connect around a familiar appointment. It also preserves the reasoning behind her decisions so that future readers can understand the purpose and the continuing social importance of the space through the experience and judgement of the woman who helped create it.
About this collection
An edited account based on the supplied oral-history transcript extract and interview summary. Personal recollections are attributed to the narrator; this article is not a verbatim transcript.
Supported by the Medway Heritage Place Project, with funding from Medway Council and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. With thanks to National Lottery players.
Interview, editorial adaptation and project direction by Michi Masumi — Anthropology, Art & AI. Published through the Benjamin Zephaniah Digital Archives & Library, an initiative led by Michi Masumi. Portrait photography by Michi Masumi unless otherwise credited; Leslie Haynes family photographs supplied through Russell Haynes, with original photographers credited where known.
Copyright © Michi Masumi 2026. All rights reserved. Copyright in individual contributions and third-party material remains with the respective rights holders.
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