Many business owners will remember the pandemic mainly for the money troubles and the uncertainty.

Not Akilia Darrell of Hair Am I Beauty and Barber Salon.

Money troubles did come, so she won’t remember Covid-19 fondly.

But it motivated her into a sideline business that could be her best idea yet.

Her Laid brand products are so well liked, they even sell in vending machines in Jamaica.

The brand, and some of the Laid products, was conceived while most people were cooped up in lockdown, watching TV.

She said: “I have the products manufactured in China and I use a US distributor. I will get vending machines in Bermuda, eventually.”

This week she celebrated Hair Am I Salon’s 11th anniversary in business.

Upstairs at Astor House, 38 Union Street, she has already built a thriving business — a hair salon in one room, a nail and cosmetics salon in another and a barbershop in a third.

Her business is rounding into a complete beauty salon, and she is adding make-up and skincare services to the Laid line-up.

That’s not bad for a businesswoman who began her career with the deck stacked against her.

Coming from a broken home and caught between two cultures (Jamaican mother, Bermudian father), she was about 15 years old when she found herself sentenced to 18 months in juvenile detention in Jamaica for an under-aged traffic offence.

She overcame her brush with the law, grew to adulthood and heard Bermuda calling her back home after giving birth.

“I was 20 when I came back with my infant son (eight months old) and it was hard getting a job,” she recalls. “I had high school certificates from Jamaica that people could just not relate to. Still, I had responsibilities.

“Locked up in Jamaica, you have to do a programme, so I received a hairdressing certificate.

“I only had rudimentary skills at first and didn’t see it as a career. But years later, coming home it was a way to make money, so I did some work on the side and was eventually offered a job.”

It was years later that she began her own business and now laughs in recounting the tough times.

“When you are young,” she said as the smile ran away from her face, “few people believe in you. They often don’t give you a chance to grow and develop. You feel you’re on your own. You have to find your own way. And you have to learn that you don’t know everything.

“I was a young, Black woman with responsibilities, and I was starting a business. It was not easy.”

Enter the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation. It was their programmes aimed at helping entrepreneurs and small businesses that put her on track.

She admitted: “I got help from them at a late stage after I had already failed a thousand times. They helped me put the pieces together for business.

“Having passion is one thing. Being able to do the work as a hairdresser is one thing.

“But the business aspect of it all — knowing your numbers — is something different. I had some high school accounting, but there was just so much more to it.

“If you don’t know your numbers, what you’re making, your profit and loss, and so much more, that’s what makes it really hard. If you don’t know what you don’t know, you can’t make changes to save what's working.”

She added: “When I first started, I didn’t even get a loan from the bank. I was just working out of pocket. That, and being young and inexperienced, were my most difficult challenges to overcome.”

It was many years before she could admit to being comfortable in her business skin.

“Covid was a reality check. Everything was closed down. Business hit rock bottom for many people because we were in lockdown, and everything was closed, and even after that people were still at home.

“Appointments dried up. I reflected on what I could do, and noticed retail was still an option because while people were not going to work, they were going to the pharmacy.

“I created pedicure kits. Waxing kits. I was ordering stuff online and creating kits out of my stock, and people appreciated it. I was selling treatments, combs and whatever people wanted just so I could maintain some income. It was a good experience.”

She transitioned it into her own product line, Laid, with 12 different items used for natural hair, chemically treated hair and extensions such as tape-ins and lace front wigs or units.

Her make-up services are catching on, too. She expects high demand for such cosmetology services for carnival. She thinks the products she has been developing could really take off.

“I am now opening up beyond my regular clients. We use my products in the salon. But I want to find local distributors, now. I want to sell the products in Bermuda’s main stores and connect with a broader market.”

Today, she has four people working for her in the salon. Covid reduced it from eight.

Her staff include a Bermudian stylist who does natural hair braiding and ponytails and a hairstylist from Zimbabwe, who specialises in braids.

She said: “Africa is the motherland, home of the creation of braids and she is a specialist. I want to give my clients that authentic, unique braiding straight out of Africa.

“Since the pandemic, many people went natural, discovering their own hair. That was a major shift. We do a lot more braiding now, and we have watched the number of perms drop. That’s another thing Covid will be remembered for.

“We also have a barber who cuts hair for men, women and children.”

The business began on Court Street before moving around the corner 17 months ago.