There is a particular kind of courage it takes to walk away from a stable career and bet on yourself. For Rodricka “Ricka” O’Bannon, that bet started with an accounting degree she set aside and a passion for the beauty industry she could no longer ignore. Together with her business partner Chenica Racine, Ricka opened C&R Beauty Bar in Louisville, Kentucky in 2015 — and what they built over the next decade is the kind of story every woman of color with a dream needs to read.
A Salon Built for Women Like Us
C&R Beauty Bar is a premier salon specializing in curly and natural hair services. Since its founding, the salon has offered custom hair services including cuts, colors, extensions, and custom units, alongside makeup, facial waxing, and bridal services. But what makes C&R genuinely different is its commitment to education. C&R is a nontraditional teaching salon that offers classes and seminars designed to meet the needs of its niche market — clients with natural and textured hair who have too often been underserved by mainstream salons.
That focus on a niche market is not just a business strategy. It is a statement. In an industry that has historically overlooked the specific needs of Black women’s hair, Ricka and Chenica decided to make those needs the entire center of their business.
Getting Serious About Growth
By 2019, the salon was thriving — but growth brought its own complexity. In 2019, the owners needed guidance to better manage business growth, so Ricka and Chenica enrolled in the Louisville Small Business Development Center’s Scale Up Louisville, a 12-week strategic planning program. The intensive SBA program pushed them to examine every corner of their operation — their market, their competition, their opportunities — and put it all into a written plan.
It is a step many small salon owners skip, assuming hustle alone will carry them. Ricka and Chenica took a different approach, treating their salon like the real business it is. That discipline would prove critical when the world turned upside down just a year later.
Surviving COVID-19 — and Choosing Generosity
When the pandemic hit in 2020, C&R Beauty Bar faced what every small salon faced: forced closure, uncertain income, and an unclear path forward. For nine long weeks, C&R Beauty Bar on Bardstown Road was closed to customers. Like so many Black-owned small businesses, they applied for a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan — and got one.
“We used it for payroll and utilities, things like that,” O’Bannon told Spectrum News1. “The PPP loan helped when we were shut down so we could pay for all the obligations that come with being a business owner.” The funds also allowed the salon to purchase personal protective equipment so they could reopen safely when the time came.
But what happened next says everything about the character of these two women. When a second round of PPP loans became available, Ricka and Chenica made the decision to step back — to let other businesses, ones who had missed the first round, have the opportunity instead. “That’s another reason why we’re kind of backing up,” O’Bannon explained, “because we were able to get one, we want other people to have the opportunity.”
In the middle of a crisis, they chose community over self-interest.
Recognition Well Earned
Ricka later received the SBA Kentucky 2020 Young Entrepreneur of the Year award — recognition that came not just from building a successful business, but from doing it with integrity, strategy, and a deep commitment to her community.
Passionate about giving back, Ricka is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, an organization of college-educated women dedicated to public service programs targeting the African American community. She has raised scholarship funds, supported her church’s Community Development Center, and organized fundraising events for Big Brothers Big Sisters and River City Drum Corp. The salon has also donated to the University of Louisville Booster Club, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and numerous local nonprofit organizations.
What C&R Beauty Bar Teaches Us
The story of C&R Beauty Bar is about more than surviving a pandemic or winning an award. It is about what happens when Black women in beauty stop playing small. Ricka O’Bannon gave up a conventional career path because she believed in something bigger — and then she built a system around that belief. She invested in business education. She sought out mentorship. She planned ahead. And when hardship came, she had the foundation to weather it.
For every woman of color sitting on a salon dream right now, C&R Beauty Bar is proof that the niche you think is too small might be exactly the right size. That the community you serve will show up for you when you show up for them. And that building something real — something rooted, planned, and purposeful — is always worth the risk.
Follow C&R Beauty Bar on Instagram at @C&RBeautyBar and keep up with their latest work, classes, and community events.
SPALONews celebrates salons, stylists, and beauty professionals who are changing the game for women of color. Know a salon story worth telling? Reach us at info@spalonews.com
