Shia Yearwood is a 24-year-old mother of two from Charlotte, North Carolina. She told BuzzFeed News she learned how to braid hair when she was only 7, and has been braiding for work for the past five years.
Yearwood and the father of her two kids recently split up, and they both have filed restraining orders against each other. Recently, she said her ex reported her for violating that order. Yearwood turned herself in to the police on Jan. 3, and was charged with a misdemeanor.
Her resulting mugshot was then posted on a Twitter account called @CharlotteMugs. However, no one was paying attention to her charge — they just had one question.
SHIA MILAN YEARWOOD got their #mugshot posted to Charlotte Mugshots https://t.co/huzylGYJ8m
"Hey girl, who does your hair?"
@CharlotteMugs Police: “So, who do your hair?”
People LOVED her braids.
@CharlotteMugs Love the braids
And wanted to know her secret.
@CharlotteMugs Okay but who did her hair?? 😍😍
Yearwood said some of the inquiries were from her actual clients being funny, but then she started to get more.
"I thought it was just people being funny on my social media. But then I started to read the responses and I realized that they were actually very positive and uplifting," she said.
So, she decided to capitalize on it. She responded to the comments by promoting her business.
#BraidsByShia 🤷🏽♀️ can’t hold me back either. https://t.co/03x1BwtFcB
She even tweeted out her availability, prices, and more.
Her tweet was retweeted thousands of times, but even better, she said she has received a ton of new clients.
@ShiaMilan @Kisses4Keila @CharlotteMugs any Monday or Tuesday slots available?
@ShiaMilan Moving to charlotte & was gonna need somebody to braid my hair. Twitter is full of blessings in 2018 🙏🏾
In fact, Yearwood told BuzzFeed News she is "actually booked all week right now off new clients."
@ShiaMilan I’m moving to Charlotte soon sis , are you taking clients ? Lol
She said going viral has been a little weird and overwhelming.
"It’s more embarrassing because it’s not like I went viral off my hair alone," she said. "It’s attached to a mugshot, so people’s perception of me might change, and that’s the only thing I didn’t like. Once they see a mugshot you’re automatically guilty and that’s not true."
However, she said she decided to own her mugshot to show people "no matter what I went through I ended up on top."
"I took such a negative time on my life and negative situation and I made the best of it," she said.