Brilliantly Black Podcast EP 70 – Shika & Co. Extensions

Dr. Shika Myrickes is the CEO of Shika & Co. Extensions, also known as the "Tiffany's of Hair"!

Shika has created a unique, high-quality experience for her customers through customer service, and of course the best of the best luxury hair products.

Shika has made a huge impact with her community. By having each bundle purchased through Shika & Co., 3% goes to the Heart 2 Hair Foundation for women who are fighting the battle with lupus and cancer. 

Hear more of her story as she shares with Jasmine on the 70th episode of Brilliantly Black, and make your next hair purchase here! 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Putting the spotlight on chicago Lands growingblack businesses. iHeartMedia Chicago presents the Brilliantly
Black Podcast. Here's our host,Jasmine Bennett. Hello everyone, and welcome
back today. I'm here with doctorShika Maricaz of Sheika Co and Extensions.
How are you today, I'm great. Thank you so much for having me.

(00:20):
Thank you so much for being here. So I heard that this is
the Tiffany's of hair. Yeah,so okay, so we have to get
into it. Tell me about whateven inspired you to want to create a
hair company. Yeah, so Ialways had a passion for starting a haircare
company. I used to buy hereall the time that was really expensive as

(00:42):
well as it was just not highquality. So my hair used to shed
a lot on my clothes and mycoat, and I was so embarrassed when
I went to events and the hairjust lasts a long time. And so
during the pandemic, actually my husbandreally influenced me to step out on faith
and to take a leap and westarted she Can Co. Which is very

(01:03):
crazy, right, because some peoplewere losing their businesses and we actually started
ours during the pandemic. And Iwanted people to have like a fresh,
you know, sense of quality ofhair and to be proud about what they
were wearing. So yeah, that'show it got started. So starting during
the pandemic, what were I know, that had to have been a little
challenging, yes, So what kindof you know, challenges did you go

(01:26):
through and how did you you know, kind of surpass them? Absolutely.
I think the first challenge was findingvendors. So we tested like a lot
of hair, Like my living roomwas filled of just hair and bundles and
wigs. Yeah, and so youknow how the hair felt, it was
a very high quality, did itbleach very well? And then also just

(01:46):
having the opportunity to wear it myself. I told all my customers that I'm
not going to sell you anything thatI actually don't wear myself, right,
So that was definitely a challenge forsure. The second challenge was we also
have organic hair care products and soactually testing the ingredients that best meat are
customer needs, you know, whetherit's ark and oil or t street or

(02:08):
really test those ingredients. So thatwas a second challenge as well. Well.
The Tiffany's of hair got to bethe best the best quality, Yes,
absolutely, and I love that thatyou actually like took the time to
make sure like the products being usedand like the quality was good, because
yeah, we all know about bundlesand wigs and it's it's just so much

(02:31):
that goes into hair and haircare ingeneral. So and it's definitely an investment.
And so this is something you haveto wear every single day. You
want to make sure it lasts longestquality and that you feel proud to rocket
every single day exactly exactly, Sowhat would you say is the mission of
Chikan and Co. Uh? Themission is simply to make every woman in

(02:52):
the world look and feel beautiful atall times, you know, to have
the high quality hair, for itto be noticeable and for it to last
a very very long time. Ilove that as it should as it should,
So what is like your personal whyis that part of it? I
wanted to make sure like, oh, the women feel beautiful and yeah,
I can say they got the Tiffanysof hair going on. Yeah, so

(03:14):
I'm a huge fan of Tiffany's.Yeah, I have a lot of things
of Tiffany's. And so when Ithink about just their mission and not the
high quality, I wanted that tobe transferable in hair as well. So
my why, just like you mentioned, is to give all women just a
high quality experience. For it tobe silky, for it to be soft,
for it to smell appropriately. Ihave got hair in the past and

(03:38):
I'm like, oh my god,this smell like it just came out of
the trash. Our hair does nothave a smell to it. It is
very silky when you first touch it, and it lasts a very very long
time, and it bleached really reallywell. I mean, like any color
you're thinking about is going to bleachfor sure. I know where I'm about
to shop. Yes, absolutely,come on over, girls. What advice

(03:59):
would you have for some that isthinking about trying to get into like the
haircare business, research, do yourresearch, test out vendors, Like if
you're thinking about having vendors from overseas, actually go there, feel it yourself,
communicate with vendors all the time.Just whatever you think is going to
really be high quality for your customers. Definitely just stick with that and just

(04:24):
make sure that you get a chanceto wear it, you get a chance
to bleach it, that you areone hundred percent confident in your actual product
would definitely be my advice for sure, and let's switch over to the and
copart for a second. Yes,so I'm assuming you have a team behind
you, right, I do havea team behind me. So when I
first started, you know, Tiffanyand Co. Which is like Tiffany Company.

(04:46):
I'm mimedic off of that, andso Sheika and Co. Extensions.
So I do have a wonderful teambehind me. Of course, my husband
who actually helped start in my company, help influence my company. He actually
drew my life go out. Hehelped me design my boxes. So definitely,
like I have a strong support systembehind me. And he's also my

(05:09):
manager as well, and so wehave a couple of assistants as well.
So we definitely started from the groundup and we're consistently growing every single day
and we're super blessed about that.Yeah, and it's a blessing to have
a good team in general, likeespecially when you're running a business. So
why did you kind of go aboutfinding like the right team? A lot
of people came to us. Ithink after people had a chance to rock

(05:32):
our hair and was like, ohmy god, this is totally different.
We actually have different packaging and sofor example, our wig boxes actually have
a mirror inside of it, andthe material inside is actually Sadden. So
I feel like we gave a wholedifferent experience. A lot of times women
are literally throwing on their wigs andthe car to go to work or an

(05:53):
event. Yeah, and so Ifeel like we just really got the community
attention and they start reaching out toups. Hey can I be your assistant?
Can I be your brand ambassador?How can I get involved? Can
I just be a part of thisperiod. So that's how we was able
to grow our business. Wow,that's amazing. And the community part is
a big one for you and yourcompany. Absolutely, we're really big on

(06:15):
community impact. So I also foundan organization called Heart to Hair Foundation.
It's a nonprofit and so basically threepercent of our proceeds from She Can Go
goes to Heart to Hear. Andso what Heart to Hear it does is
that we give the percentage of thedonations to buy the hair and get it
installed from women who have suffered fromautoimmune deficiencies and so breast cancer. Loop

(06:41):
is, so we pay for thehair to get installed, we give you
hair care products, and then wealso donate to local hospitals around the area
as well. That's beautiful. Sowe're really really huge or on community impact,
which I think separates us from alot of hair care companies today.
Yeah. I would say that somecompanies, hair care companies and other companies,

(07:03):
they don't really care about the communityimpact. They're just all about the
money, you know. And sowe really truly, truly care about what
we do in the community and forour people. Yeah, and that helps
you set apart. As you said, like it. It's hard when you
have something, you know, likea hair company, and there are a
ton of other hair companies. Soit's like you have to find something that

(07:26):
makes you unique. Yes, makesyou stand out for sure. Yes,
m hmm. I love to seethat. So let's talk about your work
life balance a little bit. Soyou say you just graduated. Congratulation,
thank you doctor. So how didyou go about managing that with your business?
Oh my god, I'm still nowthat I graduate, I'm still learning
what work life balance is. Yeah. So I'm not a pro at it.

(07:50):
And my husband and I are serialentrepreneurs and so we also own other
businesses outside or she can co.So we're still learning what work life illness
is. But we do take timefor ourselves. You know, whether it's
like walking or grabbing some tea orcoffee, just to have a breather,
because we have so much going onin our life for our businesses, but

(08:13):
we also have teams and so that'svery important. And so especially while I
was in school, my husband wasable to pick up my system, was
able to pick up some of thestuff for the businesses. So that definitely
help. But I am learning now, you know, just to have those
days out of the week that yougo get your nails done like I did
yesterday, or go get your hairdone, you know. So I'm finding

(08:35):
those specific times to do something formyself. Mm hmm. I've noticed a
lot of the business owners I've talkedto they say that self care days,
yes, is like super essential.They'll like go crazy. Yes, so
I know you asked me early.What will be my advice. I would
add that to future entrepreneurs as well, like take a day off and don't
don't do nothing and do something foryourself, like nothing business wise, you

(08:58):
know what it has Take a walk, go to the pool, go to
the gym, just do something torelex your mind. For sure. Yeah,
it's needed, it's needed. Yeah, you're constantly getting text, calls,
emails, Yes, social media,so let's talk about that for a
second. So TikTok, Instagram,all that gets to Facebook has been huge
as of like the past few years. So do you have kind of like
a strategy with social media with thebusiness? How do you kind of go

(09:22):
about that. I try to postmore consistently, So I wouldn't say like
a strategy. I'm just trying tobe more consistently now that I am out
of school. It's hard to bemore strategic about who's doing the posting what
you're posting. We have a lotof celebrities wearing our hair now, and
so just being intentional, you know, if they just got you know,
we're our hair for the Grammys orscissors on tour and she's in you know,

(09:46):
New Zealand right now, then makingsure that we're kind of timely of
posting those. Yeah, So Iwould say the strategies like posting more consistently
and timely to make sure that peoplecan see more relevant then pictures and relevant
videos of our hair and our products. It's it's hard being consistent and like

(10:07):
super hard, and it's so hardmanaging all social media website. Yeah,
it's I'm still trying to get TikToktogether because that's just that's a whole girl.
It's too much. It's too much. So did you have any like
I know you said you had areally good team, but when you first
first started this, especially during youknow, COVID, it was crazy.

(10:28):
Did you have any like self doubt? Did you have any like imposter syndrome?
How did you get past that?Of course, I feel like there's
so many hair companies in the world. The industry is like two billion dollars,
and sometimes people say it's oversaturated,specifically in Chicago as well, and
so yes, I had doubts aboutlike it's people are going to buy my
Hair's so many hair companies out here, and so I really thought about,

(10:52):
like what we can do differently,And so that's why I went on websites.
I talked to people. I heardtheir reviews about hair, what they
liked, what they absolutely did notlike. So I took that feedback to
help me pick my vendor as wellas for the packaging, like it just
I thought about what will stand out, like who has a box with a

(11:13):
mirror inside of it? And soI just really thought about, you know,
like what can make us stand outtruly, and the pattern and the
material all those things, and soyes, it was definitely a challenge at
the beginning, and I had alot, a lot of self doubt,
but I reminded myself of my why, and I reminded myself of, you
know, the community impact that I'mmaking every single day, and that's able

(11:37):
to was able to pick me upand able to keep me going every day.
And along with the community impact.What do you say or what would
you say you love the most aboutchickango Ooh, so many things to choose
from. I think the first thingis that I have everyday women who purchased
our hair and comes back every singletime blow up our inbox. So that's

(12:00):
the first thing I like that peoplelove our high quality, they love our
our excellent customer service. The secondthing is that I have celebrities who wear
my hair consistently. Sissa's actually ontour now she wears my hair. I
mean like she's purchased my hair nowthat I'm giving it away. She actually
puts in the order her team.Does you know? I have Sasha and

(12:24):
Cella, and I had Danny Leeand Yandy. Wow, So I'm just
extremely grateful that I had the opportunityfor people to actually experience our hair and
our products. So that's what Ilove most about it, to really give
hair to and sell hair to theeveryday woman and also have celebrities as well.
It's the best of both for usfor sure. Yeah, exactly.

(12:48):
And let me ask you my favoritequestion, brilliantly, black Shika, what
is that to you? It meansbreaking barious for ourselves. I think as
a black woman and as a blackentrepre there's a lot of limitations. There
are a lot of walls. I'vebeen very blessed to break some of those
walls. I'm from Chicago. Igraduated my high school valedictorian, I got

(13:11):
into twenty one schools, I wentto Spellman, and I just graduated with
my doctoral degree at the age ofthirty four. So I think, to
me, it means that's showing theworld that you can break barriers and that
you can be as brilliant as possibleregardless of your race, and you can
compare to any other race for sure, out in the world. And it's

(13:33):
actually set like a road map forthe young women who's coming behind me.
Yes, it's that part. Yes, it's like, yeah, it's about
us and showing that we are brilliant, but it's definitely about who's behind us,
and he's coming behind us. Yes, the younger generation absolutely, because
they need us. They need usfor sure, and they are watching us.

(13:54):
They are every single day and theysee so many negative things in the
media and so to on a lighton something that's positive and somebody who looks
like them is very, very importantto me. Getting chills over here,
Yes, I love it. Ilove it. So definitely tell them where
they can follow all the social mediaaccounts, all of them, because you
know it's a lot, and wherethey can place the order. Okay,

(14:16):
yeah, So our social media handleon Facebook, Instagram and TikTok is she
could co Extensions so s h ik a CEO and then extensions and you
can follow us on all those platforms. Our website is www dot she could
coextensions dot com. Our support emaillist info as Sheika coextensions dot com.

(14:39):
If you Google us, you willfind us. And if you are listening
to this podcast right now, ifyou inbox us, We're going to pick
a couple of women to do agiveaway and you never know what is going
to be. It might be someedge control, it might be a wig,
it might be some tape ins.You do not know. So let's
do the the first three women whoinbox us and say I heard you on

(15:03):
the show. We're gonna give youa giveaway. That's amazing and this is
the first time this has happened.Yes, wow, okay, I love
a giveaway on the podcast. Loveit, love it, love it.
Sheika, thank you so much forsharing your story today. No, please,
buzzdra is allmine. I would saythat literally, I do a couple
of podcasts, but this is oneof my favorites because I love hearing everybody's

(15:26):
story because it's different. Of course, everyone has a different story, but
I really do believe it's important totell from hearing from people that look like
us and how successful you can beand what true brilliance brilliance looks like.
Yes, thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity, of course,
anytime. Thank you, thanks forlistening to the Brilliantly Black podcast produced

(15:50):
by Jasmine Bennett and Ryan Lath Executiveproduced by Echo Robinson and Derek Brown.
If you're a black business and wouldlike to be featured, register your business
or service now at rock ninety fiveto five dot com, slash brilliant.
The Brilliantly Black Podcast is a productionof iHeartMedia, Chicago,