IF WE ALL WORK TOGETHER…

APRIL SEALY HAS COME UP & DIDN’T GET THERE ALONE

“Make a decision today that your future will thank you for later. That’s something that’s been sticking with me the last couple months.” That’s what April Sealy confidently states with her notable Georgian accent during her interview. She’s owner of A Touch of Class Hair Studio at the edge of Albuquerque and Corrales on the Westside. And she’s been taking her own advice about being decisive and making moves. “This year, I’ve been on self-care.”

April arrived in the Land of Enchantment in 2006 when husband Ramon was stationed at Kirtland AFB. The couple has a 12-year-old son, Jaylen and a 5-year-old daughter, Joanna. April built her business up the last decade after getting her license in 2010 and she manages the other salon suites in the building she works out of. Her studio is the culmination of one of two lifelong dreams. “Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a stylist and a teacher because I come from a family of educators. I was able to check off the hair stylist part [but] not the educator part yet.”

April specializes in natural hair care, extensions, and braids. “I saw there was a need for more African American and biracial hairstylists [in Albuquerque] because, let’s be real, the African American population is growing, but it’s not like it is back in Georgia for me.”

April loves seeing people come into the studio and be transformed. “They may come in down and out, but when they leave, it’s like they’re a whole different person.” It’s what she would observe while joining her mother, grandmother, and three aunts all day at their salon when she was little. She started braiding on her own at 6 years old.

Once April got her license, she was off to the races. Someone she knew in the local Black community put her onto Kamaria Creations, where she expanded her skills, and then took a job at JC Penney’s at the Cottonwood Mall. Word of mouth traveled fast talking with church friends like Beverly Gaines of the MLK Commission, and influenced by mentor Nina Farrow, to whom she sends a shout out. April chose to open A Touch of Class near Cottonwood because “location is key with any business,” and she didn’t want to lose her already budding customer base.

Beyond her focus on styling, April and Ramon are serious about having multiple streams of income, so the entrepreneurial couple opened a jewelry company and a car rental business. Given the help she received on the come-up, April says that the Black communities in Albuquerque can adopt an “each one, teach one” mentality. She encourages others to “help a person get to the next level because we have a small African American population here and it would work a lot better if we all work together.”

Ronnie Wallace and Adolphe Pierre-Louis enriched the photographic landscape of the people, places, and events in and around Albuquerque. Their time, talent, and treasure can’t be fully measured.

As they both shutter their illustrious careers, we are still going to need people to be our stories’ caretakers. The challenge for us to continue to record and share our history in photos and stories reminds us of the myth of Anansi, the West African trickster god. He’s known as the world’s master storyteller but he didn’t earn that mantle easily. He had to beg Nyan the sky god to share his wealth of