Chea Butterz Beauty Michea Jones

By Terry L. Watson

Photos Provided by Michea Jones

Michea Jones, pronounced (My-Shay), is the owner of Chea Butterz Beauty, also known in the Milwaukee, WI, community as The Braid Spa. Chea Butterz Beauty offers a wide range of luxury braiding and esthetics services, including every type of braid, from micro to the extra large knotless. Their services include styled feed-in braids (the new name for French braids), and a half weave and half braid option. They also have esthetics services, including waxing, facials, body treatments, body sculpting, lashes, brows, and more.

Michea says that Chea Butterz Beauty’s targeted audience is any male and female between the ages of (5-100) looking to enhance their beauty, whether through getting their hair done, cleaning their skin, or sculpting their body.

Michea describes herself as a hard-working, driven individual who isn’t afraid of challenges. She says, “I have dealt with many challenges throughout my life, which has molded me into the woman I am today. Growing up under the poverty level was one of the main challenges my siblings and I faced. Yet, that never stopped my mom from providing for us. Before my mother died, she taught me how to survive. Those values showed up in my life once I was on my own.”

At the age of nine, Michea’s mom first put a baby doll with hair in front of her. It was then she learned how to braid. “My mom braided hair also, and I would take the clients she didn’t want to do. However, I wasn’t making much money braiding for my mom, so I lost interest. That was my attitude every other year in regard to braiding. I would do it for a while; then I would stop. After high school, I decided to stop braiding and get my degree. But in the mix of school, my mom died. I was in my sophomore year of undergrad, and her passing hit me hard. I was only 19 and had nowhere to live. I eventually landed on my Godparents’ couch until I could make enough money to move. Once I got the hang of living on my own and paying bills, I realized I was missing something; braiding. Braiding was my connection to my mom. Soon, I had a two-bedroom home and turned the spare room into a “room shop”. I started taking clients in my home and charged what I wanted. I began to feel a sense of belonging,” Michae says. Today, she has a salon suite almost four times the size of her “room shop”, with independent contractors working alongside her. Things have changed for the better for Michea.

Chea Butterz Beauty began in 2018, the year before Michea finished college. It began under the name, Bliss Essential Goods, and offered skin care products. Michea wanted to combine her braiding services with her skin care products, and thus Chea Butterz Beauty was born.

When she graduated from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2019 with a BA in Psychology, Michea realized, Therapy wasn’t something she wanted to pursue then. “I wanted to learn about skin just as much as I knew about braids. I wanted to be legit in the skin care and esthetics world, so I went back to school and attended Milwaukee Area Technical College Mequon Skyn Spa,” she shares. Michea graduated in 2021 as a state Licensed Aesthetican; in 2021, Chea Butterz Beauty LLC became a registered business through Wisconsin. Michea was no longer operating in her “room shop”. She was legitimately established in her existing space.

Michea shares what she loves most about being a business owner is the opportunity to write her own story. “My business is what molded me to be,” she says. Michea also loves people. “I’m a giver by nature, and I want to make people feel good. I serve others in hopes of making their day just like they made mine when they chose Chea Butterz Beauty.”

Michea says her “why” has to be bigger than the “no’s” of others. Having this type of mentality is what drives her. “ I have to remember each day why I am doing this. I must keep going even without the support of others. I am also encouraged when I am supported by those I didn’t expect to support me,” she says.

Her advice to other aspiring entrepreneurs is to believe in what God has given you. “The vision that God gave you was meant only for you, so don’t let anyone tell you you can’t because God already showed you that you can.”

In addition to running her business, Michea teaches at Universal Scholars Academy. She shares that she doesn’t desire to teach in a classroom setting but still loves to teach, which is why she plans to return to school and get her cosmetology and esthetics instructor licenses. “I want to open the first black-owned Braid Spa Institute in Milwaukee and offer professional braiding and esthetics classes to individuals between the ages of 18-50. I also want to obtain my Masters in Counseling and open a Therapy salon, a first of its kind. I will call it Hairapy, and it will be designed for both men and women and offer a professional space to unwind, relax, and vent while getting serviced,” Michea says.