Straight or Knot?

Meet Brandy Robinson, owner of Straight or Knot Salon in Fairfield

Above from left: Stylists Elizabeth Brown, Gabbrielle Dunlap, Niah Bohannon, and Straight or Knot owner Brandy Robinson model their masks.

To say that Brandy Robinson, the owner of Straight or Knot, loves her job would be an understatement.

“There has not been a day when I did not want to go to work,” she says. “If I’m feeling bad, if I have a headache, if something bad has happened in my life—going to work has always made me so happy.”

I didn’t have a thing of finding out what I wanted to do. I just have always known.

Perhaps it’s that daily dose of workplace satisfaction—plus her infectiously calm, soothing demeanor—that makes her clients so devoted to her.

“I had a lot of people sending me money during the pandemic,” she says. “All I could do is say thank you to God because I feel like this is the way we were being taken care of during that time. I still had to take care of the salon as well as home. [The donations] did sustain me.”

While it’s common for stylists to enter the industry at a young age, Robinson may have found her calling earlier than most.

“It started when I was like 3 [years old],” she explains. “I knew all my life that this is what I’d do. I didn’t have a thing of finding out what I wanted to do. I just have always known.”

Growing up in Richmond in the 1980s, she started by cutting her dolls’ hair, then her brother’s hair. By her teens, she graduated to practicing on her friends.

Her foray into coloring was more of a mixed bag. She secretly lightened her hair with Sun In but pretended she had no idea what her mother was talking about when she noticed the change. It was when Robinson tried dying a friend’s hair with red Kool-Aid that the jig was up.

“We got in trouble,” she says, laughing.

After that, she decided to learn the proper way. She entered into the cosmetology program at Solano Community College at 17 and worked in several salons around Fairfield until opening up her shop in 2011. Straight or Knot prides itself on being a multicultural salon where everyone is welcome.

“We do cuts, color, natural services, braids, relaxers, weaves,” says Robinson. “For women, our hair is so important. We could have on a crappy outfit and have a bad day, but if our hair is done, we feel good. I have had so many tears, so many hugs, so many gifts, so many people say, ‘You changed my life.’ I think I’m kind of addicted to that feeling.” 844 Texas St., Fairfield, straightorknot.com •