PUEBLO, Colo. – Shirley Milligan and her husband, Cecil, have four children, three of them daughters, so they’ve spent their fair share of time at beauty supply stores.
However, they were often disappointed by the customer service they received and how they were treated.
So when Cecil, a 30-year military veteran who had attended barber school many years ago, saw a video posted online by a company that helps people launch beauty supply stores, an idea was born.
Urban Beauty Supply was incorporated on January 24, 2018 – as an anniversary gift from Shirley to Cecil – and officially opened its doors in south Indianapolis on February 27, 2020.
“It’s a family-owned business that was created last year, in the middle of a pandemic, to provide products to the community and provide the best customer service that we possibly can,” Shirley said. “It’s been a long time coming. We were supposed to open the year before, 2019, but it didn’t happen. We had the lease ready and everything in July of the year before. It just so happened that a pandemic came through the world last year.”
Just weeks after its opening, Urban Beauty Supply was deemed nonessential by the government and forced to close. The Milligans managed to maintain some business by doing curbside, but things were a struggle before they could truly open their doors.
“It was really one of those things, like, I don’t know if this was the right move, because you have all this money invested into a company,” Shirley said. “We were self-financed in the beginning. So you have all this money tied into a business that can’t open. We actually literally closed about four months, and then when we opened back up, our name was getting out by word of mouth, and we have social media. So we slowly but surely started seeing more and more people. We still do a little bit of curbside, but once we opened back up fully, it was a game-changer.”
Beginning in 2021, the PBR is partnering with local businesses in the cities it visits. Urban Beauty Supply is the league’s fifth community spotlight as the Unleash The Beast comes to the Gainbridge Field House in Indianapolis for the PBR Monster Energy Invitational on New Year’s Day.
Since the loosening of restrictions, Urban Beauty Supply has been able to donate products to other organizations and do some volunteering in the community. Shirley says this community-mindedness is the best part of her job, and her interactions with customers have provided some of the most rewarding moments.
“Early on, we were striking up conversations, and it wasn’t even about selling stuff. It was about connecting with people,” she said. “In the beginning, the early days, it was a pandemic, so we didn’t make much money, but the people that were coming in, the conversations that we were left with, had us full.”
One time, a man came into the store and talked to the Milligans for a bit and took a picture with them. The man, who turned out to be a well-known local pastor, posted the photo on Facebook, receiving hundreds of shares.
“Another time, another pastor came in, and his wife came in, and just honestly stopped. We prayed in the middle of the store,” Milligan said. “We held hands and prayed right there at the point of sale, right there at the cash register. And it was funny because when customers come in and they pray like that, there are no customers coming in during that time. And then, when we’re done praying, customers come in. So it’s like a moment of letting God do his thing, and then the customers come in.”
Customer interaction is also how the Milligans ended up connecting with the PBR.
Milligan became friends with a regular customer in the store, a local cosmetologist, and attended a grand opening with her. Also in attendance was Fanchon Stinger, the Indianapolis news anchor and bull owner who launched her foundation, Grit & Grace, at the 2021 PBR World Finals.
During the 2022 season, Stinger will appear at 10 PBR Unleash The Beast events, hosting middle and high school-age girls for lessons on personal growth through leadership, integrity and animal care.
Grit & Grace will also provide mentorship programs and scholarship opportunities for the young women. It is the first community-focused organization to have an official alignment with PBR.
When Stinger learned of Urban Beauty Supply and its involvement in the Indianapolis community, a connection was formed.
“It’s amazing,” Milligan said. “We didn’t know PBR existed. We didn’t know Grit & Grace existed. But now we’re being a part of it, and it’s something that’s way bigger than ourselves. It’s way bigger than me, it’s way bigger than my husband, it’s way bigger than us together, and it’s bigger than the store. So it’s just being community-minded and helping people.”
But it’s not just the community that Urban Beauty Supply has helped. Milligan, a self-proclaimed introvert, has found that having a business has done a lot for her personally.
And she wants everyone to know that if she can do it, so can you.
“I feel like, for a long time, I didn’t have a voice,” Milligan said. “I didn’t know my place in this world. And so, to be a part of something that is bigger than myself, and to be able to speak on something, is profound for me. I know if it’s profound for me, a girl from a very small town in Mississippi, then I feel like anybody can do this. To feel empowered, to do something bigger than yourself, I feel like that’s golden. That’s key for me.”
