Rosie Awori – Montreal Community Contact – Local Journalism Initiative
Long before colonization disrupted African societies, hair was far more than a matter of appearance. Hairstyles could signal a person’s age, family, marital status, spirituality, community or social standing. The hours spent braiding, twisting and caring for hair were acts of storytelling, relationship-building and cultural continuity.
Centuries of enslavement, displacement and assimilation interrupted the passing down of Black hair knowledge across generations. During the transatlantic slave trade, many enslaved Africans had their heads shaved upon capture, this act stripped away not only hair, but identity, dignity and cultural belonging. Generations later, many families found themselves navigating beauty standards that often rewarded straighter hair while portraying tightly coiled textures as difficult, unprofessional or undesirable.
For Montreal entrepreneur Florise Boyard, founder of Meya Beauty, healing that rupture has become both a personal mission and a community calling.
“I don’t sell hair products,” Boyard says to the CONTACT. “It’s a transformation.”
Born and raised in Montreal to Haitian parents, Boyard remembers growing up feeling caught between cultures. Her parents told her she belonged here. Society often suggested otherwise. Part of that feeling centered on her hair.
Like many Black girls growing up before the explosion of online natural-hair resources, she internalized the message that straight hair represented beauty and acceptance. She vividly recalls counting down the years until she turned 13; in her home, this was the age her mother said she could finally have her hair chemically relaxed.
“I waited for that day,” she recalls. “As if, at that moment, I would become more valuable, more desirable, more beautiful.”
However, the change she thought would come did not. Years later, after hearing India Arie’s anthem I Am Not My Hair, Boyard walked into a Montreal barbershop and asked the barber to shave off all of her hair.
“I felt that I had gained a freedom,” she says. “I was reconnecting with my true nature.”
That moment became the beginning of an entirely different journey, not only learning to care for her own natural hair, but understanding the science behind it.
“There has to be a science to this,” she remembers thinking. “God put this on our heads. There has to be a formula.”
Boyard immersed herself in research, experimenting with ingredients and studying textured hair. What began as informal workshops soon evolved into handcrafted products as women repeatedly asked the same question:
“What are you using on your hair?”
This question got her thinking about how she could help others care for their hair. This is how she first started her business in 2017.
Most hair products, she says, are marketed broadly despite one critical difference among individuals: hair porosity.
Meya Beauty’s products are formulated around porosity rather than curl pattern alone. Visitors to the company’s website complete a brief assessment that identifies whether their hair has low, medium or high porosity before receiving tailored recommendations.
“It’s just like skincare,” Boyard explains. “If you have oily skin, you wouldn’t buy products made for dry skin.”
The result is a more personalized approach to common concerns such as dryness, breakage and difficulty retaining length.
“How can you love something you don’t understand?”
Through workshops called Cheveux d’Amour (Hair Love), she works with children, teenagers and adults to rebuild confidence while teaching practical hair care.
She believes many families are living with what history interrupted.
“Something got broken,” she says.
Rather than simply teaching hairstyles, the workshops encourage participants to touch, understand and appreciate their own hair.
“There has been a broken link in the intergenerational transmission of hair care.”
She intentionally avoids ranking curl types or assigning value to one texture over another.
“I don’t talk about hair like school grades.”
Instead, she encourages language that celebrates natural texture for what it is: coily, curly, versatile, and worthy of care.
Parents tell her that after their children attend their workshops, the children now ask to wear their natural hair proudly. Others report seeing curl patterns they never knew they had after learning how to care for them properly.
“Kids love their hair until somebody makes them feel like something is wrong with it.”
For Boyard, those transformations represent healing. Today, Meya Beauty continues expanding through online sales and selected distributors while setting its sights on national and international markets.
To learn more or even do a porosity test online, visit: www.meyabeauty.com
