Conscious Coils

Amber is not only extremely talented, but she also has a unique philosophy that makes her business one in a million. My daughter has her hair braided here monthly. We love coming here because she always teaches us something new and the styles are incredible.
Her salon is beautiful and she is a brilliant woman with whom it’s a pure joy to spend the time connecting and discussing life’s issues (hours literally fly by!).
I cannot recommend her enough.
xo

I’m excited for Amber to be downtown! She specializes in working with black hair and has helped friends i have in particular with adopted or biracial kids. Not every parent has the same texture hair as their kid, and learning how to do your kid’s hair while they’re crying in pain is never exactly an ideal bonding experience. Amber steps in and seems to have a great handle of bringing families together and teaching them everything from black hair care 101 to advanced braids and locs.
I’m especially glad to see her downtown, since there is a dearth of black and other ethnic hair care downtown and in the pearl. I swear there’s brown folks in the pearl! Brown folks downtown! Hair care and love for all residents of the pearl and downtown area has arrived. Urban professionals, students, and parents alike should be sighing with delight when they get to check out Amber’s cute little studio.

I was reminded to do a review of this salon, after a reader wrote me wanting suggestions about black hair salons in Portland. Let’s face it. Portland isn’t the place for black women to keep their hair looking good. Last fall, I attended a conference in Atlanta, and couldn’t stop staring at all the perfectly coiffed hairdos. The black women there were looking da bomb! (yes, breaking out my 90’s slang)
This is not to say Portland doesn’t have good «traditional» black hair salons (e.g. Geneva’s Shear Perfection), but Conscious Coils is unique in that (1) the salon is located in downtown Portland. An area that has not been black hair care friendly (2) the salon focuses on natural hair care and (3) Amber Starks (founder/​owner) is the young woman who helped pass the Natural Hair Care bill in Oregon

I attended Conscious Coils grand opening last month. Starks is a lovely young woman who deserves all her success. I also have respect for Starks as her activism came out of her doing black children’s hair in foster care. At the time, it was illegal for her to do their hair (only in Oregon :0/​So, Starks specializes in doing black children’s hair. A great resource for parents.
The salon is a small, but friendly space. Black art line the walls. There is a huge flat screen TV. The processing time to do a braiding style, can sometimes take hours. The TV is hooked up to Netflix so that both stylist and client can stay entertained :) Starks offers various natural hair care options (braids, twists, Sisterlocs, etc.). She even offers classes for parents who want to learn how to take care of their children’s natural hair (especially for non black parents) and classes for black women who are interested in learning how to braid, etc. to start their own businesses.
Conscious Coils is a very exciting new adventure for dreary downtown Portland…