At this Milton beauty studio, owner Skye Warren is teaching it’s ‘deeper than beauty’

It’s been an overwhelming few weeks, but it’s time for the Joy Beat , where we highlight the people and places bringing light, love and joy to their communities. This week’s nominee is doing just that, one act of service, one empowering conversation and one beauty transformation at a time.

Skye Warren is the founder of  Sadiddy Lifestyle Beauty Studio , a vibrant place in Milton, Massachusetts, where beauty isn’t just about appearances. It’s about impact. The salon is a community hub where Black and brown men and women find connection and support — a beacon of joy and resilience.

Warren joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share more about how beauty and purpose can go hand in hand. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: I mentioned in the introduction that Sadiddy Lifestyle isn’t just a beauty studio, though it does offer those services. Explain more about what Sadiddy is about beyond that.

Skye Warren: Yes, absolutely. When I think of Sadiddy Lifestyle, I definitely always say that our salon is deeper than beauty. When we say that our salon is deeper than beauty, we want to be clear in that we are existing to create a safe space for our community to receive these luxury services, but to also be able to be a space that is therapeutic and a space that is healing.

Rath: How does that happen? I know that in a beauty parlor or barber, great conversations can happen. Is it about fostering that kind of interaction?

Warren: Yes. So, I would definitely say that it’s about fostering sisterhood and fostering genuine connection. When we’re thinking about the community connection that we’re able to curate at Sadiddy Lifestyle, we are doing something that really allows us to go beyond the status quo.

There are a number of conversations that happen authentically with us and our clients, just based off of the people that may be in the room. When I think about being at Sadiddy Lifestyle, there are some times when we have politicians in our chairs. There are some times when we have educators, entrepreneurs, etc., and you never really know what you’re going to get when you walk into Sadiddy Lifestyle in terms of who’s there.

But you’re always going to leave better than you came into the space because our goal is to really fill your cup while you’re there.

Rath: Tell us about the training program you created.

Warren: Yes, thank you so much for asking about that! I love our training program. Our training program is something that is truly near and dear to my heart because it allows us to really have a very clear quality control for the members of our team and for the clients that we’re able to service.

Our training program goes beyond just naming what customer services that we require of our team but it goes to also servicing the community to name [some services], we offer Gel-X training, we offer acrylic training, we offer structured training that really allows nail technicians, whether they’re on our team or not, to be able to receive the training that they need to be able to be successful within those specific services.

Rath: What’s it been like working with young women and watching them go through this process?

Warren: I would say it’s one of the most rewarding parts of my journey. I’m also an educator by day — I’m a K-12 educator at a local charter school in Roxbury —

Rath: Something more than you should just mention in passing!

Warren: Yes, absolutely! But when I was opening Sadiddy Lifestyle, keeping education at the front was something that was really important to me. So being able to pour into the women that have worked at — or currently work at — Sadiddy Lifestyle has truly been a blessing for me, because I’ve really been able to pour into those that have been able to work with us.

Rath: You’re talking about it like it’s an extension of your day job — your educational mission.

Warren: Yes, it absolutely is. It is something that I feel like is my life’s purpose — to be able to not only teach someone a skill that is going to be able to make them the money that we need to survive, but also just the overall experience of the sisterhood that we’ve been able to foster.

Rath: Have you had any of your former students at Sadiddy?

Warren: I have! Actually, one of my students has been able to receive a service. She’s a nail technician herself, and I was able to — with the way she turned her behavior around this year — I gave her a free set for her birthday this past year. It was very full circle for her to be able to hear about the salon for so long but then to be able to step foot and really see it for herself. I know it was something that was very motivating for her, as she’s also a rising nail technician.

Rath: So, you know our sort of ethos with this beat is that we really hunger for joy — for more stories like yours. We like to ask the people we’re talking to: What does joy mean for you? Where do you find it?

Warren: That is such a beautiful question. Joy, to me, is resilience. When I think of joy, I think of the resilience to persevere — specifically, being a Black woman in Boston, the resilience to continue to get up and make a difference every day is truly what brings me joy.

If you would like to nominate someone or something for the Joy Beat, leave us a voicemail at (617) 300-BEAT [2328].