From style to personal wellness, some Black-owned businesses in Gainesville try to go a step further in caring for and improving locals’ wellbeing. As National Black Business Month comes to a close at August’s end, here’s some local spots to visit.
Salon Syx
Dennayce Mavin, a 38-year-old hair stylist based in Gainesville, works on all hair types with a focus on natural hair care, including weaves and cuts. She also owns Salon Syx, a business for which she travels to do hair for weddings and funerals.
Mavin got her cosmetology license in 2008 at the College of Central Florida. She opened her first salon in Ocala and has also worked at two salons in downtown Gainesville. Her clients have followed her throughout North Central Florida, she said.
“I’m glad to know that the things that I do in the community, they’re not going unnoticed as far as just being a business owner, a good person, a pillar in the community,” Mavin said.
Mavin also performs mortuary cosmetology, which includes hairstyling on dead bodies. She’s practiced other aspects of the job, too, like dressing the clients and being emotionally present for the families. She’s working on getting her professional license online at American Academy McAllister Institute.
Recently, Mavin participated in Cutz 4 Christ in Williston Aug. 10, where stylists like her served over 250 children with free styles, cuts and braids. She also brings together small businesses every summer for a showcase to interact with the community.
“It’s really not about me,” she said. “It’s more so about helping the generation that comes after me.”
Mavin’s clients can see her at Salon Marvin Hayes where she is accepting appointments.
The Goddess Project
The Goddess Project, founded by 37-year-old Alexandria Gibson, offers holistic health education and promotes natural healing through ancestral practices to help the Gainesville community overcome ailments and pain.
Some of the natural services provided are Reiki and chakra alignment, which are meant to help with physical and mental pain, and yoni steaming, which cleanses the vaginal area by squatting over an herb-infused pot of hot water.
She had first practiced yoni steaming on herself when she was no longer getting her menstrual cycle monthly and was concerned about health complications. After she steamed, her cycle came back, she said.
Gibson then began practicing natural healing on clients after she met an HIV-positive client asking for help with pain management. Gibson worked with him in the last year of his life to ease his pain, bathing him in herbal baths and packing his sores with a homemade herbal salve.
In 2018, Gibson opened The Goddess Project, located in Gainesville. It weathered challenges, namely Covid-19 and Gibson giving birth to her fourth child.
The project has always focused on the wellness of others, she said, and Gibson now hosts wellness workshops to further connect with the community.
The Goddess Project also works with nonprofit organizations like Bailey Learning and Arts Collective and Women of Xcellence Inc., which sponsor food and activities for the project. Nonprofits and community donations have covered the cost for clients to attend sessions for free.
“In this season, The Goddess Project is moving to mutual aid,” Gibson said.
Fade Fitness
Fade Fitness serves as a safe place to reach fitness goals, according to 24-year-old Cameron Hogan, who founded the local gym in 2023.
Hogan first worked with clients as a personal trainer at public gyms until he was able to open his own location in north Gainesville.
Fade Fitness also has an online training program of more than 100 videos, which Hogan recorded personally, for those not in the local area. His content reaches clients worldwide, from the United Kingdom to Mexico, he said.
Hogan is also creating an app for his business.
Outside of Fade Fitness, Hogan also hosts Rise N’ Run Club in Gainesville, a free run session that meets twice a week in different locations in the city.
“People can come together, network and meet other people in the same journey, trying to get back on their feet,” he said.
Fade Fitness will hold a one-year anniversary run club event Aug. 31 with a live DJ and vendors.
Contact Teia Williams at twilliams@alligator.org. Follow her on X @teia_williams.
