Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicki Peacock.
Hi Nicki, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started doing my own hair in kindergarten. My sister is only 16 months older than me, and when we were little, my mom used to dress us alike and do our hair exactly alike. I hated it. I wanted to look different and feel like my own person.
My mom would braid our hair and put it into two ponytails, and I would get to school, take my hair down, wear it out the way I wanted, and then try to put it back the way my mom had done it before I went home. I probably would have gotten away with it too, except Olan Mills came to take our school pictures. When the pictures came home, there I was with my hair completely out! That’s how my mom found out what I had been doing.
Looking back, I think that was really the beginning of my relationship with beauty. It wasn’t just about hair—it was about self-expression. I wanted to look like myself. I wanted to be different, and I wanted the way I looked to reflect my personality. That is still very much who I am today. Hair, fashion and beauty have always been ways for me to express myself.
By the seventh grade, I had started doing other people’s hair. Fun fact: one of the first girls whose hair I started doing in the seventh-grade bathroom, Tori, still comes to The Peacock Experience every now and then to get her hair done. So technically, I have a client relationship that started long before I ever had a cosmetology license or owned a salon.
I knew by 18 that I wanted to go to cosmetology school, but I didn’t have the financial means to do it at the time, so I didn’t go straight into hair school. I had to wait. I was about 23 when I was finally able to pay for cosmetology school myself and pursue professionally something I had already loved and been doing for years.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t believe any path is completely smooth. I think anything worth having is going to come with a few obstacles, so no, my journey definitely hasn’t been a smooth one.
When I finally went to cosmetology school, I was 23 years old and working as a manager at Forever 21. I was miserable. I was still doing hair on the weekends and anytime I could, but every week I was clocking into a job that I knew I didn’t want to be at anymore.
Eventually, I made the decision to quit and go to cosmetology school full-time. During the day, I went to school, and at night I worked at Applebee’s as a waitress and bartender. The funny thing is, I made really good money waiting tables and bartending, so even after going to cosmetology school, I wasn’t convinced that I wanted to do hair full-time.
Even graduating from cosmetology school came with another obstacle. I passed both my written state board exam and my practical exam on the first try, but getting my actual license became a fight. Because of some trouble I had gotten into when I was around 20 or 21, the cosmetology board initially did not want to issue my license.
I had worked too hard to get that far to just accept no as the answer. I had to go to Richmond, contest the decision, complete forms, write appeal letters and do everything I could to advocate for myself. Eventually, I got my cosmetology license. That experience taught me early that sometimes getting to the life you want means being willing to fight for another opportunity.
And then I got fired from Applebee’s.
At the time, getting fired certainly didn’t feel like a blessing, but it ended up being one of the things that pushed me exactly where I needed to go. I started doing hair full-time, and I’ve been doing hair full-time ever since.
Looking back, I’m so grateful for the way God redirected my path. Sometimes the obstacle isn’t there to stop you; sometimes it’s the very thing that moves you into what you were supposed to be doing all along. I love what I do, and I’m grateful that God saw what I needed, even when I couldn’t see it for myself, and adjusted my path accordingly.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
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I am a Christian beauty entrepreneur, and I have the honor of owning and operating The Peacock Experience Salon & Spa. I’m a silk press specialist, and we specialize in healthy natural hair and beautiful silk presses—in about an hour.
One of the things that sets The Peacock Experience apart is that I believe women should be able to look and feel beautiful without giving up their entire day. We take clients as early as 5:00 AM, and I’ve built my services around efficiency. My clients can come in, receive quality service, have a beautiful experience, and get back to their lives. I don’t believe beauty should take all day.
But The Peacock Experience is about so much more than hair.
The most important thing to me is making sure that every person who walks through our doors feels seen. When you come here, you matter. We talk about life, we laugh, and yes, we talk a lot about God. My faith is naturally woven into who I am and how I serve people.
The world is loud, and women carry so much. We are mothers, wives, business owners, professionals, caregivers, friends—women are superheroes. Sometimes we just need somewhere we can put everything down for a minute.
That’s what I want The Peacock Experience to be.
I call it a beauty pit stop. You come in, take a break from the world, get whatever you need in that moment, and leave feeling reset, recharged, beautiful and ready to go back out there and fight the world again.
I want you to leave feeling better than you did when you walked in.
That’s why it’s called The Peacock Experience. The service may be a silk press, but what I’m really offering is an experience. 🦚
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Seeing people genuinely happy makes me happy. Not just having a good day, but really living the life that God created them to live.
I believe God is the master of all plans, and He gets glory when we walk in what He has called us to do. When we are operating in our purpose, we are using the gifts He gave us to solve problems and serve people in the Kingdom. I absolutely love seeing someone realize, “I’m in the right space. I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
I love seeing people mentally happy, physically happy and spiritually happy—and, of course, with a great head of hair, looking and feeling beautiful!
That carries over into my business too. When my clients are happy, I’m happy. When the people around me are thriving, walking in their purpose, enjoying their lives and becoming who God created them to be, that brings me joy.
At the core of who I am, I just really love seeing people happy. ❤️
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thepeacockexperience.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepeacockexperience?igsi=MTR4OXp1bnZrcXZocQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/nickipeacock83?igsi=MTdtbnQxeHJ4MDYwaQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
