Monday, May 19, 2025
On a busy commercial strip on Rockaway Avenue, tucked between a barbershop and a pizzeria, Elle Anaiz’s multicultural beauty salon hums with the soft buzz of clippers, low conversation, and the occasional burst of laughter.
The beauty space, eponymously titled “Anaiz Hair and Beauty”, is where Nailea Belneau, a senior at Valley Stream South High School and a second-year student in the district’s Career and Technical Education Cosmetology program, is practicing the art of knotless braids, facial massages, and other beauty treatments under Anaiz’s watchful eye.
“She’s doing good,” Anaiz said. “I always want her to be close, to watch me. But not just watch—put your hands in it. Practice. That’s how you learn.”
Belneau’s internship is part of Valley Stream Central High School District’s initiative to bridge classroom learning with hands-on experience in real workplaces. The program places CTE students in internships tied to their areas of study—cosmetology, culinary arts, medical assisting—giving them a direct line to professionals and businesses in the community.
At the same time, the cosmetology student is using her hands-on beauty training to check off the 250 hours of outside classroom practice to be eligible to sit for her cosmetology-licensing exam.
“I like school, but being here is different,” Belneau says. “You see what it’s really like—how fast you need to work, how to talk to clients, how to fix a mistake quickly. You don’t get that in class.”
Anaiz, who started styling hair as a teenager in Haiti, has been running her salon in Valley Stream since 2017. “It’s a very high-human field,” she says. “You need patience, and you need to love it. If you’re just in it for the money, you won’t last.”
Her shop reflects her values. There’s no assembly line of customers waiting in plastic chairs. Appointments are staggered, one-on-one. “I like it that way,” Anaiz says. “It gives me time to clean, to focus, to teach.”
She teaches by doing. During Belneau’s shifts, she has her shadow closely but also hands her the tools and lets her try. “I didn’t know how to do knotless braids before,” Belneau says. “But watching her, then doing the whole back section myself—now I know.”
More than anything, Belneau says she’s excited to be working with natural Afro hair textures. “It feels really good to practice on Afro hair,” she says. “We don’t get to do that enough in class. A lot of times, we’re working on straight mannequins or each other, but it’s not the same. This is our hair—it’s what I grew up with, what I wear, and what I want to specialize in.”
Anaiz is blunt about what it takes to survive in the beauty industry. “You can be the best with your hands, but if you don’t manage your shop, if you give credit to customers, you’ll go down fast,” she says. “The same way you go up, you can go down.” She’s learned to say no to customers asking to pay later, no matter how loyal they seem. “If I want to give a gift, I’ll do that. But not credit.”
She also stresses ethics. “If someone comes in asking for a color that’ll damage their hair, you tell them no. You treat the hair first. Not everyone will do that. But you have to have conscience.”
For Belneau, who is also of Haitian descent, there’s a particular joy in seeing how a Black-owned, woman-led business can operate with both pride and discipline. “She’s honest,” Belneau says. “And she’s real about everything. I’ve learned how to carry myself better just by watching her.”
Lori Rodriguez, the district’s work-based learning coordinator who oversees the program, calls Anaiz a textbook example of what she considers an “ideal partner” in the mentorship program. She is a “community-based business owner” which makes it incredibly convenient for students who often can’t afford to travel far.
“Anaiz is not just helping Belneau practice the craft, but it’s more holistic about what the profession is like and the challenges.”
Lori’s goal is to make this a long-term partnership with the hopes Anaiz will welcome a new student come next spring.
Have an opinion on this article? Send an email to jlasso@liherald.com.
