Ulta Beauty is becoming an unexpected backup plan for Black women tired of chasing dependable stylists. For many, the breaking point is a cancellation text arriving minutes before a confirmed appointment, with no new date, no refunded deposit and a vacation, wedding or big event only days away.

Now a growing number of those women are finding a backup plan in an unexpected place: the salon tucked inside their neighborhood Ulta Beauty.

The Hunt for a Reliable Stylist Got Harder

In Black communities, hair care carries the weight of ritual. It involves the right products, long hours in the chair and a trusted stylist who can bring a vision to life. Unless a woman has a dependable roster of stylists for every look, or can do her own hair, finding the right person is often the most draining part of the experience.

White customers can generally walk into a chain like Hair Cuttery or Drybar and leave satisfied. Black women have long had to work harder for the same result, and the pandemic raised the stakes. Many stylists left traditional salons for home studios and rented suites. That independent model has worked well for plenty of stylists and clients, but it removed the salon floor where customers once compared options in person. Today the search runs through Instagram pages, online reviews, websites and the occasional referral from a friend.

Frustration over uneven service, climbing prices and booking policies that seem to stretch on forever has spilled onto social media. There, women are sharing positive experiences at Ulta salons, and many of their followers are surprised to hear it.

The Strategist Who Made Room for Textured Hair

Much of that shift traces back to Pekela Riley, an award-winning stylist and founder of True+Pure Texture. Riley joined Ulta Beauty’s Pro Team as a diversity strategist in 2018. She told theGrio that textured hair was barely acknowledged when she arrived. Black women did not see themselves in store imagery, and their services were missing from the menu.

Riley argued that a retailer billing itself as a beauty destination had to serve everyone. She pointed out that about 65% of people in the United States have textured hair, yet many mainstream salons lack the skills to care for it.

She went on to design an enterprise-wide texture curriculum for Ulta’s salon and retail operations. The program offers representation and cultural context and teaches employees to describe services such as silk presses accurately. Her modules remain mandatory in Ulta’s training. Riley said her goal was to make sure Black customers could talk about their hair in the store without feeling sidelined or profiled.

Why Ulta Results Can Vary by Location

Riley stresses that the work is unfinished, especially as demand grows. Skill sets, capacity and availability differ from store to store, depending on how many stylists at a given location are trained in textured hair.

Expecting every Ulta to match a Black salon’s full menu is a gamble, she said. A client in Idaho, for example, may struggle to find someone who can do a sew-in.

Structure Brings Accountability

The draw varies. Some women want convenience, open appointments, clear pricing or easy access to products. Others miss the old-school salon atmosphere where generations of Black women found comfort and community. Not every Ulta will feel like Beauty Shop, but some clients and stylists value the structured environment.

Riley sees the chain as part of a broader reset in salon culture. Settings with oversight, she said, tend to produce better conduct than independent setups, which no one regulates. That structure also gives customers a path for recourse when something goes wrong.

Still, she does not see salons and independent stylists as rivals. Skilled salon stylists have always gone on to launch their own brands and spaces. Ulta expands access, choices and job opportunities, Riley said, but the long hours and physical labor behind the services Black women love remain a story still unfolding.

Respect Has to Run Both Ways

The constant online debate shows how personal the bond between client and stylist can be. Like any relationship, it takes trust, patience and time to build.

For clients, that means arriving on time, paying deposits and remembering that stylists get tired, get sick and need days off. For stylists, it means clear communication, consistency and grace when life intervenes. Whether the chair sits in an Ulta, a Black-owned shop or a private suite, Riley said, the relationship rests on discipline, structure, respect and shared values.

Source: TheGrio