Attributing much of her success to her passion, her willingness to do hands-on classes and the support of her father, Kisa Powell is an accomplished entrepreneur, cosmetologist and hair colorist and has excelled as the owner of C.O.D.A. Curls since 2020, where she provides treatments for textured and curly hair. Becoming a licensed hair colorist at Forever Curls under the tutelage of Leysa Carrillo, she is also Rëzo certified and obtained her cosmetology license in 2009. Prior to founding her own business, she spent seven years working at Supercuts and, from 2010 to 2015, served in the U.S. National Guard, where, during her deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan, from 2012 to 2103, she provided free haircuts to the soldiers in her unit.
Born to parents who were both deaf, Ms. Powell was raised with American sign language as her first language and always helped her parents as a translator. Today, she is an advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing communities in all that she does. Feeling that the beauty industry is behind the times in terms of accessibility, she notes her own background through her business, the titular “C.O.D.A.” standing for “child of deaf adults.” Looking toward the future, she hopes to open an all-inclusive beauty school that will be accessible to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing as well as making sure that any facilities are fully wheelchair accessible. Furthermore, Ms. Powell would like to donate her time to the Talladega School for the Deaf and help to create a program to help students find employment following graduation.
At C.O.D.A. Curls, Ms. Powell does her utmost to source all-natural, vegan products and work with Black-owned businesses whenever possible. She is also in the process of developing her own line of hair care products. Above everything she has done, she considers her greatest achievement to be establishing her own business to provide an important service to an underserved community. She loves to see her clients happy as they see the final result of their styling. For her excellence, Ms. Powell and C.O.D.A. Curls were featured in the October 2020 issue of Vestavia Hills Magazine.