Forget turning lemons into lemonade, a Queen City hairstylist is turning her mugshot into some serious business.
Shia Milan Yearwood, 24, said she was in the middle of braiding her hair when she received a shocking phone call.
"At the start of the year I decided to do the 'No Heat Challenge' where you use protective styles and don't use any heat on your hair... so braids are used to protect your natural hair," Yearwood said. "I started off putting my hair in braids and got a phone call from the sheriff saying I had a warrant out for my arrest."
The warrant was issued for Yearwood due to her violating a protective/restraining order. The 24-year-old said she was trying to see her son when she violated her protective order.
So when Yearwood found out she had a warrant issued for her, she decided to take control of the situation.
"Growing up in Charlotte, I know Charlotte has this mugshot page and if you get arrested your mugshot will be posted on social media," Yearwood said.
When the sheriff called, Yearwood was halfway done with her braids. She finished the other half, applied makeup, and headed down to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office.
After her release, she decided to beat everyone to the punch and re-tweeted her own mugshot using her styling name, #BraidsByShia along with the empowering words: “Can’t hold me back either.”
Shia’s mugshot looked so good that her Twitter followers began asking who did her braids.
“Me,” she replied in a tweet.
With that simple answer, Yearwood turned her mugshot into lemonade, i.e. a booming business.
#BraidsByShia 🤷🏽♀️ can’t hold me back either. https://t.co/03x1BwtFcB
— Shia (@ShiaMilan) January 4, 2018
Me
— Shia (@ShiaMilan) January 6, 2018
“I’ve had at least 2,000 girls [asking for me to do their hair] from literally all over the world,” Yearwood said. “New York, U.K., Canada, Memphis, Baton Rouge, Texas, Dubai.”
Yearwood’s mugshot tweet has also received over 4,700 retweets and 9,100 likes on Twitter.
“I was turning lemons into lemonade,” Yearwood said. “Things that happen to you do not have to break you. You can take control of it and use it to your benefit.”
Yearwood said she is booking many clients for the coming months.