Hair products sit on a shelf at Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply at the San Marcos Premium Outlets. Phire Girl Inc.’s own line of hair care and beauty products are also available to purchase in-store.

Back when she was only 13 years old, Ciscely Mackey started braiding hair in her childhood home. As she grew older, Mackey’s clientele grew, presenting to her the idea to start her own business in doing hair.
What began as a kitchen table idea of a business called Braids on Phire has evolved into Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply, a Black-owned and women-owned business with two storefronts and its own line of in-store products. In December 2021, Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply opened its latest location at the San Marcos Premium Outlets. The store’s original location serves as a studio inside Ingram Park Mall in San Antonio.
Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply is a beauty salon and barbershop all in one with goals to help its customers look and feel their best, all while teaching customers about hair and nail care.
Britney Grant, general manager and loctician at Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply’s San Marcos location, said the brand always intended to expand into several storefront locations. In 2020, members of the Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply team toured a space that previously served as a Lane Bryant. While the work needed to transform the space into a salon made them hesitant to make the move to San Marcos, they ultimately decided to take on the challenge.
“It’s always been an idea for multiple locations,” Grant said. “From the very beginning, sitting at the kitchen table when we were first talking about it, having Braids on Phire, it’s always been a plan to make multiple, multiple locations.”
The salon’s staff specializes in haircuts, hair coloring, braids, loc maintenance, extensions, tap-ins and micro links. Additionally, the salon offers services for eyelash extensions and nails.
Customers can also purchase items from Phire Girl Inc.’s product line which includes hair products, accessories and lip glosses. According to Grant, Mackey spent almost a year testing products to develop an all-natural formula.
“That’s one thing we do like to promote is quality. We’re not here just to get the money, we really do care about our craft … and we really care about our clients,” Grant said.
The salon also values how it makes its customers feel after they visit. When coming up with the name of the business, Mackey created the acronym “phire” which stands for “positively hustling in righteous endeavors.” Her goal in creating the name was for it to represent the salon’s drive and purpose to build confidence and self-esteem in its customers.
“We try to make sure that our clients feel comfortable when they come in, we clap for them when they leave out, we boost them up ‘go on girl, get it’ when they go out the door,” Grant said. “We really love our clients and that’s something that brings people coming back to us.”
Sharing Grant’s sentiment to want the best for her clients are the salon’s nail techs and hairstylists. Jazza Johns, a general studies senior, is a stylist at Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply. Johns’ passion for wanting to help others feel good led her to want to pursue a career in hair care.
“I’ve been doing hair for over 10 years. I started in the kitchen too, I was like seven or eight doing my neighbors’ hair. We were all girls, so everybody was playing in everybody’s hair. At one point our hair even fell out because we were playing with it so much,” Johns said. “Growing up I always just liked to help people. I know it takes a lot to do [hair], and it feels good to make people feel good about how they look.”
While Johns previously attended beauty school, she did not get a chance to finish before starting at Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply. Once she graduates from Texas State, she intends to make a return to beauty school in order to learn how to provide her clients with the best service.
“You got to know not everything is meant for this person, and you got to be able to tell that person ‘this might not be for you, but we can go this route instead,'” Johns said. “That’s why I want to go back to school because I want to be somebody that can, you know, make connections with my clients so you can ask me any questions you need to ask me so I can recommend you this or recommend that.”
Latecia Robinson, a nail technician at Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply, also finds importance in teaching women how to take care of their nails. Robinson started practicing manicures and pedicures on herself in 2018 and attended nail school at Ogle School of Hair, Skin & Nails and Vogue College of Cosmetology to improve her skills. Learning how to do her own nails and perfect the craft inspired her to teach other women to do the same.
“I’m the type to go faithfully to get my nails done and when you’re a person like me who pays attention to details and wants things to be done right … and not just rushed and overlooked because of the quantity and not the quality, [I wanted to learn] how can I get it to where I want it to be done,” Robinson said. “So, I went to school for that to get it right … and now I’m helping others and trying to educate others because a lot of women don’t know what it takes for your nails or for your hair.”
In terms of expanding the salon’s services, Grant said while it is a work in progress, their goal is to turn the store’s back storage space into a classroom where they can start a braiding school to teach women and girls how to braid and style their hair.
“It’s a lot of teaching that we do [at the salon]. There’s a lot of mixed families … and some women don’t know how to take care of their children’s hair because they have mixed hair,” Grant said. “Those are some of the moments where my heart goes out to the child because their hair can be kind of matted and it’s not the mom’s fault because she doesn’t know how to take care of that kind of hair.”
During a customer’s time at the salon, the staff will not only help customers learn how to take care of their hair but also how to maintain their hair at home. Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply is inclusive to everybody — its staff has strived to build a community where every family member and friend can be a part of.
“Even though we are Black-owned and women-owned we do provide diversity with hair. Just because we are Black-owned I don’t want people to be like ‘oh that’s all they can do.’ That’s not the case,” Robinson said. “We can work with any kind of hair texture. Coarse, fine, curly, straight … we just want people to know that they can come in and give us a chance and let us show you. You won’t be disappointed.”
As for its future endeavors, Phire Girl Inc. looks to open additional storefronts and sell its products in other salons. For now, Grant said the San Marcos storefront is the brand’s priority, as she wants the staff at Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply to be booked and busy in helping the people of San Marcos look and feel their best.
The Phire Girl Hair and Beauty Supply San Marcos location is now open and accepting appointments. The salon’s tentative grand opening is scheduled for Feb. 12.
For more information on Phire Girl Hair Inc., visit its website or follow its Facebook and Instagram @phiregirlhairandbeauty.