Photography by Jessica Turner.
For hair so smooth and glossy, it looks like porcelain, talk to Dyson Styles. Walk into his eponymous salon at the corner of Cantegral and Swiss Avenue, and it could be mistaken for a bar or selfie spot if not for the shampoo sinks and salon chairs on either side of the space. Giant paintings adorn the wall, the work of local artist Paris Love who has a studio nestled inside Styles’ salon.
The salon is split into three sections. At the entrance is the main part, complete with shampoo sinks, salon chairs and ring lights.
In the back — for clients seeking a more personalized and intimate experience — covered by a curtain, is a private room decorated with tan leather seating.
Styles does clients’ hair personally, without assistant stylists and with all organic products.
“I do it myself because I think the clients really like the whole one-on-one,” he says. “I press all day long, so I have perfected that. They want the experience.”
Styles, 49, who dons a clean-shaven head, has spent the past 20 years turning Black women’s natural curls into silky, straight hair.
A menu of services includes the signature porcelain press starting at $95, which can last one to two hours depending on hair length. The one-step smoothing system, a low pH, chemical-free amino acid smoothing treatment that “keeps hair smooth and manageable during warmer months,” costs $200.
Clients also have options for demi- and semi-permanent hair color and healthy hair treatments at $50 each that range from protein and honey to hydration and a boost protein system.
“I love to see when (a client) comes in with a big afro,” Styles says. “And to see it go from kinky to straight.”
It started with a collection plate passed around at church. Dreams of becoming a school principal were turned into becoming a hairstylist when Styles saw the large monetary offering his roommate dropped on the plate.
That’s when he decided to make hair his forte. From there, he got the training and license needed to press and style full-time. In 2001, Styles began his hair career in Atlanta at the salon and spa Nseya, where he had his own chair.
It was during his time in Atlanta, just a normal winter day in December, that he was personally approached by Beyonce to style her hair for the 2009 January cover of Elle magazine.
Beyonce had seen the work he did on another woman while both were getting their nails done and wanted something similar done with her hair. That same weekend in December 2008, Beyonce booked an appointment with Styles and flew out to Nseya.
“Elle decided to use my hairstyle in the magazine, so that’s how that happened,” he says. “I never thought in a million years I would be working with her, and she’s like, ‘Oh, I liked what you did,’ and we went from there.”
A plaque of gratitude from the superstar sits in a corner of the salon, but the experience was as if he was just with another client. Despite her status, he says she wasn’t a diva.
“She and I were singing back and forth with each other, having fun,” he says. “I really did not realize, I mean to me, she was not a celebrity. She was just someone whose hair I did.”
Styles can regularly be caught singing and dancing in his salon around clients, which says something about his enthusiasm at work.
“To be honest, all my clients are celebrities,” he says.
Overwhelmed with Atlanta’s saturated salon scene, he made his return to Dallas five years ago and lives in Oak Cliff.
Not far from Deep Ellum, Styles’ salon sits next to a historic red brick cathedral. There’s just something about the vibe that sets it apart from Atlanta.
“Dallas is home, and there’s really more opportunities in Dallas,” he says. “I like the vibe, the old and the new. I love how they’re revising old neighborhoods.”
“One day I was pressing someone’s hair,” he says. “And they were like, this looks like porcelain. And the whole king thing, social media did that.
As Styles became more popular on social media, particularly Instagram, his followers dubbed him the ‘Porcelain Press King.’ His Atlanta clients are more than willing to fly to Dallas for appointments. So are his clients from Las Vegas, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami and other cities across the country to experience the work of the Porcelain Press King.
A day with 12 to 14 hours spent delivering porcelain presses to clients, at this point, comes naturally and no longer feels like work.
‘They called me ‘the king,’ ‘the goat,’ so I’m all of that now.”
Dyson Styles is located at 2700 Swiss Ave. Services are by appointment here.
