Meet Surrey’s queen of Black beauty

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While now a queen of Black beauty in Surrey, Janice Davis, better known as Royal, went through decades of hardship to become so. 

Davis is the owner of Royals Beauty Supply and Salon in Surrey and came to Canada from Jamaica as an undocumented migrant when she was 11 years old. Davis faced a lot of homelessness and worked cash jobs, but due to her vulnerable status, her wage was often stolen.

“I work, cook, and clean, and they said, ‘Oh, we don’t have the money,’ and everybody threatened that they’re going to call immigration,” she says. “So I was always on the run. I lived with a backpack on my back, always on the go.” 

Davis spent many nights asleep on the SkyTrain or on cold stairwells. Due to her undocumented status, Davis didn’t go to school. Even today, she says she has a Grade 5 education. 

“Going to school wasn’t an option for me, going to the doctor wasn’t an option for me,” she says. 

Davis suffered from a bleeding ulcer for years. Treatment in a hospital would have gotten her deported, so she had to take over-the-counter medicine to keep herself alive. The only thing that kept Davis going was her determination to realise her dream of owning a business. 

“I knew better was going to come, and I stuck it out,” she says. “The struggle that I [went] through made me who I am today.”

After marrying at 19 and gaining residency, Davis seized the opportunity to live her dream. Eight years ago, she was able to rent a space for her beauty store after saving up enough money. 

But only a month later, Davis went into labour with a premature baby born at 26 weeks, weighing only 1.5 pounds. With a brand new business and baby, it seemed Davis had to give up on her decade-long dream. 

“[My daughter] was so small, I wasn’t able to cope,” she says. “I [called] the landlord … [to say] I don’t want the place any more, I have to give it up. He asked me why, and I told him, and he’s like, ‘Don’t worry about the rent, take care of your baby.’”

Royals Beauty Supply and Salon is now a mecca for the Black community in Surrey, and anyone is welcome at the store, Davis says. 

“Everybody is loved …. We don’t discriminate [against] nobody. You come who you are, and you stay who you are.”

Davis spends much of her time helping her clients, many of whom are undocumented. 

“My store is not only to sell beauty supplies, … my doors are open to a lot of undocumented people who come in and [I provide] acts of help,” she says. “There’s nowhere here as a Jamaican that you [can get] help with immigration status, so then I pass on information.” 

Many family members reunite at Davis’ store events, which serve a slice of Jamaica in Surrey. She also teaches many new Black mothers how to handle their children’s hair, she says. 

Even though every day is still a struggle, Davis’ shelves are stocked and she is opening a new business next door. She says 2024 is going to be her breakout year, and that she hopes her story will inspire “other Black people to have hope.” 

Davis says she has no regrets with the hardships she went through. 

“I’m happy I’ve been through it because it teaches my kids and me [that] the struggle is real, and we are where we are because we struggle.”