Cosmetologist brings Enchantment Island to Park Avenue

By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook staff writer

A walk through the two-story building where Carlanita “Karli Tsunami” Hollis will open a hair salon next Tuesday reveals a lot about why she’s named it Enchantment Island.

Everything about what’s inside is luxurious, from the shampoo area to the room where facials will be done. Even the room where a barber will operate is glamorous.

None of that should be surprising, though, considering that Hollis’s promotional tagline is introducing the salon as a “VIP imagery gallery and luxury salon/spa resort suites.” It’s located at 820 East Park Avenue and the grand opening is scheduled for 4 p.m.

“I like to set the mood for people because once you’re in a relaxed mood, you’re going to like it,” she said. “You’re not going to come in just like you’re going to a doctor’s office.”

For Hollis, who is affectionately known as “Karli Tsunami” to her followers, this is her second go around. She previously owned Crystal Peacock International Hair and Braid Studio five years ago.

She was forced to shut that shop because of problems with working out an agreement for relocation. The French provincial furniture that she had in that shop stayed in storage along with the fixtures she has set up in her new salon.

That Hollis is making another start doesn’t surprise Phyllis Allen, a fellow cosmetologist who lives in central Florida. She and Hollis worked for four years on a hair show circuit that made three stops annually.

Hollis should have success at her new venture because of the tenacity and a solid work ethic she’s demonstrated, Allen said.

“She did some really good work for me,” she said. “She had a good eye for over exaggerating the hair styles.”

Cosmetology was far from Hollis’ mind when she tried to decide on a career about 20 years ago. She earned a nursing certification from Lively Tech and figured it would be the path to becoming a pediatrician. Giving birth to the first of her two children changed that.

Motherhood was too important to do anything else, she thought at the time.

“I didn’t want to miss out on watching him grow,” she said. “I didn’t want to miss that part of parenting.”

She later tinkered with the idea of becoming a firefighter, but that went nowhere. She said a fulltime cosmetology career came into the pictured when she had a conversation with her grandmother, Clinita Ford, the wife of Tallahassee’s first Black mayor, James Ford.

After graduating from North Florida Cosmetology Institute, Hollis worked out of a barber shop off Brevard Street. She eventually floated around at different shops before opening her first salon.

 For as long as it took her to open a new salon, Hollis hasn’t lost touch with the industry, which is constantly introducing changes. That, she said, is one of the things that drives her.

“It’s impossible for me to be bored because I don’t just focus on one service,” she said. “If it pertains to beauty you can bet I know something about the techniques, the theory and what it takes to have it done.”