Blind hairdresser impresses with eye-catching styles

If you were to observe 48-year-old Beverly 'Tashy' Burry while she stands outside her gate doing someone's hair, you wouldn't get the slightest thought that she is blind. She's adroit with her fingers and gets hair done neatly, in very little time.

Burry, who resides in Tivoli Gardens, Kingston, became a hairdresser after she lost her sight at age 23. Since then she learnt the hairdressing skill and has been doing hair to make a living.

"I went to the Jamaica Society for the Blind and I just learn it there. A lady braided my hair and I just feel how she do it and then me seh 'well, mek me try it.' Then I just learn it on my own and from that, it's my profession, as a blind person. I can sew in hair, cornrow and micro braid. I can creme the hair, I can jerry curl the hair, I can do a lot of things in the hair," she told THE STAR.

Burry says persons within Tivoli Gardes have requested and paid for her service many times.

"They are very comfortable. Whenever I do a hair, another person would pass and seh 'wow! The blind girl a braid hair.' And from then now, people would give me a chance that way. Some would say 'she can't part my hair fi do it.' It's just the trustworthy ones that really support me, and I gratefully appreciate it," she said, noting that she's happy she has this skill during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Domestic dispute

Burry's neighbour, Dian, one of her most frequent clients, is impressed by the hairdresser's skills.

"It do very nice. It unbelievable to know that a lady that blind can do hair so beautiful. I go to her multiple times to do my hair. I don't have no doubts about her potential. She do the hair just like a person who can see do it. It is well done! Thumbs up... she do it great!" Dian said.

Just last Friday, Burry braided Dian's hair, and she is pleased. "Yeah man me like it. I don't have no problems with it."

Burry lost her sight in 1995 during a domestic dispute.

"I had to adapt to my situation. I just adjust. I got a hit in my eyes by my babyfather. It was 25 years ago. I did a surgery on my eyes, and I was supposed to go back and do another surgery, but I didn't have the money, so it had to be like this," she said.

Though she has been blind for over two decades, she says every now and then she feels defeated.

"Sometimes a little obstacle will come up where I would lick up in something and sometimes I would cry. I go out with only trustworthy persons who will take me around. "I'm afraid to use my cane since I heard about the Jasmine Deen who they took away. I'm afraid to go out on my own," Burry said.

Jasmine, a visually impaired student of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, has been missing since Thursday, February 27.