Colorist Dawnel Paris-Wall has a very special relationship with Debra Neill Baker, cofounder of Paris Parker and the Neill Corporation: “She’s my amazing big sister!” Dawnel says. So what did childhood look like for the dynamic duo who went on to play major roles in the salon group? Well, they didn’t spend all their time cutting Barbie doll hair, believe it or not.
Dawnel, second from left, with family members. Niece Paris, the Paris Parker namesake, far left, big sister Debra, far right and mom, Rita (in red). | Source: Dawnel Paris-Wall
Sister act
Four years younger than Debra, Dawnel describes herself as the tomboy of the family. She’d come home to find her sister bent over a pot of boiling water with a towel draped over her head, administering a steam facial, or in the basement of their Kansas home with an elaborate tanning light contraption set up to bronze only her legs.
“I watched and was interested—but not that interested,” Dawnel says. “Her whole being was beauty, feeling good and doing good for yourself—healthy stuff. We were different, but a lot alike at the same time.”
Dawnel says, “Debra and I were just two Kansas girls living our lives, with Debra always looking to leave Kansas to go do big things… and then she took me with her, so our sisterhood ended up in Louisiana!”
And like many sisters, the pair became closer later in life—especially after Debra got Dawnel into the salon business in 1980 when Dawnel was 21.
“Debra built Paris Parker, a place where I could come and do a fun job and support myself,” Dawnel says. “She was actually more like my mother than my sister back then. We just have a really unique relationship.”
Years of growth
Dawnel went to beauty school in the midwest before moving to Baton Rouge to assist “rockstar hairstylist” Sam Brocato at Lockworks. While she was there, she experienced her greatest blunder as a stylist.
“I was doing a perm for Sam, and when we finished, while Sam was styling the client, someone asked whose neutralizer was still at the backbar,” Dawnel says. “Yikes…I forgot to use the neutralizer! Yep, I had to start all over.”
Dawnel back in the perm heydays. | Source: Neill
Dawnel adds that fortunately, she was a quick learner, and she never forgot the neutralizer again. Years of successful 1980s perms followed, and when we opened our first Paris Parker location in downtown Hammond in 1990, she went to work there.
“I worked for Paris Parker and watched it grow,” she says. “They bought out all the Lockworks, which was funny, because I went back to Baton Rouge to the Lockworks where I had worked, which was now a Paris Parker.”
Dawnel appreciated that at Paris Parker, we didn’t pour all our resources into opening new salons—we invested in our talent too. “Paris Parker was the catalyst for me becoming a great colorist,” Dawnel says. “The money put into training the core team was incredible. I went to New York, Los Angeles, and was one of eight colorists who got to test Aveda color with [Aveda founder] Horst Rechelbacher himself.”
Silver linings
In her decades as a specialized colorist, Dawnel has seen and heard it all. But the craziest thing clients ask still manages to surprise her—mostly because it demonstrates such a basic misunderstanding of how hair works.
“They say, ‘Why does the gray keep coming back? I don’t think you got it good six weeks ago,’” Dawnel says. “And that still happens once in a blue moon.”
Speaking of silver, Dawnel celebrates her silver anniversary with Paris Parker this year. She’s been with us the entire 25 years we have been open. Dawnel believes she and her sister have succeeded in building a company that creates “extended families everywhere,” she says. “Paris Parker is family, definitely. It has been the path for my career. I was and am very fortunate and grateful for it all.”
Dawnel (center), her mother Rita (left), and other Neill Corporation team members enjoying lunch at one of the Hammond offices. | Source: Dawnel Paris-Wall
