Faith Cyrus

When Faith Cyrus’s parents named her, it was more than an arbitrary name selection; it was a declaration. After two sons, they held onto faith that their third child would be a girl. The manifestation of that hope became her name and, in many ways, her story.

Born into a close-knit family of six, Faith Cyrus was the third child and the long-awaited daughter her parents had hoped for. She grew up with a strong foundation of love and high expectations. Her father, especially, was determined that all his children would receive a tertiary education, which was something he never had the chance to pursue.

Guided by the principles developed in her early life, Cyrus became a veterinarian until her life took a different path, one guided by passion.

Cyrus’ journey into higher education was a typical one, but she wasn’t compelled toward any particular career early on. After completing Form Six at Couva East Secondary School, she faced the pressure of choosing a university programme without a clear sense of her interests and future aspirations.

A science student, following a casual trip to the orthodontist, she developed a vague curiosity about the career but had limited information on how to pursue it. After the visit of a representative from the University of the West Indies, Cyrus looked into the Science Department at UWI, and she randomly chose four options to meet the application deadline: dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and environmental science.

Only one programme accepted her–veterinary medicine. Reflecting on her choice of this programme, she says, “It wasn’t like since I was five I wanted to be a vet sort of thing. It was just the door that opened.”

That door led to five intense years. By her second year, while completing an externship at a vet clinic, Cyrus began to feel unsure. “It hit me,” she says, “I didn’t think this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Seeing it in practice was completely different from learning it on paper.”

Still, with three years to go and the commitment to her parents’ dreams of her tertiary education on her shoulders, she pressed on, determined to complete what she had started. In her fourth year, the COVID pandemic hit, and online learning added a new layer of reflection: that veterinary medicine wasn’t her calling.

That reflection made her dive deeper into what she wanted. “I started asking myself: what am I good at? What do I actually enjoy?” The answer had been right in front of her all along–hair. What began as a casual hobby, doing her own hair, her sister’s and her aunt’s, became a potential career path. Cyrus immersed herself in YouTube hair tutorials, practised on her cousins, made a business plan which she shared with her parents and eventually began doing a microlocs style on her sister. When she got into this niche market of microlocs, she began publicising it and posting the process online. “People loved it,” she says, and in tandem, she realised that she loved it too.

By 2021, while still in school, Cyrus officially started taking clients on Saturdays. With encouragement from her now-husband, who helped her market her work, Cyrus began to build an extensive and loyal clientele. Although her days were long, working from 6 am to 6 pm on Saturdays after a long week of school, she remembers the work felt fulfilling in a way vet med never had.

As more women in T&T began embracing natural hair, Cyrus saw an opportunity. Through microlocs, she helped women find freedom, confidence, and self-love. Women who came to her complaining that their loose natural hair felt like a burden, requiring time-consuming detangling and maintenance, found their confidence in locs, giving them the chance to wear their hair with pride and ease.

Cyrus saw herself not just as a stylist but as someone providing solutions, helping people feel beautiful and at peace in their own skin and hair.

After graduating from vet school in 2023, completing her tertiary education and getting married, Cyrus’ business began to grow.

What started in a small room at her parents’ house soon expanded, and with increasing demand, she realised she couldn’t do it alone anymore and was “burning out”.

She began hiring staff, a leap of faith and a process that pushed her into another unfamiliar role–leadership. “Training people to meet your standard, trusting them with your clients, inviting them into your space” were challenges that she had to surmount, staying resilient until she built her trusted team.

Although she felt enriched in her purpose, running a business came with its own set of difficulties. From business registration and accounting to taxes and legal matters, there were countless things Cyrus had to learn the hard way, “the less glamorous side of entrepreneurship”, she muses, “lessons that you don’t learn in school, and you don’t learn until you really need them”. Despite the mental load, she embraced the role of leader, showing up for her team and her clients and keeping her purpose at the core: to give people options, to give them freedom, and to offer something deeply meaningful.

She reflects that her time in vet school was not wasted, as she credits her resilience to her experience in vet school. Despite the long hours, the emotional toll, and the disconnect from her passion, she finished what she started. That process taught her how to endure and how to stay grounded when things got tough, lessons she now uses daily as a business owner and mentor. Through it all, her faith in God, in herself, and in her purpose has remained her anchor. Every obstacle, she believes, is part of a greater plan.

The confidence Cyrus displayed, to leave behind her education and delve into her passion, is not common, and many young people are discouraged from following their passions to pursue more traditional careers.

Her advice to young people? Explore your interests deeply. “There are so many career paths out there now; even in one field, there are lots of different things you can do,” she says, especially with social media opening our eyes to varying possibilities. But she encourages people to always have a fallback skill, something you can do if the world shifts.

Most importantly, if you’re passionate, show it. “Don’t just dream it, demonstrate it,” she says. “I had a plan, showed my family that I could put it into action, and it wasn’t just an aspiration but a business that could grow into something.”

From vet medicine to microlocs, Cyrus proves that purpose isn’t always a straight path. She is more than a stylist; she’s an educator, an entrepreneur, a creative, and a guide for women on a journey to rediscovering their natural beauty. As implied by her namesake, Faith Cyrus’ story is a testament to how walking with faith in your purpose allows the right path to unfold.