by Selena Hill
September 12, 2026
This Ghanaian Entrepreneur Built A Black Bridal Beauty Business In Italy
Harriet Akotowah Mensah saw an underserved market for Black beauty services in Italy and turned it into a growing mobile bridal business.
For Black women planning destination weddings in Italy, finding a beauty professional who understands textured hair and deeper skin tones can be tough. However, that’s why Ghanaian entrepreneur Harriet Akotowah Mensah turned that access gap into a business opportunity.
Based in Brescia, Italy, Mensah is the founder and creative director of Hetty’s Beauty Parlour and The Afro Beauty Team, two businesses that provide mobile bridal hairstyling, makeup, and wig installation services for clients across Italy. Her destination-wedding clientele primarily comes from the United States, with additional customers traveling from other parts of Europe.
The business recently took Mensah nearly five hours each way to Florence to prepare Micaéla Verrelien for her wedding at Villa Merlo Nero. Verrelien, who co-owns Brooklyn’s Sweet Fire Cafe & Studio with her husband, had spent a year searching for a Black bridal beauty professional in Italy before her socia...