meet tessy

Sugar Kelly was born from a part of me that has always cared deeply about how people feel.

Before Sugar Kelly became a brand, it was simply the way I moved through the world. I have always understood that hair is never just hair. It can be tied to confidence, identity, femininity, grief, transition, and healing all at once. I saw that up close when someone close to my family was navigating cancer-related hair loss and struggling to find a wig that truly felt like her. I stepped in to make her one myself, and somewhere in that process, something clicked. What began as an act of care became the beginning of Sugar Kelly.

My path into beauty was shaped not only by creativity, but by care. My background in nursing and community outreach taught me something that never left me: dignity matters. The way people are treated matters. To handle someone gently, to pay attention, and to help them feel seen without making them feel exposed, that is its own kind of skill.

Long before I ever built Sugar Kelly, I had already sat with people in some of the most vulnerable seasons of their lives, through clinical placements at Sunnybrook Hospital and Bridgepoint Active Health, and through community work at Homes First Society. In spaces like stroke and neurological rehabilitation, renal care, dialysis, and geriatrics, I learned in ways no salon training could ever teach what it means to help someone feel whole. That understanding became part of my standard long before Sugar Kelly had a name, and it remains the quiet foundation of everything I build today.

Over the past decade, I have refined my craft across Toronto, mastering premium blow dry finishes and extension techniques. Each part of the city taught me something different about beauty, presence, and the women I serve.