Nigeria Picked Me: How Joy Adesanya Built Confidence, One Woman at a Time

Joy Adesanya does not describe herself as a woman who simply runs businesses. She describes herself as a woman who serves — and who found her purpose in helping other women feel confident in their own skin, their own hair, and their own lives.

As Group Managing Director of AJ Skylar, she leads a group whose brands include Sshhh Lingerie Boutique and The Braiding Vault, with locations across Nigeria and London. But the story behind those brands did not start with a business plan. It started with what she saw — and did not see — when she returned to Nigeria.

It started with body image

“My area of speciality is the beauty industry, hair to be precise,” Joy says. “But I started off with body image, because I felt that when I relocated back to Nigeria, there wasn’t a lot of positive body images being shown in women.”

So she started with lingerie — not as a luxury for its own sake, but as a way to redefine sensuality.

“In Nigeria, they never had nice lingerie stores,” she explains. “It was usually like a bend-down-select that you would go to in the marketplace. So there was nothing like a Victoria’s Secret or a Marks & Spencer.”

She brought that experience into the market. And from there, the business grew in a direction that felt natural to her: hair.

Confidence starts from the head — and underneath

For Joy, hair is not just hair. It is where confidence begins.

“I realised very quickly that a woman’s confidence really does come from her head,” she says. “How she carries herself, how she presents herself — everything starts from two things: her hair, and what she’s wearing underneath.”

That is the thread that runs through everything she has built in Nigeria: the seen and the unseen, both treated with the same care.

“I got into this because I love service,” she says. “I believe that my purpose is to serve. And I’m able to serve through various businesses by connecting with women from all over the world, understanding their pain, their pressure points, and then turning that into something beautiful.”

The hardest parts were funding — and being heard

Joy is honest about what doing business in Nigeria cost her, especially at the start.

“The most difficult thing for me

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