Aya-Nikole Cook offers wellness services on the South Side that are historically unavailable for Black and brown Chicagoans.
By Corli Jay
(Photo: Isiah ThoughtPoet Veney)
This profile is part of our How a Community Heals series.
In Islam, a haji is someone who’s made the spiritual pilgrimage to Mecca. Even though Aya-Nikole Cook, the owner and wellness curator of Haji Healing Salon, isn’t Muslim, a friend gifted her the honorific because of her deep devotion to prayer and magnetic connection with the spiritual world. This same passion and commitment brought high-quality and affordable care to honor the healing of Black, brown and indigenous people of color on the South Side.
Cook believes that healing one’s self is a radical and personal act that can heal society—that belief is the core of her work at Haji Healing Salon. “Because we are not tuned in enough to understand all the ways that we harm ourselves, we inadvertently harm others, right?” she explains. “But when we're on a healing path, we become more conscious, more aware, and we take more responsibility for our lives, and we value other lives more.”
Cook shares this nurturing spirit through Haji Healing Salon, a cultural and community hub that “honors sustainable healing and inspires thriving communities.”
“You're here because you are a seeker, or person on a path—the spiritual path, the healing path.”
Cook’s path to community healing began when she was diagnosed with uterine fibroids in 2007. Fibroids are benign tumors that grow in the uterus. It’s a condition that disproportionately impacts Black women, who are 2-3 times more likely to suffer from them than white women. Cook’s grandmother, mother and sister all were diagnosed with fibroids at one point in their lives.
From there, she decided to take up yoga, meditation, acupuncture and a plant-based diet to gain a deeper understanding of how her body worked. Yoga, in particular, helped her work through those emotions. “I got really in touch with the different conditions of my life that made me angry, and I learned I was a very angry person. I was very hot inside and I needed a way to work through that,” she explains.
(Photo: Isiah ThoughtPoet Veney)
Her path of self-healing was highly effective: the growth of her fibroids slowed, and she felt better. However, doctors at the time recommended that Cook remove her uterus altogether.
“I got several opinions, and they all were like, ‘you already have a child, you should just get rid of the uterus because chances are the fibroids are just going to come back,’” she remembers. “Whether or not my uterus was of value to them, I thought it was valuable to me, and I did not want it removed from my body.” Cook eventually found a surgeon who was able to remove the fibroids while leaving her uterus intact.
The experience pushed her to open Haji Healing Salon because she believes that women should not have to find a path to healing alone. “What would it have been like for me if I had a place to go that laid out resources and where I was taught about my options?” she says.
Before opening Haji Healing Salon, Cook did a residency with the University of Chicago's Arts + Public Life in 2015. Through that residency, she started a support group for women with uterine fibroids where they received acupuncture, guidance on plant-based nutrition and counseling and coaching around changing their lifestyles for the better. Then she created a pop-up wellness center in Grand Crossing where she expanded services. Cook realized her dream could be bigger.
Haji Healing Salon now offers a robust selection of yoga, meditation, tai chi and African dance classes, plus acupuncture therapy and reiki at a low cost. She also sells houseplants, smudges, crystals, herbal supplies and more. All services and goods are set at affordable prices to remove the historical barriers that have held Black and brown Chicagoans back from their own healing.
As local healers have passed through her space, she’s found ways to partner with them—bringing them in as instructors for various healing techniques and providing training for reiki healing.
While many assume that Haji Healing Salon is a nonprofit because it is so mission-driven, Cook says her business doesn’t have any “grants or benefactors” to depend on besides community support. The memberships sustain the community space and keep the healing happening.
Haji Healing Salon recently moved into the Bronzeville area on 44th and Cottage Grove from its first brick and mortar space in Chatham. The new space feels spacious and airy; it is full of potential and a sense of warmth. Cook says she needed to move because of flooding issues in her prior space—the building maintenance issues plus having to close shop because of COVID-19 led Cook to leave that location and put her all into the new space.
“[The] immediate goal is getting back into a flow of being in a physical space—sharing space and holding space,” she explains. Haji Healing Salon’s new location will open to the public in June.
Corli Jay (she/her) is a journalist from Chicago’s South Side. Her work highlights resilience in the Black community and the work of local artists.
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