Most people find her name attached to a Celtics superstar. Few know she built a curly-hair business from scratch. Here’s the real story behind Toriah Lachell — beyond the headlines.
Quick Bio
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Toriah Lachell (sometimes reported as Toriah Lachell Mimms) |
| Profession | Hairstylist, curl specialist, salon owner, entrepreneur |
| Known For | Owner of The Curl Bar Boston; mother of Jayson Tatum’s son |
| Hometown | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Current Base | Boston, Massachusetts |
| High School | McCluer North High School, Florissant, Missouri |
| Certifications | DevaCurl certified stylist, Rezo Cut certified, Cut It Kinky alumna |
| Son | Jayson Christopher Tatum Jr. (“Deuce”), born December 6, 2017 |
| Relationship Status | Publicly private; previously linked to Jayson Tatum |
| Net Worth | Not publicly confirmed; estimates vary widely online |
Who Is Toriah Lachell?
Toriah Lachell is an American hairstylist and entrepreneur based in Boston. She specializes in curly and natural hair care, a niche that’s grown fast as more people move away from chemical straightening.
She’s the mother of Jayson Christopher Tatum Jr., known as Deuce, whose father is NBA star Jayson Tatum. That connection first put her name in front of a wider audience.
But her public identity has grown past that link. Today, she runs her own business and speaks publicly about hair education, not just her personal life.
What Is Toriah Lachell Known For?
She’s best known for two things: her business, The Curl Bar Boston, and her son Deuce. Most search interest starts with the Tatum connection, then moves toward her career.
She’s built a reputation as a serious professional in the curly-hair space, not just a name attached to a famous athlete. Her Instagram and podcast appearances focus almost entirely on hair education and client care.
That distinction matters. Many people search her name expecting gossip and instead find a working entrepreneur with real credentials.
Her Background in St. Louis and High-School Years
Toriah Lachell grew up in or around St. Louis, Missouri. Multiple sources place her upbringing in this region before she later relocated to Boston.
She attended McCluer North High School in Florissant, Missouri. It was during these years that she reportedly met Jayson Tatum, who also has ties to the St. Louis area.
Her high-school years also shaped her early interest in hair care, following personal experiences with chemical relaxers that later pushed her toward natural styling.
School, Soccer, and Softball
Lachell was reportedly a multi-sport athlete in high school. She played varsity soccer and competed in softball for four years.
A 2014 St. Louis Post-Dispatch reference reportedly mentioned her as an outfielder who received an all-conference nod. This detail adds a rare, sourced layer to her early biography.
Sports weren’t her eventual career path, but they show a competitive, disciplined side that carried into her later work building a business.
What Is Publicly Known About Her Family?
Public reporting names her mother as Julie Gibbs, with John Gibbs sometimes described as her stepfather. Beyond this, detailed family information isn’t well documented in reliable sources.
She hasn’t publicly shared extensive details about siblings or extended family. Most of her public content focuses on her son and her professional life instead.
This is fairly typical for public figures who gained visibility through a relationship rather than by choice — family details often stay private by design.
How Toriah Lachell Built Her Hair Career
Her path into hairstyling wasn’t planned from childhood. It grew out of a personal frustration with chemical relaxers during her middle and high school years.
Seeing a friend embrace natural curls reportedly sparked her own curiosity. From there, she began experimenting with her own hair texture and documenting the results online.
That personal experiment turned into something bigger once people started asking her for advice, both online and in person.
Discovering Natural-Hair and Curl Care
Before any formal training, Lachell taught herself through YouTube tutorials and trial and error. She treated her own hair as a testing ground for new techniques.
As her results improved, so did the attention. Friends, then strangers online, began asking how she achieved her curl definition and shine.
This grassroots demand is what eventually pushed her toward formal cosmetology training rather than keeping it as a hobby.
Cosmetology Training and Professional Certifications
According to social-media reporting cited by Heavy, she began cosmetology training shortly after her son’s birth and graduated in August 2018. This timeline suggests she balanced early motherhood with career-building at the same time.
She holds several notable credentials in the curl-care space: she is a DevaCurl certified stylist, a Cut It Kinky alumna, and Rezo Cut certified. These are recognized training programs within the natural-hair industry.
She has also spoken about choosing hairstyling over other potential paths, including teaching or counseling, before committing fully to the beauty industry.
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The Curl Bar Boston and Its Curly-Hair Focus
The Curl Bar Boston is the salon most closely associated with Toriah Lachell. It focuses specifically on curly, natural, and textured hair rather than general hairstyling.
The salon’s stated goal, echoed across several sources, is helping clients understand, care for, and embrace their natural curl pattern. That’s a different pitch than a typical full-service salon.
Heavy reported a May 1, 2022 social post marking the salon’s first year open, which suggests the business launched sometime in 2021.
The Curl Bar Curl Course
Beyond in-person services, Lachell has been linked to an educational resource called The Curl Bar Curl Course: Case Study. This appears to be an at-home curl-care education product.
It reflects a broader trend among hairstylists: building digital products alongside physical salon services. This extends her reach beyond clients who can visit Boston in person.
She has also discussed, in podcast interviews, why she continues pursuing ongoing technique training. Curl care, in her framing, isn’t a one-size-fits-all skill.
Toriah Lachell and Jayson Tatum
Toriah Lachell is publicly known as the former girlfriend of Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum. The two are reported to have known each other during their high-school years in the St. Louis area.
A 2015 Sports Illustrated profile referred to her directly as Tatum’s girlfriend, giving a rare contemporaneous, credible source for their relationship at that time. This predates their son’s birth by roughly two years.
Public sources consistently describe her as an ex-girlfriend, not a former spouse. There is no credible reporting that the two were ever married.
Their High-School Connection
Their relationship reportedly began while both were still teenagers in the St. Louis region. This shared background likely shaped the closeness Sports Illustrated referenced years later.
High-school relationships that continue into early adulthood aren’t unusual, but the added visibility of Tatum’s basketball career made theirs more publicly documented than most.
Their Son, Jayson “Deuce” Tatum Jr.
Their son, Jayson Christopher Tatum Jr., is widely known by his nickname, Deuce. His commonly cited birth date is December 6, 2017.
According to an interview covered by Bleacher Report, Tatum said he learned about the pregnancy as his final year of college basketball was ending, right before the 2017 NBA Draft. He described feeling anxious about how it might affect his draft stock.
Tatum publicly announced Deuce’s birth in January 2018, after the December 2017 delivery. Heavy also reports that Lachell relocated to Boston while roughly eight months pregnant.
What Is Known About Their Co-Parenting Relationship?
Sports Illustrated reportedly characterized their co-parenting relationship as healthy, based on Heavy’s coverage. Deuce has become a recognizable presence at Celtics games and in Tatum’s public life.
Most competitor sources agree the couple is no longer romantically together, though the exact timing of their separation isn’t clearly documented in available reporting.
Lachell has generally avoided commenting publicly on the breakup itself, keeping the focus on parenting rather than relationship history.
Toriah Lachell’s Public Presence
Compared to many people connected to professional athletes, Lachell keeps a relatively low-key public profile. Her content leans toward hair education rather than lifestyle or relationship content.
Instagram and Hair-Education Content
Reporting from The SportsRush noted she operated three separate Instagram accounts: a private personal page, a hairstyling-focused account, and The Curl Bar Boston’s business account. Combined, these reportedly had just over 26,000 followers at the time of that report — a historical figure, not a current count.
She also maintains a TikTok presence featuring personal and family content, including videos with Deuce. Heavy noted some of these clips reportedly reached over one million views.
Her online content largely centers on curl techniques, client transformations, and salon updates rather than personal relationship commentary.
Why She Keeps Parts of Her Life Private
Despite the public interest tied to Tatum, Lachell hasn’t leaned into influencer-style oversharing. Her current relationship status, for example, isn’t something she’s addressed in detail publicly.
This approach protects her son’s privacy while still allowing her business to benefit from public curiosity. It’s a balance many people in similar situations try to strike.
Because of this, several commonly repeated “facts” about her — age, height, exact net worth — remain unconfirmed by any primary source.
What About Her Age, Height, and Net Worth?
This is where a lot of online biographies get messy. Reported dates of birth vary between February 6, February 20, and February 21, 2000, depending on the source. None of these carry clear, primary-source confirmation.
Height estimates online range from 5’5″ to 5’8″, again without a verified source. Net worth figures are even less reliable, ranging anywhere from roughly $500,000 to $5 million across different websites, sometimes contradicting each other on the same page.
The honest answer: none of these figures are backed by a credible, direct source. Until she or a verified outlet confirms them, they should be treated as estimates, not facts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Toriah Lachell married?
No — public reporting identifies her as Jayson Tatum’s former girlfriend, not his wife, and there’s no credible record of marriage to anyone.
What does Toriah Lachell do for a living?
She’s a certified curl specialist and the owner of The Curl Bar Boston, a salon focused on natural and textured hair.
Is Toriah Lachell Jayson Tatum’s ex-wife?
No, they were never married; she is publicly described as his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his son.
Where is The Curl Bar Boston?
The Curl Bar Boston operates in the Boston, Massachusetts area, focused on curly and natural-hair clients.
What details about her age, height, and net worth are confirmed?
None are confirmed by a credible primary source — reported figures vary widely across websites and should be treated as unverified estimates.
Conclusion
Toriah Lachell’s story goes well beyond her connection to Jayson Tatum. She turned a personal hair journey into a certified career and a growing Boston-based business, The Curl Bar. While details like her exact age, height, and net worth remain unconfirmed, her professional path as a curl specialist and mother to Deuce is well documented and worth knowing on its own terms.
