Never in a million years could anyone have told me that I, Claire Brown would be formulating and owning my own hair care company, Kriya Botanicals. After all, my goal was to become a professional soccer player out of college and then go back to graduate school to earn my doctorate in physical therapy. However, if it weren’t for...
Never in a million years could anyone have told me that I, Claire Brown would be formulating and owning my own hair care company, Kriya Botanicals. After all, my goal was to become a professional soccer player out of college and then go back to graduate school to earn my doctorate in physical therapy. However, if it weren’t for an allergic reaction back in college Chemistry, I probably wouldn’t fathom the idea of making my own products. Sounds weird, right?
During a chemistry lab on a normal day back when I was in college, we made lotion from scratch. The fumes from the Ammonium Hydroxide was one of the chemical ingredients used to make this lotion. As I’m pouring this chemical, the fumes “slapped me in the face.” Imagine a ton of bricks sitting on your chest. It caused me to have shortness of breath, a runny nose and itchy eyes giving me a terrible allergic reaction. I couldn’t fathom these chemicals were in our beauty products. So I asked my professor why would these chemicals be incorporated into our products. It was his reply that changed my thinking about what I use on my hair and body. He told me that is how beauty products are made. And if I had a better idea of replacing them, then I should do the research and create my own. Because of this experience, it was my journey to develop healthy and safe hair products.
While on my journey to creating those right products for natural hair, I decided to put my bachelor's degree in Exercise Science to good use by combining science to natural hair care. This allowed me to get to the root of the problem. I observed that there were those with the same hair type that did not get similar results from using the same hair products. So I formulated the original porosity hair care systems, a 5 step system made for low and high porosity hair which helps to maintain moisture, nourish and repair the hair. These systems help to take the stress out of choosing the right products for your hair's porosity level.
It's incredible to receive feedback from customers that are excited because they have seen good results from using my porosity lines. It is also great to see customers appreciate the connection of science to hair health. That’s why it is my goal to help naturals to understand the science of their hair and how to care for it.
Ceata uses and loves Kriya's Low Porosity Formula! The moisture and curl definition is to die for!
One of my inspirations in the hair care industry is Gabrielle Goodwin of Gabby’s Bows, a young entrepreneur who created the double-faced hair barrette. Her presence in the hair care industry inspires my kids to become young entrepreneurs like herself.
To close out our celebration of Women in Small Business Month, visit kriyabotanicals.com and use promo code WSB15 at checkoutto get 15% OFF your total purchase (Offer good from 10/27-30/18. Excludes kits/collections).
I am often asked how I, Heidi Schmid, a yoga-loving, suburban mom to 3 with no previous background in haircare, have found myself to be the inventor and founder of Q-Redew. My response —I am an accidental entrepreneur. It is true. I stumbled on a need and turned it into a business. (with a lot of help from...
I am often asked how I, Heidi Schmid, a yoga-loving, suburban mom to 3 with no previous background in haircare, have found myself to be the inventor and founder of Q-Redew. My response —I am an accidental entrepreneur. It is true. I stumbled on a need and turned it into a business. (with a lot of help from others!)
The short version of my story—as a curly girl, I longed for great second and third-day hair without the hassle of saturating my hair daily and waiting hours for it to dry. Isn’t that what all curly girls want?
My eureka moment was STEAM! So naturally, I hit the web to purchase a handheld hair steamer. I searched. There were large hooded steamers, but there was no such thing as a handheld hair steamer. Can you believe it?
It was from ah-ha to prototypes, engineers, and manufactures. Maybe not quite that easy. However, in October of 2012 the Q-Redew was launched and ready for purchase!
Here is the best part… It was the first buyers of the Q-Redew that taught me more than I could have imagined about the Q-Redew! Really! My inbox was flooded with ideas for detangling, stretching, deep conditioning. What?! I had no concept of these struggles much less that steam would be the perfect solution.
So much has been learned. I have since talked to thousands of women with natural hair, kinky coily hair, curly hair, wavy hair, Q-Redew fans, professional hair stylist, influencers, bloggers and other entrepreneurs- all so generous with their time and knowledge.
Today Q-Redew is the one and only hand-held hair steamer and retails for $79. Q-Redew provides a gentle flow of steam that warms and softens the hair allowing the hair to be safely detangled, stretched, refreshed and restyled. Q-Redew steam applied during deep conditioning treatment temporarily lifts the cuticle allowing moisture to penetrate the hair, enhancing the benefits of the therapy.
It is with a small dedicated team that I continue to manage Q-Redew from Milwaukee, WI. It is humbling to be included on the list of entrepreneurs bringing healthy options for the care of natural and curly textured hair while promoting the message that textured hair is not a burden, it is a gift. I owe many thanks to the women on this list that have mentored me and offered me companionship on this crazy journey. In particular, it was Lorraine Massey who with her gentle spirit first taught me about my own curly hair in 2005 and then encouraged me to make my idea a reality. It was Jane Carter that gave me her phone number during Q-Redew’s infancy and answered when I called! I am forever grateful for my natural, curly girl Q-mmunity.
Growing up and attending an elementary and middle school where I was the only Black girl and the only person of color period, I was self-conscious about three things: my big lips, my big butt, and my big hair... not knowing that one day when I grew up that I would be praising Jesus for His ample gifts...
Growing up and attending an elementary and middle school where I was the only Black girl and the only person of color period, I was self-conscious about three things: my big lips, my big butt, and my big hair... not knowing that one day when I grew up that I would be praising Jesus for His ample gifts as a full-grown woman. None of my white girlfriends had these three and they were the subject of many a conversation. Granted, my hair at the time was relaxed and only “big” for a random picture day when my mom finally let me wear it out, but it was still an issue. I remember one time in particular when I was in third grade and the lunchtime monitors (who were older girls from the middle school classes) laughed at me and whispered about how “crazy it was,” prompting me to cry and tell my teacher when she returned, who (thankfully) set them straight.
By the time I started high school in ‘95, I was cool with embracing my curves, but definitely not with my curls... not that I knew what they looked like. As a 5-year old, my hair was hot-combed. As a first-grader, my hair was chemically relaxed. As I grew up, if the hair along my edges or my crown would get “nappy,” I was conditioned to immediately get ready for (or even request with urgency) my trip to the salon, which happened every six to eight weeks like clockwork. Family, friends, strangers all heaped praise upon my hair as it grew longer and straighter and I internalized that praise as my hair being beautiful... as me being beautiful.
When I got to college in the fall of ’99, relaxers were just part of my “hair care” regimen. I didn’t give it another thought. It was just something I did because what else what I was going to do? I would cut it, I would curl it, I would pin it, I would braid it, but I would always, always have it straightened no matter the style. Somewhere around my junior or senior year though, I saw a picture of Goapele after discovering her debut song “Closer” and fell in love with her style and beauty. I desperately wanted to copy pretty much everything about her, but now career was holding me back... or rather the career I wanted to embark upon.
I was interning at a TV station and planned on becoming a TV Reporter/Anchor. I had never seen natural hair on the news, much less locs, so I didn’t want to attempt to take the “risk.” I kept my hair straightened, landed my first full-time on-air job a month before I graduated even, and once again accepted that my hair needed to be “a certain way” for me to hold my position. Eventually, I started experimenting with triple-barreled curling irons to give my hair body, but it didn't dawn on me that I would actually have body if I stopped sucking the life out of it with relaxers.
I don’t know what it was, but some time in 2005, I just stopped. I couldn’t take the smell of the relaxer anymore, the straight hair bored me to tears because I looked like everyone else, and the thought of a chemical burn on my scalp could not be justified with the “no pain, no gain” mentality of my youth. Not only was I sick of relaxers, but I was also disgusted with myself for putting my health in harm's way and for subscribing to Caucasian beauty esthetics unquestioningly and at the expense of my own personal beauty — a beauty I hadn’t seen since I was a toddler. I knew too much now — knew the health risks, knew the subliminal cultural cues I was conditioned to that taught me my beauty wasn’t beautiful, and honestly, was just tired of being a bland version of myself.
This epiphany came two weeks after I had just cut my hair in that old look Rihanna used to rock where it was long bangs in the front and cut short in the back. I told my stylist the next time I saw her that I didn’t want a touch-up on my relaxer and she sort of freaked out because “I should have told her before she did the cut,” but she promised that she could transition me to natural, saying that we could do a straw-set every week on the short ‘do until it grew out for a wash n’ go. That actually worked really well... for a while.
Once it grew and I began rocking a wash n’ go, my stylist became more and more frustrated. Contrary to her saying that she could handle natural hair, her insistence that we just “touch the roots quickly with a texturizer” showed me otherwise. She did that twice on my now virgin tresses and immediately my hair was taken from its soft, natural curls to a processed version. I stopped going to her and decided to figure it out on my own.
It was a precarious situation to be in, transitioning on-air. After all, I was a TV Reporter/Anchor and, in this business, your look is dictated by your employer. I told my News Director that I planned on cutting it before I made that move, which he was cool with, but I never mentioned the transition to natural... just all of a sudden walked into work with a straw-set. He made a joke like, “Oh, so we are just going to switch our hair every week?” to which I replied something like, “Nope. I think this is it.” And he laughed, saying he liked it - thank goodness - and that was it. But what if he didn’t? What if the idea of curly hair or natural hair on air scared him? What if viewers made it an issue and called in? These were all fears that I had - fears that many on-air Women of Color still have 13 years later! It’s scary to think that one boss could have that much power to stop a woman from embracing the hair that naturally comes out of her scalp... a force that prevents a woman from fully loving her own self for fear of it negatively impacting her career.
I’ll admit that my move was a power play, though. While I didn’t have the agency and the following to rock my hair natural early in my career right out of school, a few years into my career and back in a market where I knew the community loved me, I calculated the “risks” from the past and knew now was the time to make the move and try.
In addition to working in TV at the time, I also hosted the # 1-morning radio show in the market which happened to be owned and operated by a prominent Black family and had been the voice of the community for 30+ years at that point. I was so through with being an inauthentic version of myself and so committed to going natural that I knew that should I encounter any kickback from my station about my natural hair, that I could go on the radio the next morning and tell my listeners about it and that they would have my back with phone calls and emails to the station in a heartbeat. I was a family with my listeners and you don’t mess with family. Fortunately for me though, that never came to pass because there was never a need. Even by the time my hair had fully grown out and was essentially a curly ‘fro at the desk, it was never an issue... not with work, not with viewers, not with anyone.
I left the business for a while, returning just last year as a Lifestyle TV Host and yes, my hair is still big and natural and it will always be. I blow it out from time to time, but I refuse to wear my hair straight on air. It’s important for me that young black girls and Women of Color, in general, see natural hair on air without the need to conform or the fear of having to conform. The fact that this is still a topic of conversation more than a dozen years after I first did this on-air honestly makes me sad, but I understand why. Our beauty as black women - our “extraness” - is hard to subdue and why should we? Why should we diminish what makes us stand out just because it makes us stand out? It is ours simply by our existence. We have been told and sold so many lies about our looks, I’ve found that unlearning them can be a process that many women either don’t have the patience for or don’t want to start because it uncovers too many truths about their own feelings of beauty and race and even internalized racism or self-hate. In the black community, “hair” isn’t just simply hair. There are layers and layers before you get to the root of it all.
I am so happy and encouraged by all the naturalistas I see on-air now because when I transitioned, that was definitely not the case. I am excited that at this rate, natural hair on-air is what my young daughter will always know and that her mommy was one of the women who decided that enough was enough. I am thankful for products like PuffCuff that make looking fly on-air easy, even when humidity threatens to make me run out and get a tapered cut again on a whim. And I am glad for blogs like this and forums where we, as not just Black women or women for color, but women of TEXTURE, can gather virtually, share our experiences, provide support and understanding, and be a resource for others who are breaking free to be their authentic, healthier selves. Here’s to you, to me, to US — beautifully authentic and bold in our commitment to be so.
One more thing, just after I finished up preparing this blog post this very same subject came up on my Facebook feed. How timely, right?!?! A reporter in a different market, Corallys Ortiz, wore her curly natural hair on-air. She received a horrible call from a viewer, who had the gall to use the N-word, in response to her decision. You have to read how this beautiful a meteorologist and TV reporter at WBBJ 7 in Jackson, TN responded and the support she received from her non-ignorant viewers.
The fact that the professionalism of women of African descent is called into question because they chose not to alter the texture of the hair that's growing directly out of their scalp or disguise it is despicable and downright disrespectful. Girl, represent! Be true to you! We ain't mad at ya! (This paragraph was authored by Ceata Lash, Founder of PuffCuff)
In June of this year, Sally Beauty announced the launch of Sally Beauty Cultivate —For Women by Women, a business accelerator program to help women beauty entrepreneurs grow their business. Sally Beauty began accepting entries from female-owned hair care brands looking to expand their business. The winning company was to be awarded a $25K monetary grant, distribution on...
In June of this year, Sally Beauty announced the launch of Sally Beauty Cultivate —For Women by Women, a business accelerator program to help women beauty entrepreneurs grow their business. Sally Beauty began accepting entries from female-owned hair care brands looking to expand their business. The winning company was to be awarded a $25K monetary grant, distribution on SallyBeauty.com, and support to help grow their business.
Our founder submitted her application in early July and received an email response from the Cultivate Team on July 24th. In complete honesty, because it was an email, she automatically prepared herself for another "NO." After all, we received denials to all of our other submissions to programs of the like. The Sara Blakley (Spanx) Leg Up Program said NO. The Tory Burch Fellows Program said NO. Shark Tank said NO, twice. And The Profit — dead air. We'd gotten used to being told NO so many times another one wouldn't be shocking.
Ignoring the email subject line, Ceata opened and proceeded to skim the email looking for the words "We regret to inform you…," but couldn't find them. Midway through the second paragraph, still hadn't found those words. She went back to the beginning and began to read more carefully. Then it hit. Wait, this says "It is our pleasure to announce that you have received the President’s Innovation Award as part of the Sally Beauty Cultivate Program!" In her mind, she thought, "What? Wait, what?!? President's Innovation Award—what's that? They never mentioned an innovation award. Is this real? This must be a scam." As you can tell our founder is a bit of a pessimist. She read the email a third time. Finally, it sunk in. She broke her silence but could only utter, "Woah." Handing her cell phone to her husband, she asked him "Honey, please read this. I think we just got a YES."
Her husband, Garrett grabbed the phone and began reading silently. After a few moments, he reads aloud "This award is reserved for one company that we [Sally Beauty] think is beyond the stage of the Cultivate Program, but rather deserves a fast track direct to in-store distribution across our national fleet of stores and online!" He shouts "YAAAAAASSSSSS!" And the holy dance commences!
So what does this mean for PuffCuff? The purpose of this blog is to answer the many questions we had and any questions we've received from our fans. Here it goes.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
1. When will PuffCuff products be in Sally Beauty stores? PuffCuff Hair Clamps will begin rolling out in 200 select Sally Beauty locations beginning November 1, 2018.
2. Will PuffCuff products be in ALL 3000 US-based Sally Beauty stores on November 1, 2018. No. PuffCuff products will first be in approximately 200 stores (the top 20 Sally Beauty stores in our top consuming 10 states. Our plan is to be in all 3000 US-based Sally Beauty stores by mid of 2019.
3. Will all of the sizes of the PuffCuff be in those initial 200 stores? No. Only the PuffCuff ORIGINAL, PuffCuff JUNIOR and PuffCuff MINI will be available in the first 200 stores.
4. Will all sizes of PuffCuff Hair Clamps be available at all Sally Beauty Stores and sallybeauty.com? Yes. All 5 of the PuffCuff SKUs will be available both in Sally Beauty stores and sallybeauty.com by the mid of 2019.
4. Will PuffCuff be in all Sally Beauty locations in Canada? When? Yes. We are hoping by the end of 2019.
6. Will the complete line of PuffCuff products (i.e., spray bottle, t-shirt turban) available on thepuffcuff.com be available at Sally Beauty? No. ONLY PuffCuff Hair Clamps will be available at Sally Beauty.
7. Will PuffCuff be available in international Sally Beauty locations, i.e., the UK? When? To Be Determined
8. Will PuffCuff be the same price in Sally Beauty as it is on www.thepuffcuff.com. Yes. If not the retail price will be very close to the pricing on thepuffcuff.com.
Sally Beauty, the world’s largest beauty retailer, is committed to selling quality products. This partnership will allow access to customers of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. We at PuffCuff are both humbled and elated to be the recipient of this award. We can't wait to see what the future has in store for both brands.
We were honored to be invited to the APS Back-To-School Bash again this year. The day started with early setup. Exhibit Hall C of the Georgia World Congress Center was filled with vendors from all over the city; eager to support the children of Atlanta.A football field length line of parents with their children awaited the doors opening....
We were honored to be invited to the APS Back-To-School Bash again this year. The day started with early setup. Exhibit Hall C of the Georgia World Congress Center was filled with vendors from all over the city; eager to support the children of Atlanta.
A football field length line of parents with their children awaited the doors opening. Fox 5 Atlanta was in attendance. The local radio station, V103 had a tent featuring a large stage with one of their DJs on the mic and spinning music all the while hundreds of volunteers hustled about preparing to receive the young guests.
When the doors opened, the attendees poured in. It took no time at all for smiling faces to make their way to our booth. On the table were posters for the kids to color with the statement, “I love me & I love my hair!” One with an illustration of a boy and another with an illustration of a girl both with positive affirmation imprinted in their hair. We asked that the parents take a photo of their child holding their finished works of art, post them to social media and tag us. Before the clock struck 12 on Sunday morning, so many creative and beautiful submissions flooded our social media feeds.
Parents and children approached the table with many questions:
“What is the PuffCuff?”
“What does it do?”
“How does it work?”
“Is it for my hair?”
“She has a lot of hair, it’s too thick, I don’t think it will work.”
We watched our Founder demo all of our PuffCuffs; all sizes, in different styles on all kinds of hair types. Each child who sat in the seat was encouraged to ditch the band and show the difference the PuffCuff makes. The faces of the children and their reactions were priceless. Their hair was secure without tension or tugging. They held a mirror and watched the application and removal process and went home with the PuffCuff in their hair, along with a headband adorned with a pair of hot pink sequined kitty-kat ears.
The happiness was evident in each child’s eyes as they looked at themselves in the mirror, gave hugs, looked again, and gave more hugs. One little one was so happy, she gave Ceata a huge kiss!
The energy was almost tangible as the drumline and cheerleaders that marched through the hall. V103 hosted a showcase; with various Atlanta artists singing, dancing and rapping.
Along with the styling demos, it was also a time for education. We were able to talk to many parents about the PuffCuff. We explained how it would work for them as well as their children. Moms and Dads alike came over to the booth with questions. “So it will keep her hair in place, but it won’t be tight? That’s so awesome. I know these elastic bands aren’t good for her hair.”
We even ran into some fans who were familiar with the brand and eager to see what new things were on the horizon.
As always, we thank each of you for your unwavering support. The APS Back-To-School event was yet another opportunity for us to give back to the community and spread the word about PuffCuff. We hope the young ones we met started school this year full of confidence and rocking the hair the good Lord gave them; no tension, no hair damage and most importantly no headaches!
