Pulled, cut, tangled and shaped. Yes. We’re talking about the business of natural hair, but also about the formation of Joy Adaeze’s entrepreneurial career path. Not to mention, her latest company geared towards natural hair women called Curl Sistas Hair.
New York-based Nigerian-born Stylist/Style Blogger (entrepreneur) Joy has allowed my pretty little digital fingers to run through the layers of her rich career:
Hueish – Tell me about your history of work and how did you arrive at where you are today?
Joy Adaeze
Aside from my style blog- JoyLovesFashion.com-, my husband Obi Okere and I are the CEOs and founders of Curl Sistas Hair, 100% virgin human hair extensions for women with natural hair. Our three textures are Chi-Chi Curl, Chima Curl and Adaeze Kinky Curl, named after the strong women in our family. We launched Curl Sistas Hair October 2014 and it quickly became popular. Since then, our company has been featured on ESSENCE, Huffington Post, Popsugar Beauty, and more. Sales are good and every day is a blessing! We truly love what we do, and most of all, we love our customers! A big moment for us was when I was on Good Morning America with Kerry Washington. She complimented me on the hair and loved it so much! That was huge.
Hueish – Is the beauty industry very competitive? How are your products doing?
Joy Adaeze
The beauty industry is very competitive and that’s why we at Curl Sistas Hair believe it’s important to stand out in a way that serves our customers. In addition to our hair extensions, we wrote a book about how to care for natural hair called, The Curl Sistas Guide to DIY Natural Hair Products. This book is great because it gives you access to easy and all-natural DIY recipes you can make in your kitchen for a fraction of what you spend in stores. This has been very popular with our customers. We offer clip-ins, wefts, lace closures and also sample sizes. As mentioned above, Curl Sistas Hair comes in 3 textures: Chi-Chi Curl (our loosest curl), Chima Curl (tighter curl) and Adaeze Kinky Curl (afro texture). Our clip-ins are our most popular item. Our target audience is a black woman, age 19-40.
Hueish – What are your biggest challenges?
Joy
Our biggest challenge is operations — efficiently scaling our business to meet the growing demand.
Hueish – What 4 business lessons would you give your fellow woman entrepreneurs?
Joy
1. Do your homework and learn everything you can about your product AND your competitors.
2. Think about what will help you stand out.
3. Trust yourself along the way- it’s a process and you’re always building and growing.
4. Be reachable. Create as many outlets as possible for people to reach you and bless you.
Hueish
Thank you, Joy!
P.S. You can reach her on any of the following social media pages!
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curlsistas
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/curlsistas
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/curlsistas
- Pinterest:http://www.pinterest.com/curlsistas/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/curlsistas/videos
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