We first highlighted entrepreneur and haircare guru Julian Addo two years in the past, however her haircare line, Adwoa Beauty, deserves a revisit. Since then, Addo’s merchandise have hit the cabinets of Sephora in the United States and Canada, earned nationwide magnificence awards, and developed a cult following of prospects whose pure hair has by no means seemed higher.
Addo’s foray into haircare started a long time in the past. She was born in Liberia and raised in New York City. She was 12 when she began working as an assistant for a neighborhood hairstylist, then rapidly attracted purchasers of her personal. Addo enrolled in a vocational highschool, graduated along with her cosmetology license, and finally opened her personal salon. She ran the enterprise for a number of years earlier than getting married and transitioning into a company profession.
Addo’s ardour for cosmetology was dormant till 2012, when she was struck by YouTube movies of ladies and men with textured hair who have been giving up chemical remedies and rocking pure curls. She credit Chris Rock’s film Good Hair, launched in 2009, as one of the catalysts for the motion. The movie uncovered the risks of relaxants, which can be linked to well being points like alopecia and most cancers. “[These individuals] began documenting themselves returning to their pure textures, and I used to be moved. I wished to be a half of it,” she says.
Addo reduce off her personal chemically handled hair and began a weblog, Bella Kinks, to doc her return to her pure texture. After a few months, she determined running a blog wasn’t her calling and transitioned Bella Kinks into a media company, facilitating partnerships between influencers and haircare manufacturers. She additionally began working with Sally Beauty to repackage and reformulate their in-house multicultural haircare model, Silk Elements.
Addo started to note that the world of retail was experiencing a revolution. From Casper mattresses to Warby Parker glasses, corporations have been creating trendy methods to buy age-old merchandise. “I didn’t see that taking place with textured haircare,” she says. “The packaging and the branding seemed the identical in 2015 as they did in 1994.”
“Initially, I didn’t wish to begin a firm,” she continues. “I used to be used to working behind the scenes. So I pitched a idea [about a modernized haircare brand for textured hair] to Sally Beauty and a few of my different purchasers, however nobody actually moved on the thought. That’s how Adwoa Beauty was born–out of my frustration with the business and the way it represented Black girls, and from my want to have a clear, trendy, gender-neutral model that caters to textured hair. That didn’t exist previous to us launching in October 2017.”
Addo’s model pays homage to the phrase Adwoa, a nickname utilized in components of Western Africa for women born on Mondays. However, Addo emphasizes that Adwoa Beauty merchandise are gender-neutral. The model’s black-and-white packaging and crisp, minty fragrances have been designed to be universally interesting. “Hair doesn’t have a gender, and I didn’t have the power for gimmicky advertising,” she explains. “Products ‘for males’ simply have darker packaging with a masculine scent. I’ve to have the ability to stand behind my model a hundred %, so gender-neutral was simply pure. Also, my favourite colour has at all times been blue. The Adwoa Beauty blue feels each masculine and female.”
Creating clear, unhazardous merchandise was of equal significance to Addo. “We’ve at all times used clear elements,” she says. “In Liberia, the place I used to be born, a lot of our treatments are from our yard, from issues we develop. Even the meals that we eat there may be all-natural.” Adwoa Beauty merchandise are formulated with oils like baobab, peppermint, and wintergreen, with no parabens or sulfates.
Still, she says, there may be not a one-size-fits-all strategy to caring for textured hair. Adwoa Beauty merchandise are formulated to handle particular person wants, like added moisture, shine, or curl definition. Addo needs each buyer to have a tailor-made expertise, and her social media channels are used to offer one-on-one assist.
“We create high quality content material like tutorials, instructional posts, and Instagram Lives, however we then observe up with Messenger on Instagram and Facebook to have non-public conversations,” she says. Addo notes that some prospects aren’t comfy asking questions publicly, whereas others have non-public profiles and don’t wish to share photographs of themselves on the major feed. Instead, they will ship photographs of their hair and descriptions of their styling objectives in a Facebook or Instagram message. Addo or her group members will then provide professional recommendation. “We need them to get the greatest final result with our merchandise in order that they really feel comfy going into their office or anyplace in society with their pure hair,” says Addo.
Most giant corporations have too many DMs to undergo, she says, or they merely don’t make it a precedence. “Even although we’re rising, it’s one thing that we proceed to do. You don’t ever wish to turn out to be too large to reply your buyer.” After attending to know them on an intimate stage, provides Addo, prospects usually tend to interact on social media and act as model advocates.
Creating a group for these with textured hair is at the core of Adwoa Beauty, and Addo wished it to transcend digital platforms. She developed a showroom in the Cedars, which welcomes prospects to buy, get styling recommendation, and ask questions on the merchandise. “I wished to have an experiential location the place prospects can see, contact, and check every little thing,” says Addo. She plans to return to her in-person buying mannequin in the close to future as the vaccine rollout continues.
The showroom is a multi-use house and can also be used to host workshops and occasions. Last yr, throughout Black History Month, Addo deliberate a buying occasion and invited different Black- and women-owned companies to promote their merchandise. She additionally loans the showroom to native creatives for photoshoots and content material creation.
“The house is right here, I’m paying hire on it, and it doesn’t take something from me to have individuals are available in and use it,” she says. “Entrepreneurship is basically arduous. It’s even tougher as a Black founder while you don’t have entry to funding and capital in the identical means that non-Black individuals do. So it’s actually necessary to me to proceed to elevate up all individuals, with an emphasis on the group I got here from.”
The Adwoa Beauty showroom in The Cedars.Adwoa
Addo believes that transparency is a key part of sharing her story with different small enterprise house owners. “I began this firm in my one-bedroom house,” she says. “Everyone’s attempting to placed on their greatest face, however entrepreneurship is so arduous.”
That mentioned, in simply three years, the Adwoa Beauty model has hit main milestones. Its hair gel gained a coveted Best of Beauty Award from Allure in 2020–the first all-natural gel to obtain the honor. Then, Adwoa Beauty was tapped by Instagram to be a half of the launch of Live Rooms. Perhaps most spectacular is Adwoa’s presence in Sephora shops, now in each stateside and in Canada. “It validated my model and my work,” she mentioned.
“I wish to encourage individuals who wish to be on the [entrepreneurial] journey, but additionally present them what it takes.”
Julian Addo
Addo’s mission has at all times been to signify textured hair in the highest regard potential and to safe its long-overdue presence in the magnificence business. “Our photographs and advertising can slot in anyplace that magnificence merchandise are offered,” she says. “‘Normalize Being Kinky’ is one of our taglines, and we’re ensuring that individuals of colour know that there’s an assortment of merchandise for them, together with in prestigious retailers like Sephora. They can stroll in and store in the identical aisles, not simply the ethnic aisle.”
Regardless of her success, Addo doesn’t really feel like she’s ‘made it’ but. Instead, she says, she’s simply getting began. “I’m nonetheless in the trenches doing the work,” she says. “I do wish to construct Adwoa Beauty into a billion-dollar firm and be the first Black-owned magnificence model to go public. So I’ve some main objectives, however so far as short-term, I don’t actually set objectives for myself. I don’t need that sort of stress.”
Instead, she’s persevering with to deal with what made Adwoa Beauty a hit from the starting–connecting with prospects.
“People will assist and speak about manufacturers they like, and so they’ll go the place they really feel appreciated,” she says. “I do know that sounds easy, however that’s the backside line. As an entrepreneur, as your organization grows and also you get busy, you are inclined to cease doing a lot of the issues that you simply used to do. But these issues are actually what makes the magic.”
The Adwoa Beauty showroom is positioned at 1414 Belleview Street, Suite 100. Shop Adwoa Beauty merchandise on their web site or in Sephora shops nationwide, or join with the model on Instagram and Facebook.
