Beauty maven and entrepreneur Kay Cola is the multi-faceted CEO behind The Organi Brands hair care line. After experiencing severe breakage due to chemical treatments and straightening, she took matters into her own hands by creating homemade products. This eventually grew into a beauty brand that now encompasses hair, skin, and wellness items that customers can use to enrich their lives. As a vegan and non-toxic hair care collection, Kay is proud to create products with natural ingredients that help to restore hair health and enrich a customer’s understanding of how to properly care for their curls. Her line includes a range of vitamins, conditioners, styling products, and scalp treatments that can assist with a variety of common natural hair problems. We’re excited to feature her amazing brand and share more of her entrepreneurial story.
Discover more inspiring beauty industry founders with our Leaders in Curl series. For Hispanic Heritage Month we’re focusing on Latinx founders.
What was the biggest lesson you learned from dyeing your hair blonde?
The biggest lesson was to be myself and be grateful with how I was made. My hair is naturally very dark brown and dying it blonde destroyed my ends and curl pattern. The color didn’t even look good on my skin tone or even compliment my features the way my dark hair does. Stripping my hair of its melanin didn’t sit right with me and i’ll never do that again
Had you ever tried and failed at going natural before that experience?
I had been natural most of my childhood. I didn’t appreciate my hair and always asked my mom to straighten it. During that time there weren’t a lot of products on the market for girls with hair like mine so it was a lot harder to manage. There was also a lack of awareness and education in the space. I feel like back then it wasn’t cool to have curly hair and now it is.
How does being a mom influence the types of products you create?
Being a mom has influenced my entire line. I don’t want to use products that are going to poison myself and my children.
Why did you decide to create an organic and vegan hair care line?
My line was inspired by my daughter who was five years old at the time and was begging me to straighten her hair because girls at school had straight hair. I was baffled that she wanted to change her hair at such a young age as this was something that I experienced during high school. I wanted to inspire her to love and wear her natural hair but I was not wearing my own. I needed to heal my hair so I created something that did just that.
How does your Latinx heritage impact your brand?
It is important for me to create a space in which we can be seen & heard. It is important that our hair is given consideration and a spotlight and it is important that we embrace our various textures, colors, shades and looks. So often we try to conform to European features and beauty standards and it’s important that we recognize our own as beautiful. We influence and inspire the entire world and yet we are constantly picking apart our looks. My brand and company are inclusive of all.
What was the inspiration behind “The Organi Grow” name?
The name was inspired by my desire to grow my hair naturally and organically using non-toxic ingredients.
Why is porosity education important for you to teach your customers?
Knowing your porosity is important because it will literally determine the outcome of the way your hair cooperates, grows and thrives. Not all oils butters and ingredients work on every porosity the same and some can actually have an adverse effect on your hair knowing your porosity will help you be more successful on your hair growth journey.
We’re going into the fall season, which products should we keep on our shelf?
Cold weather is a time for heavier oils butters and deep conditioning to seal in the moisture our hair needs to thrive. I suggest our Conditioners, Prepoos, for all textures Vegan Grogurt for 3A-4C textures which is a thick leave in and our Texture Butter for 3C-4C textures
What’s one piece of advice you would give to up and coming entrepreneurs?
I want entrepreneurs to walk with purpose in alignment. Don’t just do this for money. When you live a purpose filled life you will always be abundant and have great joy.
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