WATCH: Jesseca Dupart-Harris Talk To ESSENCE About Kaleidoscope

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Born and raised in New Orleans, the Kaleidoscope Hair Products CEO has built a multimillion-dollar empire.

Transcript

00:00Kaleidoscope is turning 10 years old a lot of people call it an anniversary, but I say it's a birthday so

00:06Happy birthday to kaleidoscope and we are celebrating with essence. We are celebrating at essence festival. It is in the month of July

00:15So we are having a birthday party and going to be all up and through the essence festival

00:30Hey, this is Jessica Judy Harris Duport founder CEO kaleidoscope hair products, and I'm hanging out with essence

00:37My decision to enter into the hair care business was motivated by my childhood

00:42I started doing hair at a very early age. I am currently a licensed stylist, but

00:47When I was very young they have a photo of me sitting on my dad's back

00:51And I put borets all over his head and he had like a million ponytails

00:55My mom always tells this story about me cutting all of my Barbie dolls hair off and then trying to reattach it the moment

01:03That sparked me saying let me really get into hair care. I

01:09Had a client that decided to cheat on me for another hairstylist, and I know how to put ponytails in no bobby pins

01:16Okay, no bobby pins and I'll do it

01:18It's just a rubber band whatever so I know how to do that

01:19So she went and got a pin curl ponytail from a different hairstylist who used bobby pins

01:24She came back and she got a circular bald spot and I didn't grew her hair down to damn near her ass

01:29So I felt very responsible to make her hair come back and I felt like first of all you cheated on me

01:34But we are not gonna let that stop our relationship

01:37We're gonna continue to grow and it just made me feel like who am I to not fix this in this moment?

01:44And I felt like you know

01:46What was there out there? They had a couple of different things

01:49But I was like what is there that the a black woman could use to remedy to remedy something like this

01:55Oh, what is it that a black woman could use to kind of make it happen faster than normal growth as a hairstylist?

02:03Okay

02:03The reason why that's such a big thing because if I've nurtured you to have full healthy hair

02:09And then now you going to somebody that doesn't do the same practice

02:12It takes away years of the thing that we've been building. So it's not that I'm so mad that you went to somebody else

02:18I just want for the thing that we've been doing the thing that we've been building to be nurtured the same way

02:22so if you do have to go to somebody else because my books are full or you do have to go to somebody else because

02:27You're out of town or you do have to go to somebody else for whatever reason

02:30Just make sure that they take care of your hair the same way that I did don't just go to the quickest person

02:36Do some research

02:38Make sure you have not only a great experience there

02:41But so does your scalp and your hair because I would hate for you to go out of grew your hair long

02:47You didn't go you wouldn't got a full frontal and now your whole front is snatched off. We're not doing that

02:55Being from New Orleans or just being from the south in general we are friendly people we speak a lot

03:01We you know, we try to check on you make sure you're good

03:03So I feel like that rolled into my business and my business is success because I am very on top of my customers

03:10And how's everybody doing? You know, how do you like this?

03:14and then also

03:16You know, like our culture is rich

03:19Our culture is colorful. I am a person that absolutely loves all parts of the colors

03:25So when it comes to my packaging or when it comes to our different collections, you will see

03:30Vibrant colors and you will you will get like a vibrant Richie kind of feel

03:38It's huge for the community in New Orleans itself as a person that used to live there and was

03:45A service provider there when essence came to town we made a lot of money

03:49So essence brought a lot of money to us because everybody was trying to get their head done get their nails done get their outfits

03:55The restaurants was always packed people that had car services

03:59The hotels essence brought so much revenue to the city that you counted it during your year when you're planning for your money

04:06You planning? Okay, we know we're gonna have a spike for essence

04:09So I think it's important to essence continues to come to New Orleans

04:13Because now we're used to it and don't take that back

04:16I feel like kaleidoscope hair products plays a big part in fostering confidence, especially with our

04:24consumers because

04:26Prior to it being the in thing. We were a very inclusive brand. I have been that way since the beginning

04:33We accept curly we accept wigs. We accept braids. We accept, you know, whatever it is you have going on alopecia, whatever

04:40So I have created a community to be able to let the consumer define beauty in their own eyes and take it away from

04:47What the standards of what the world says?

04:49So with that being the case I do offer miracle drops if you want to grow your hair

04:53But then if you want to be short, I support that too. If you want to wear braids, I'm cool with that

04:58You want to wear a wig we have stuff for you when you take your wig out or in between your wigs

05:02Whatever it is that you choose to do for your beautification. That's on you. I support it. I'm right there

05:11When I first got into this thing, I honestly can tell you God has been driving

05:16I did not see it going as far as it has so when I first got into it

05:20I just was trying to service the people that were in my salon now that we have grown

05:24Into jumping into the big with the big boys now, it's learning

05:28About the competitive landscape learning the trends that are on the rise

05:32Most importantly listening to our consumer, but I feel like I don't know if it's just me being from New Orleans

05:38But I've been so authentic that it goes into the brand. Also. The brand is very very authentic

05:44I think the thing that sets up sets us apart from the other brands

05:48No names. It's just the fact that we get to do everything who we are

05:53We I'm a Christian, but I curse so we might have a twerk campaign with somebody else might can't you know?

05:59We are not cookie cutter. We are not black and white. It is not in the box

06:03We get to be exactly who we want to be whenever we want to be and because of that

06:07I think a lot of people navigate to us because they know it's not it's not bullshit. We're not just saying it

06:16Growing up

06:17My mom used to take me with her to the hair salon. It was it was a ritual

06:24It was every Saturday. So this is back where relaxers were happening

06:28So we would get a relaxer once a month, but then every other week we would get the roller sets. I think that

06:35That being instilled in me in a in a young age caused me to want to

06:40Continue. I think she kind of without realizing started to kind of grow my passion for hair and grow my passion for doing hair

06:47I feel like I would love it to not only just be a household name

06:50But because people trust us so much for us to be able to cater to multiple needs

06:57And kind of be a staple I see kaleidoscope in his growth

07:01Probably stepping off into different sectors like, you know, we are hair care, but then I have a baby, you know

07:08We have a kids line. So we thinking about a baby line, you know

07:11I was gonna dip off into skin, but I wasn't necessarily ready for it. I honestly think there's absolutely

07:17No way in hell to have a perfect balance at any point in time and anybody tells you that is a liar

07:22I feel like when you give a hundred percent to your home your business suffers when you give a hundred percent to your business your

07:28Home suffers so you have to learn and navigate the ebbs and the flows and be where you need to be when needed

07:32Sometimes your business is going to need you more. Sometimes your home is going to need you more

07:37So identifying those times and be willing to do the things to be able to be present. So if I know

07:43My child is going to be celebrating his first birthday that we need to figure out, you know, how what are we doing around that time?

07:50How can I step away from business or if I know?

07:52Hey, we're about to have a baby like when it was time to give birth

07:55What are the things that I need to have in place at the business to where people are not calling me all the time

07:59So I don't have to have these little meetings. I need y'all to take care of this

08:03I'm here

08:03But I need y'all to take care of this for at least four to six weeks while I'm trying to cater to my wife

08:08In her healing process and while we trying to get our baby, you know, all of the loving nutrients that he needs

08:18So my wife

08:20So my wife

08:22Is on our packaging as far as her being a part of the creative process. I try to limit

08:28The amount of questions that I have to ask her so I don't want to ask her like hey, you know

08:33What kind of ingredients do you want? I'm gonna tell her this is what I suggest or smellies for things

08:38Which which smell do you like or out of these colors out of these color blues? Which blue do you like?

08:44When it comes to like content creation or like when we're doing our content day

08:48She is very hands-on with that. But when it comes to the the process of the products

08:53I feel like that's the boring side for her

08:56So I just try to limit I try to just put it in front of her almost as finished and then she can pick it

09:01like that

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