00:00Hi, I'm Michelle Breyer and I co-founded NaturallyCurly.com with my dear friend Gretchen Heber.
00:06NaturallyCurly is 15 years old this month, so we thought it was a perfect time to share our story with you.
00:12This is Draw My Life, the story of NaturallyCurly.com.
00:17In 1998, Gretchen and I worked at the Statesman here in Austin, Texas. It was a newspaper.
00:23We were just two curly girls who would complain about our hair all the time.
00:27One day, at a brunch, a conversation with one of our straight-haired colleagues launched us into a full-on griping session about the haircuts we couldn't have, the products that wouldn't work.
00:38Finally, another colleague overheard us and said,
00:41Do you always talk about your hair this much?
00:43Uh, yeah, we said.
00:46And he suggested we start a website about it.
00:49Remember, this is back in 1998.
00:51Blogs didn't even exist back then.
00:55So we did a Google search.
00:56Fun fact, Google launched the same month as we did, and there was nothing out there.
01:01That's when Gretchen and I said, Yeah, let's do it!
01:04At a bar one night, we scribbled ideas out on cocktail napkins.
01:07We could have a product section.
01:09We could do this.
01:09We could do that.
01:11My neighbor's 13-year-old son had just learned how to do websites, so we paid him $100 to design the very first version of NaturallyCurly.com.
01:19All we knew was that we really wanted a logo with curly hair that moved, and that's how Frida, our first logo, was born.
01:27When NaturallyCurly launched, we'd go to the beauty section to buy products to review.
01:33There weren't really any products marketed for curly, so we just bought products that we knew worked for our hair.
01:38It was actually my mother who came up with a curl rating system, so every time you rate that conditioner in one to five curls, you can thank mom.
01:48This little hobby of ours got thousands of hits almost immediately.
01:52My favorite thing to do was log on every day and see where the views were coming from.
01:56One of the first things we started with the website was Curltalk, our discussion board.
02:04The forum was very basic, but it got a ton of traffic.
02:07Curly's had a lot of questions.
02:09They logged on from all over the world with the same kind of conversations that Gretchen and I had had when the site started.
02:15I really don't think we had any clue that we were helping to create a niche in the industry.
02:19So the first year and a half, we worked on NaturallyCurly.com when we could, at night, in the morning, sometimes during work hours.
02:30I did the PR myself.
02:32Because I was a reporter, I knew what publications would find interesting.
02:37Luckily, a curly hair website was still a weird enough idea that magazines like Allure and People picked up the idea and wrote about us.
02:45We were sort of making a name for ourselves.
02:47I could call up a company like KMS and they would send us boxes of product to review for free.
02:53Isn't that what every curly girl dreams about? Free product?
02:57Suddenly, more boxes from more brands were coming in.
03:00It was like the best dream in the world, like a kid in a candy store.
03:03But we never saw it as a business.
03:05NaturallyCurly.com was a place to go for information and inspiration.
03:10At the most, we thought we'd sell a couple of t-shirts.
03:13Our online forum was creating this amazing community.
03:15A lot of those early Curl Talkers have gone on to start their own blogs, including Curly Nikki and Naturality.
03:22Another Curl Talker named Jess would share her love-hate relationship with her bright red curly hair
03:27and started experimenting with do-it-yourself flaxseed gel recipes.
03:32Other members of the board loved her recipe and asked her to sell them.
03:36We now know and love her as Jessicirl, creator of many of our Holy Grail products.
03:40This was truly a grassroots effort.
03:44Gretchen and I, and people like us, people like Jessicirl and Curly Hair Solutions and Kinky Curly,
03:50were helping to create a curly hair industry.
03:53We were showing the world that curly hair was a force to be reckoned with.
03:57We didn't realize it at the time, but AG was on Curl Talk and used some of our feedback to develop Recoil,
04:03one of the top curly hair products around.
04:06AG agreed that even though it was a salon-only brand, they would let Naturally Curly sell it.
04:11That was a huge move for us.
04:13We had never sold product before.
04:16We scraped together the money, and luckily that same week,
04:21we were quoted in the New York Times style section,
04:24and orders started pouring in.
04:26I personally delivered shipments to the post office.
04:30Everyone knew us all over there.
04:32It went from five boxes to ten boxes,
04:35to using a dolly to wheel them in,
04:37to using a huge basket to wheel them in,
04:39to using two baskets to wheel them in.
04:41Soon enough, the post office had to pick up the packages at Gretchen's house.
04:45Curl Mart had taken off.
04:47For a lot of these solid brands like Jessicirl and Diva and Miss Jessie's,
04:51we were the first place besides their own website that they sold product.
04:54It had gotten to the point where we couldn't ship the orders ourselves.
04:58So Gretchen's babysitter, Julissa, was our very first employee.
05:02Julissa still works at Curl Mart today, and we love her so much.
05:06A lot of the best ideas at NaturallyCurly.com have come from our employees and our community.
05:12Take our Curly cocktails, for example.
05:14My friend Suze, you probably know her as Curly Suze,
05:18overheard me talking to a Ladies Home Journal editor.
05:20I was giving her suggestions for different cocktails she could use on her hair.
05:25She said,
05:25Why don't we create these cocktails for people on Curl Mart?
05:28And we could give them fun names like Curltini and Curl and Tonic.
05:32And the cocktails were born,
05:33and they have been one of our most successful products on Curl Mart.
05:37By 2005, NaturallyCurly was taking over Gretchen's house.
05:41It was time to make a change.
05:43We needed office space.
05:45So we rented a tiny little office.
05:48Gretchen and I would bump into each other if we backed up our chairs.
05:52We had one room dedicated to Curl Mart.
05:55Soon we were knocking down walls going into the office next to ours.
05:59And within a couple of years, we had gone into the offices next to those,
06:02and we had taken over the entire floor.
06:05Now remember, we were still working at the local newspaper,
06:08and we had families, growing families.
06:10We were part-time NaturallyCurly,
06:13but part-time was becoming 40, 50, 60 hours a week.
06:17Something had to give.
06:19There was a decision to be made.
06:21Do we do this full-time?
06:22Do we dive off that cliff?
06:24Do we take a chance?
06:25Our newspaper jobs were so secure,
06:28but it was definitely holding us back.
06:29We bootstrapped NaturallyCurly for a long time,
06:34but there were a lot of ideas we had and things we wanted to do
06:37and people we needed to hire,
06:38so it was time to raise some money.
06:40We were lucky that there was an angel network in Texas,
06:43and they actually believed in curly hair
06:45and thought it could be a good business.
06:48With this money, we were able to hire some great talent,
06:51including our amazing CEO, Krista Bailey.
06:54Yes, she has straight hair, but she has a curly heart.
06:56We continued to grow, adding new people,
07:00developers and designers and writers.
07:03In 2009, we thought it was important
07:05to create a community for the stylists,
07:08the people who were on our site every day,
07:11changing lives, giving great haircuts.
07:14They wanted a place for people like them.
07:16Around 2010, we started hearing more about Curly Nikki.
07:21She was a long-time curl talker,
07:23and she had gone off and created an amazing blog.
07:25She was working out of one room in her house in Raleigh-Durham,
07:30pregnant with Gia, and we decided to partner up.
07:34We realized that we could provide a lot of resources to her,
07:37and she would be an excellent addition
07:39to the Texture Media Network.
07:41Over the last 15 years, we've made a lot of waves.
07:44We've been on the front page of USA Today
07:47boycotting the Princess Diaries.
07:49We've taken on the millionaire matchmaker
07:52and her assertion that curly girls can't get men.
07:56We've been in newspapers and TV and magazines.
08:01Looking back 15 years ago, we never would have imagined
08:04we would have grown to where we are today
08:06with 20 employees and writers around the world
08:10and more than 3 million people a month
08:12that come to Texture Media Network
08:14to get information about their hair.
08:17We hear stories about how we've helped inspire people
08:21to wear their hair curly
08:22and how we help them feel good about themselves
08:24for the first time in their life.
08:26We've helped companies create products for the curly world.
08:29I'm so grateful that 15 years later, we are still here
08:33and we have everybody in this community to thank for that.
08:37The next generation is adding their mark
08:39to naturallycurly.com with videos and Instagram accounts
08:43and there are curlies born every day who still need help.
08:47There are people who still don't know about us
08:49and that's great.
08:50We hope that you'll scribble our website on a cocktail napkin
08:53the next time someone compliments your beautiful coils and kinks.
08:56We're still just a handful of people in Austin, Texas
08:59bringing you information and inspiration
09:01but naturallycurly is doing more creative things
09:04and working with the biggest brands in the world.
09:07Curly hair isn't just a fad or a trend
09:09and we've proven that.
09:10I'm so excited about the next chapter
09:12and I know you'll all be a part of that.
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