JULISSA: I've always been very drawn to hair.

Obviously, I wasn't straightening my hair when I was, you know, five, six years old, but I just remember, like, feeling that shame around my hair and just not liking it and feeling like it was something about myself that wasn't appealing and, and people didn't like.

The very first time I got my hair straightened one of my cousins put my head over an ironing board and ironed it straight with a clothes iron.

And I just remember I got so many compliments that day.

Middle school and some of high school.

I was just straightening my hair every day.

In high school I was that kid that would do people's hair during homecoming and prom season.

So, my brother was a senior when I was a freshman, his friends would come and book appointments with me and I would do their hair.

I just remember noticing that the majority of people's hair, who I was styling, had naturally curly, wavy, coily hair, but we would all straighten it.

And so, I just remember thinking, "What if I learned how to wear it naturally curly?

And then I would show them and they would all want their hair like that, too?"

So, I started making my own concoctions at home, and right away I liked them way more than what was even offered out there.

And I did also understand the importance of using clean ingredients that would make my hair not only look beautiful at that moment, but also make my hair healthier, stronger in the long term.

So, the day that I wore my hair curly to school for the very first time was the turning point in my life where I began to attract "undercover curlies."

People who have naturally curly, wavy, coily hair, but you would never know because they straighten it so much.

I attracted them everywhere I would go and it became a theme of my life.

There was such a need out there for not just curl education, but visibility, representation, also understanding ingredients and products.

And so, I just remember from that day forward I was kind of like became the "curl whisperer."

Wanting to make my formulas professionally, was influenced by the fact that formulas would go bad.

I would have to refrigerate them.

It was inconvenient.

But I remember going to my brother, who's my co-founder and my right-hand man through this whole journey.

If he thinks this is a good idea, it 100% is a good idea because that man doesn't like anything.

He was like, "Give me two to three businesses days and I'll get back to you."

I just remember him kind of doing that little market research, seeing there was a huge white space in the market.

It was such an underserved group, especially back then.

There was just nothing like it in the market at all.

I just remember Tony coming back to me and saying, "This is definitely a good idea.

You should definitely pursue this.

You should do it as fast as possible, and I want to help you."

When I first, first launched, I was in my apartment that lasted like a week.

I had zero marketing dollars.

The money that I did have, I had invested it into the actual formulas and buying the product.

I may not have, you know, big budgets or marketing money, but I do have 100 cousins in LA, and that is priceless.

The website was made by my brother and I. The models on my website were my cousins and I. The drawing on the bottle, my cousin Vanessa drew it.

So, everything was very DIY.

And I remember that very first week that we launched the website.

All I did was share it on my social channels, which by that point I didn't have a large following, but I was already posting about like hair tips.

It was such a full circle moment because so many of those people that I had met in the bathroom, in elevators, in different places throughout the last ten years, they became our very first customers.

The trend over the years has been our community calling the shots, and me just trying, trying to keep up with them.

Beauty standards have changed so much, and I think that people are realizing how important representation really is and how it's not only important because it allows people to feel seen, but there's also financial benefits for companies that incorporate that and that embrace diversity and embrace offering products that that speak to a larger range of people.

I own my business; my business is owned 100% by my brother and I. So, there's nobody forcing me to do anything that I don't think is right for the customer.

And I think that's like the best feeling ever.