What was the motivation behind starting Grain Hair?
I had a relaxer my whole life, starting when I was four years old. When I turned eighteen, I decided I wanted to see what my curls looked like. I was a busy person at the time and I remain busy. So I really cared about having more agency. I just felt like it was so silly that there was no amount of money I could pay to have something that worked - it felt ridiculous. I felt like I was being inconvenienced even though so much research and effort was put into creating products for people who didn’t look like me. So I thought it was only fair for someone to put in a little effort for us and make something that worked, that saved them time, that saved them energy, and that gave them the agency to look the way they want to look while using their time in more impactful places: helping change the world, inventing new things, spending time with their family, raising their kids. There are so many ways you should be spending your time other than stressing about your hair…It should not be your main time sink unless it is what you’ve chosen for yourself…I really wanted to focus on creating this to free up Black people and curly-haired people’s time to do much better and bigger things.
Who do you imagine using your product?
When I first started developing the product, it was for someone like me. Someone who’s ultra busy and a high achiever on all ends. They just try to do everything at all times. I bring a lot of chaotic energy and take up a lot of space, so I didn’t want to over-fixate on what I looked like or spend too much time on it in a way that felt painful. I created this for people who care but also want to be so many other things and who don’t want to feel like they have to hide or change something so inherent about themselves before they can show up in the world proudly.
What is the importance of your last name being attached to the brand?
There was a lot that went into that. I take a lot of pride in my name and heritage. As a Black American and direct descendent of enslaved people, I take a lot of pride in the fact that…I exist today,…and can start a business in something I’m passionate about; I can be married to somebody that I love; and create a space that’s filled with love and that can really center blackness. It’s everything that my ancestors could have ever dreamed of for the future.
[My grandfather Walter Grain and grandmother Dora Grain with their 7 grandchildren]
What significance does the brand color have to you?
When my brand designer and I sat down, she had this long Q&A for me to fill out about how I perceived the brand, how the brand should feel, and what the brand represented. The visual I gave her was of these red clay cliffs in Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard. The image was super close to home. I just always thought they were so magnificent. When I think about my relationship with my race, my hair, my skin, and where it got to grow and flourish the most, it was on Martha’s Vineyard where I got to grow up. That was the first and one of the few spaces where even during Jim Crow, people who looked like me could rest, celebrate, and be at peace. When I sent her the images of the cliffs, I could have never imagined she’d create something so perfect. Shout out to Isa at Antara (she’s another female founder who I admire deeply).
[Aquinnah Red Clay Cliffs Photo Credit: Katherine Gendreau Photography]
What are three words you would use to describe your experience developing this product so far?
Faith: There’s a lot of hope and faith that emanates throughout the process. I really have had to have faith in the idea that, at some point, swinging the ax will bring the tree down…which may have been delusion. Entrepreneurship really requires some sense of delusion, at least at the very beginning. Either delusion or faith or hope, whatever you want to call it, really helped guide me at the beginning.
Tenacity: I just had to take it on the chin a lot of times. I think being able to bounce back after every “no” I got, after every rejection, after every failed formula was crucial. Anybody would say after 63 times of trying something and it hasn’t worked, “maybe I just don’t have the juice I need to start this thing”. But it’s not like I was doing the same thing repeatedly without making adjustments. Instead of getting discouraged by the outcomes, I really had to focus on taking the feedback from every setback and refine my process and trust that the thought and work that went into growing and getting better would at some point yield results.
Unapologetic: It’s a small act of resistance to say that we’re creating something for people who look like us because we deserve it…to achieve that feeling of pride in what they look like, their own hair, the way it curls, the way it grows out of their head. I like that the brand is being built to support folks on their journey to being radically authentic.
@chelseagrainjefferson big ups to my classmates who have been generous enough to help test🙏🏾🥹I’ve been shamelessly in peoples bathrooms watching them use the samples & sit under the dryer😭 #startingabrand #founder #blackgirltiktok #femalefounder #startingabusiness #hbs #harvardbusinessschool #blackatharvard #lowporosityhair #curlyhair #cachos ♬ Back It up and Dump It (Dump Truck) - GC Eternal & Kinfolk Thugs & TYME BOMB
What do you see for the future of Grain Hair?
I have always envisioned the future as just focusing on making wearing natural hair easier. Helping you achieve your look more easily, whatever that look is to you, while also being able to maintain the health of your hair if that matters to you. I want your style, look, and length to be based on your own choice and agency, not the result of uncontrollable circumstances like product-related damage or bad tools. I also love the idea of the brand growing with me. As I look towards the future and building our family, I love the idea of the brand helping me and my future kids develop a healthy relationship with their hair and making sure the brand can give them the tools they need for that journey. So I’m excited to see what that will look like years down the line