The Essence Girls United Disruptor Summit featured a dynamic panel discussion that addressed the challenges of building a small business, provided key insights on the brand’s new products, and highlighted some significant curl power moments. The panel was led by Senior Marketing Executive and original curly hair influencer, Tiffany Renee, alongside Cantu Ambassador and founder of House of Curls, Sherly Taverez.
The conversation began with Sherly sharing her journey of starting her brand and her experiences as an influencer representing curly hair.
“It’s a brand I created about six years ago to help representation in the Latin community with natural hair,” Sherly told GU.
Tiffany then asked Sherly about her journey as an influencer and how curls are represented, discussing the diversity within the influencer space for curly hair.
“The first content I worked with was natural hair. I started doing curly hair content and seeing what my hair likes and what kind of products I should use. That’s when YouTUbe started to come out and a lot of natural hair influencers came out as well. That’s when I learned what my hair likes and Cantu was one of the first products I used and I was just posting things that worked for me. Really authentic to what I loved and Cantu was one of those brands. I dmed them one day and they were doing an event for creators in Miami. They wrote me back and flew me out to Miami, everything paid. I was an ambassador for them then and it’s been about six years,” Sherly told GU.
Tiffany expressed her appreciation for Cantu’s natural hair products and their commitment to listening to their customers.
“One of the best things about them is that they listen to their customers, their consumers. They have recently been reformulated to include better ingredients, even more moisturizing, and so it’s really important to be able to listen to your audience,” Tiffany told Gu.
Sherly echoed this sentiment by discussing her relationship with her business and the community she has built.
“For me in my business in House of Curls, we are really big on our community. We call them the HOC fam, House Of Curls fam. A lot of them are way more than customers to us, they’ve become really good friends. They join us in every event we do, our retreats, and our pop-ups, and they’re always giving us suggestions and ideas. I’m always listening because they are the root of what we do and what we do for them. I started this brand for my younger self. We want to make sure that the younger generation knows that it is okay to wear their natural hair,” Sherly told GU.
Sherly also shared her favorite Cantu products as an influencer.
“Curl Activator Cream. My hair loves it because I think it’s just the one thing and I don’t have to put anything in my hair and my hair lasts for a week. Personally, I love both a little more definition, but more volume and I think that’s one product that does that very well. With the conditioner as well with the reformulation, I love it because when I don’t want to put too much product in my hair I just leave that in,” Sherly told GU.
Tiffany highlighted some key ingredients in the reformulated products, such as organic coconut oil, fair trade shea butter, and vitamin B. She then asked Sherly about the improvements she has made during her journey.
“For me, it’s not being so hard on myself when I first started. When I first started, I would be hard when something didn’t go right or perfectly and I focused a lot on perfection. Now, I’m like if I love I know they are going to love it and I have to just trust my gut instead of wanting it to go perfectly,” Sherly told GU.
Sherly concluded with some valuable advice for those considering entrepreneurship.
“Follow your gut. It is always going to lead you to the right place and don’t wait for the right time. There’s never going to be the right time to do something, the time is right now,” Sherly told GU.