Are You Suffering From Hair Loss? Or Maybe Dry, Itchy Scalp? We Have the Solution!

I've been in the hair care industry for 38 years. I started as a young teenager, braiding hair for people in the neighborhood. I loved doing hair, my clients loved what I did, and my clientele list quickly grew beyond the neighborhood, so I decided to make “doing hair” a career. I soon found out I didn't know how to care for the hair and scalps of my clients. All I knew was how to do some braids and make the styles look good.  My epiphany came when my talent was broadsided by my lack of hair and scalp knowledge. Despite years of braiding hair for a number of clients and offering an enviable number of styles and techniques, I was not a trained and licensed cosmetologist. 

Here’s the short version. I did this signature Altogether Lovely technique called "Interlock" on a new client.  I was doing interlocks for years, and I actually now teach the invisible braid technique.  So, I did that technique on a new client’s hair and, well literally all of her hair was in the braids. She was completely bald! That was the bad news.  The good news is the outraged client allowed me to grow her hair back. I simultaneously enrolled in cosmetology school. And years later, she is still a client!

When I enrolled in cosmetology school they didn't teach much on trichology. So I started researching and looking for different things that I could do. I asked an instructor, “What can I do concerning this trichology and hair loss thing?” I've been on this journey learning more about trichology, the hair and scalp, hair loss, and different hair type issues like dryness and flakiness, and all of those different issues that we have with our hair and scalp.

Now fast forward some years later, clients were still having hair and scalp issues. So, I focused on the need to come up with something to help clients with their hair and scalp issues. I wanted to create an environment on their scalp to topically aid in the healing process concerning their hair loss, and, or whatever scalp issues they experienced, e.g. dandruff, psoriasis or eczema. And some clients were undergoing medical treatments and, or experiencing allergic reactions from the “commercial” hair used on their hair.  I wanted to come up with a solution for all those issues.

With education, actual cases, and research I concluded that I needed a chemist. Can anybody tell me where to find a chemist? Fortunately, I attended a trichology conference in 2014, and while talking to a female attendee I said, “I’m looking for a chemist." She said, "Well, I'm a Trichologist, and I'm also a chemist. I have a master's degree in chemistry."  We started talking, and I shared with her my desire to come up with a line of products to help hair and scalp issues.

We became really good friends and soon we started experimenting with various formulations. Initially, I only wanted to come up with something to help my clients and for other stylists to use. It didn't dawn on me, at the time, to market the products. Well, my clients started asking about the products and other people started asking about them too! We put the products on the market and the success of the products is my story.