‘My mother’s daughter is the most special thing I am’
FOR AMERICAN ENTREPRENEUR LISA PRICE – WHO BUILT A MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR BEAUTY COMPANY ON THE STRENGTH OF HER MOTHER’S ADVICE – LEGACY IS EVERYTHING
Carol’s Daughter isn’t the first beauty brand to start life on a kitchen table, but as domestic backstories go, this has roots that go deeper than most. ‘For so long, the only people who told Black women we were beautiful were our moms and grandmothers,’ recalls founder and entrepreneur Lisa Price. ‘Society wouldn’t tell us we were beautiful, so we didn’t look there for validation. And as far as beauty treatments went, there were a number of things that didn’t exist on shelves because no one had bothered to make anything for us. They happened at home instead.’ When Price started blending essential oil-based fragrances and creams in her Brooklyn home more than 30 years ago, she wasn’t doing anything that other women hadn’t before. ‘Home remedies are prevalent in our history and are handed down from one generation to another,’ she points out. What she had that other women didn’t, though, was a mother – Carol – who, in 1993, nudged her daughter into taking her product to a local flea market. It sold out, and, after that, her hobby gradually became a thriving haircare business, with Price showcasing her line on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2002. The halo effect led to investment from celebrities such as Jay-z and Mary J Blige, and eventually reached L’oréal’s acquisitions department, which in 2014 bought Carol’s Daughter – now named for ‘the most special thing that I am, which is Lisa, Carol’s daughter,’ says Price. She still leads brand vision and product development, and is now a major voice in the natural
hair conversation. Her haircare contains natural ingredients – such as castor oil, black cumin and shea butter – traditionally used to strengthen and condition, which appeals to a generation Price finds to be turning away from chemical relaxers. ‘For decades, all we were given for our hair was relaxers,’ she says, ‘but I look at my daughter, who’s 16, and she has no concept of “natural” and “relaxed”. Her hair – and most of her friends’ hair – has never been relaxed.’ Asking Price to choose a favourite product is like asking her to ‘pick a favourite child’, she says, but she’s particularly proud of her rose water micellar shampoo, Wash Day Delight, £13.99. ‘I don’t know if you refer to “wash day” here in the UK, but at home, it’s the day Black women dedicate to washing their hair because it is a process that – for a lot of us – takes some time. This honours that process but tries to give you back some time in your day.’ Price hopes her legacy continues in the boardroom as well as the bathroom. ‘There are other brands out there with that same kind of voice and I love that,’ she says, ‘but I also recognise that they’re there because I came first, and I’m here because somebody came before me. As Black women founders, we recognise that when we’re walking through the door, we’re basically breaking it down – and then we have to make sure it stays open so that we’re not the only one.’