Stanford grad’s high-tech hair company attracts celebrity clients
Britney Winters stands poised to welcome visitors in her Upgrade Boutique showroom on Almeda, just a few miles from her childhood home in Third Ward. Her luxury showroom is accented with plush pink sofas, dramatic lighting and ample space for stylists to set up shop with their own clientele.
It’s a dream come true. It’s also part of her plan to disrupt the hair industry.
For the past few years, she’s been outfitting everyday women, as well as celebrities such as Mary J. Blige, Taraji P. Henson and Simone Biles, with hair extensions and wigs through her digital platform, which allows clients to purchase high-quality hair pieces and have them customized by her team of stylists across the nation without any in-person contact. No salon appointments needed.
“I always thought I spent too much money and time on my hair services and knew there had to be a more efficient way to get the quality of product and services I expected,” she said.
Winters’ is the owner and CEO of a company in the $6 billion global hair market, one in which Black women are huge consumers but rarely reap the financial gains. Her story should inspire us all. In many ways, Winters was born on the wrong side of life. She was shuttled between relatives in Cuney Homes, the same public housing complex where George Floyd grew up. She yearned for stability, but it was like a unicorn, never real, she said.
Winters felt in her core that her life as a Black girl growing up in Houston need not be defined by stereotypes. She was smart, a little rough around the edges, but she had big dreams.
Becoming an attorney or engineer, she thought, might be her path. So Winters attended Booker T. Washington High School for Engineering Professions. There, a teacher, Vicki Flanery, who happened to be white, encouraged her to look beyond Houston for college. Winters did, earning a full ride to Stanford University.
Coming from Cuney Homes, Stanford was a culture shock.
“I knew I was different than everyone else. I was capable, and there were other Black students, but they were from a different background,” Winters said. “I was smart, but I was a little ghetto.”
As much as we prepare our young children to go beyond their communities to get educated and make a life, there is that cultural component that often gets lost in the drive to compete. But Winters said she found her place with a tribe of friends and joining Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest Black sorority in the nation.
She also became friends with Issa Rae, the creator, producer and actress of HBO’s “Insecure.” The Stanford alums roomed together in New York, where they once got kicked out of Jay-Z’s nightclub because Winters used a fake ID. Life seemed like an episode right out of Rae’s hit show.
After earning an engineering degree from Stanford, Winters went to work on Wall Street in real estate and private equity. She remained close with Flanery, who always reminded her of her greatness. Tragically, in 2016 the retired teacher was killed by her husband in a murder-suicide in their Oak Forest home. Winters dedicated a heartfelt social-media post to her former teacher.
Winters was only 22, living in New York, when her life quickly changed. She had to return to Houston to take custody of her 8-year-old sister, Farren Fontenette, who was experiencing the same instability that Winters had as a child.
“I didn’t want my sister to feel like she didn’t have a place to call home. That was very important to me. I’m a mother figure, but I’m still her sister,” said Winters, who also has a 3-year-old daughter, Callie.
While working at Shell in Houston, Winters took an educational leave to earn an MBA at Harvard University. She took her sister with her. They moved to Massachusetts during a winter storm, and Fontenette, then 14, enrolled in high school and eventually joined the debate team. Now 22, Fontenette works in Winters’ company.
“I tell her I’m grateful every day,” Fontenette said. “She inspires me, pushes me and challenges me to be my best. She believes in integrity and hard work and taught me the same.”
At Harvard, Winters’ business idea — to revolutionize the way women buy hair extensions and wigs — took root. She made connections with other students and entrepreneurs, including a classmate who invested $50,000 into her idea. She used her connections to develop sources in China and in India for products. But she also understood the challenges; Black women often have a harder time raising capital for their businesses, since investors typically are white men. Since founding the business, Winters has raised nearly $2 million in venture capital funding.
While the business focused online during COVID, she has plans to open showrooms in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Winters realized another dream — to settle in Riverside Terrace, which has a history of being home to some of Houston’s most noted Black professionals. She’s wanted to live in the neighborhood since she was a child and recalled driving through the area with her late grandmother.
“I told my grandmother that I would someday buy her a house in Riverside Terrace,” Winters said. “I like to think she’s proud of me.”
To come from a place of few chances and build a business in the community that raised you is what dreams are made of. We need more dreamers like that.