Kaylah Joseph, founder of LAID Hair Care, saw a gap in the market for quality hair care products that promote healthy hair. After discovering that the products she used caused clumps of her hair to fall out, finding a solution to healing her scalp and replenishing hair strands became her top priority.
LAID Hair Care was created in 2020 to combat hair loss, reverse alopecia, and provide customers with ingredients for hair health. The brand has grown from Joseph mixing ingredients in the kitchen to her products being distributed nationwide. At 28, the entrepreneur became the youngest CEO and founder to have shelf placement at Walmart and CVS.
Image Source: @laidhaircare
She is now taking LAID Hair Care to the next level and expanding the company into an affordable luxury beauty bar. The Alabama-based CEO will have her first beauty bar placed in a Huntsville Walmart. Along with including her products, Joseph plans to partner with other Black-owned hair care lines for shelf placement in her beauty bar. It will also feature wigs, weaves, extensions, products for men, and more.
NaturallyCurly spoke with Joseph about her early beginnings with LAID Hair Care, her partnership with retailers, and her new beauty bar ahead of its opening in March 2024
What was your relationship with your hair growing up, and how has it changed over the years?
When I was younger, I used to wear braided hair all the time. I loved my braids, beads, and hair. As I got older, I saw other girls wear their hair straight. When I was nine, I asked for a perm to put my hair into a ponytail and other styles…I didn’t have a bad relationship with my natural hair or perm. I always enjoyed the versatility.
LAID Hair Care sets itself apart as it can be used on natural and straight hair. Why did you think creating a product for both hair types was necessary?
LAID Hair Care is a hair health brand. You must ensure that you put good ingredients on your scalp and hair. Not only do Black women suffer from hair loss and alopecia, 41% of my customers are white and Spanish women…Everyone is suffering from hair loss, damage, and breakage.
What’s the significance behind creating that space and deciding to expand your business relationship with Walmart by having the beauty bar flagship be there and not anywhere else?
This is revolutionary. LAID Beauty Bar is something that I could not have dreamed of. Retail with a product line is extremely hard, expensive, and challenging. Within my first couple of months of being on retail shelves, another company tried to duplicate my formula.
When I realized that that’s how this world works and I didn’t see too much integrity in it, I said, ‘Let me do something that’s going to be a little bit different.’ I want something where I can say my impact is beyond this aisle placement.
With LAID Beauty Bar, I’m asking Walmart to include Black women in this space… They [Black women] are already coming into Walmart, but we don’t have the full braiding hair, wig, weaves, beads, or the cheap lip gloss we love from the beauty supply store. Then, we don’t see those who look like us for those conversations.
I want to give us [Black women] something that’s legacy and not something that will be sold to the highest bidder. It’s not about selling the company. It’s about making sure that that structure is intact so Black women can feel safe and are offered a wellness solution.
What made you want to document the progress of building the beauty bar publicly on social media?
Somebody needs to be inspired by seeing the steps. I hope that I am inspiring a generation that shifts from gatekeeping…It also adds another element of emotional connection, so people know who I am as an entrepreneur and what I stand on. I want LAID Hair Care always to represent what’s impossible becoming possible.
As the youngest person to have shelf placement at Walmart, how does it feel to make history in the hair care world and cement your impact in this business?
I’m honored and privileged to compete at this level. I welcome it and take it seriously. I can’t do what I sometimes want to do or say what I want to say because I have a community behind me who would be very disappointed if I didn’t approach this with the grace and honor they entrusted me with.
In what ways did your HBCU contribute to your go-getter, entrepreneurial spirit?
Going to an HBCU is being around the best of the best…If you graduated from an HBCU, you have that drive and hustle. Constantly being around people with that drive, hustle, and go-getter mentality inspired me for all four years…I was constantly surrounded by excellence, so I didn’t know anything else.
What comes to mind when you reflect on your business journey, what it took to get to where you are, and the soon-to-be opening of your first beauty bar?
It’s been a rollercoaster of very real highs and lows. It will be worth it because someone else will be inspired to pursue their dreams independently.
Have you tried LAID Hair Care? Let us know in the comments.
