You might have heard this saying before: a woman's hair is her crown! So, what do you think happens to a girl who grows up hearing "you have bad hair" or "you'd be pretty if you'd straighten your hair."
That's what one Florida woman says she grew up hearing. But now, she's flipping the script through a fashion statement. In honor of Women's History Month, I sat down with the owner of Hause of Curls, whose goal is inspiring generations.
“Pelo Malo, Where?” Sherly Tavarez said about the phrase on shirts sold at her store. "And it means ‘bad hair, where?’ I thought it was going to be this one t-shirt that I sold on Instagram.”
But to Tavarez’s surprise, over 150 preorders came in laying the groundwork for her company that now has over 15,000 followers.
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"I had just lost my job, so I didn't even have funds to start it,” she said. “So, what I did was I took all these pre-orders, which gave me the capital to start the business, to start the website. I had to learn everything from scratch."
She bet on herself, learning about labels, legal, marketing, and more. But it came from a newfound self-love with her hair.
While the curly hair movement has grown in popularity in many Black communities, Sherly noticed the Latino community was still behind.
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“Those were the words, ‘Pelo Malo,’ that you heard when you went into a hair salon and you were like ‘I want a blowout’ and they were like ‘Oh... tu tiene pelo malo,’” she said. “So we have to do a lot, we have to relax you, we have to do this we have to do that in order for you to be beautiful."
Before moving to Florida, Sherly lived in the Dominican Republic where she was born and where she constantly heard, she had bad hair.
"So imagine as a little girl 11-years-old hearing those words. For me hearing those words, it was important to get that message to the younger generation so that little girl doesn't feel the same way I did,” she said. “She sees her mom, she sees her friends, she sees people at school that look like her, she sees people on TV and she feels the representation.”
Now, her brand is everywhere - on celebrities and national TV. Through Hause of Curls, Tavarez has been inspiring women and girls - especially Afro-Latinos - battling negativity as they work to embrace curly, coily or kinky hair.
"Our hair can be coarser so I think for us it's like within the curly hair community someone will say well my hair is wavier it's not as curly, it's not as tight,” she said. “So there will still be discrimination within the curly hair community.”
And for this entrepreneur, it’s not just about selling merch. It’s about creating a sisterhood. Like the support she provides through her women’s retreats
"Women only, no men allowed so it's very comfortable,” she said. “We dance, we have theme dinners, we eat great food. For me it was really just about having fun and letting our hair be."
Today, and every day, she lets her hair be - reminding others you are beautiful just as you are
"For me, it was so freeing just to see the pieces go that didn't serve me anymore,” she said. “Every time I cut my hair and I would see the curls coming in I was like this is who I was always meant to be."
If you are interested in learning about her next retreat Sol Playa Rizos, which in English means sun, beach and curls, in Ocho Ríos, Jamaica, you can click on this link.
