A Long Time Coming - Journey to Lathering Shampoo

I started Fancy Free Hair & Skin with one product, whipped shea butter that could be used on both hair and skin, because I couldn't find products heavy enough to keep my thick, kinky hair moisturized. It was a common problem with newly naturals back then. Dry hair. Brittle hair. After a few years, I realized that it started with "wash day". So many of us were using products that dried out hair out and then we were trying to put the moisture back in. That seemed kind of dumb, so I formulated the Clay Wash for Hair & Skin. I specifically created that product for thick, kinky hair that dries out as wash day approaches. The Clay Wash works wonders for people like me who don't use a lot of styling products in their hair but I quickly realized that we all needed a little lather from time to time. 

The same goes for conditioners. There are a lot of reasons to need a little extra moisture, vitamins and protein on your hair. To help detangle after taking your hair down from a protective style. To prevent breakage from damaged hair as you await your appointment for a good trim. To prepare your hair for a protective style. I had always really liked the Sacha Inci oil from when I used a sacha inci oil Shea Moisture product back in 2016 when I colored my hair. Putting together a deep conditioner formula really wasn't as challenging as it was to formulate the shampoo. But back to lathering shampoo...

Our scalps need to be cleansed of all the gunk so that the hair follicle can move freely. We need to remove product build up from our hair strands because too much product can cause breakage. But a good lathering shampoo is easier said than done. There is sooooo much to consider. Sooooooo much to figure out. Then once I figured it out, I had to execute the considerations. And there's the conflict.  

I started with a shampoo bar but it smelled bad and dried my hair out. Then I tried to make liquid soap out of oils (saponification) and that was a disaster. Turns out that the saponification process requires lye, a basic pH, but hair and skin likes an acidic pH. However, if you add an acid to the saponified oils, you will lose the lather. No easy feat. LOL! So, I took a few breaks. I even considered cheating by ordering shampoo from another private label manufacturer but the ones I tried just didn't live up to my standards.

Then, in January 2020, I got a product development client who wanted a beard shampoo and he was very specific with the ingredients he wanted in it. While the standards for beard shampoo is usually a little different than that of a naturalista approaching wash day, I had renewed hope that I could create an amazing lathering shampoo. So, I picked it back up and tried again. Because that's the first lesson I learned from Aaliyah. LOL!

After about 20 tries I was ready to send it out to my Fancy Friends for feedback. Mainly to decide on the scent because I knew that the product was bomb. Surprisingly, selecting the fragrance of a new product is always difficult for me. Probably more difficult than developing the actual product. I'm just not really into fragrances. I like what I like but I know that this is not about me so I have to consider what's popular. Sometimes I will choose a  fragrance and it smells amazing in the bottle but doesn't do well with the formula. Like, the smell of all the ingredients react with the fragrance or essential oil and the product ends up stinking.

 

I love that my Fancy Friends keep it 100% with me. The feedback was very helpful because I didn't know that the shampoo was super thick. Too thick to easily pour from the bottle. Mainly because I package it while it's warm and it pours just fine then. I also didn't realize that the conditioner was leaving a waxy residue on the hair. Back to the lab with about 5 more variations and then, BOOM, she got it. Had a few manufacturing practice runs because shampoo has 3 phases and I've never had to have 3 pots going at once to make a product. By July 2021, I was ready. Labels were in. Packaging had been decided. I snuck and put it on the website but decided I needed a huge launch campaign. Photoshoot with models. The whole shabang. Even decided on a date that would coincide with a new look on my website. 

Photoshoot went amazingly well. Products were all ready to go but then.....the website. *le sigh* Let's just say that I will write another blog, do a YouTube video, IG Live & Reel, Facebook posts and tweets about that little experience. Any. Way. When we realized that the website was not going to ready anywhere near our projected launch date, we decided to give the people what they wanted. And the people wanted the Lavish Lathering Shampoo and Deep Conditioner. There are several morals to this story....   

• Don't give up on finding a solution even if the process is way more challenging than you anticipated.
• Take a break but don't quit.
• Impossible could take a week, like Jay-Z said, or 3 years.
• Always have your business contracts reviewed by an attorney and have the suggested updates made prior to signing.

Thank you for believing in me when I didn't think I could do it. It's only up from here, baby!

Shameless Plug Alert:

Fancy Free Hair & Skin manufactures quality products for hair and skin, as well as provides natural hair consults for women who would like assistance on their natural hair journey. Our motto is "Keeping you fancy and free of chemicals." Visit our website, www.fancyfreehairandskin.com, to see a full range of our products and services. Sign up for our mailing list to receive natural hair tips and stay up to date on sales and the latest happenings with Fancy Free.

Visit www.fancyfreehairandskin.com to subscribe to our mailing list. Become Fancy's Friend to receive a code for 10% off your next purchase.

Let Me Get My Attorney on the Line

Doing fake lab stuff for the camera.
I was really measuring though so maybe it was real lab stuff.

Fancy Free Hair & Skin has officially been in business since 2015. I didn't actually start taking it seriously until 2016 when my revenue increased by 500%. If you don't know by now, I am a scientist. I am good at this lab stuff. Real good. It's my jam. Starting, running and growing a business....well, that's another story. So, I've been educating myself. Enrolling in programs. Building relationships with more experienced business owners so they will mentor me. I don't know what I don't know and you can't always rely on Google. I mean, there's a lot on the interwebs but there comes a time in business where you need real business help from real business experts in order to grow.

I said all of that to build up to my story line. LOL! Every training program I've been to talks about having your advisory board or something like that. It should consist of a business banker, a business accountant, and a business lawyer. I am so blessed to be surrounded by black girl magic in my family, so business attorney was one of the first positions that I was able to fill. My cousin is an attorney and her business is to provide legal advice and services to small businesses, Be Bossy, LLC. Well, would you look at God. So, I've had a business attorney since day one. Ms. Bossy got me all set up with trademark and copyrighting. Most importantly, she has been instrumental with contract reviews.

I love womens more than him though.

Let's get to the nitty gritty. The hardest part about growing a business is branding and marketing. If you are a creative, this is hard because you want to create and you have all of these great ideas. You probably don't communicate well, so how will you concisely communicate how great your creation is? You hire a marketing professional. Some marketing companies specialize in branding, others in creating content for social media. I have both. Once I was solid on what I wanted to communicate (Thanks to The Audacity Group), I was good to go with hiring a social media manager to generate and post content. The first two weren't necessarily a good fit. I did a quick google search and selected a third. Based on my on-boarding process, I thought I had it right with the third company. Third times the charm, right? I should've known from the beginning when #3 - as I will refer to them from this point forward - boasted of being a black owned company and then assigned a white woman to be my account manager. Let me jot that down again...
This black owned company assigned a white woman to manage my social media for my black owned company marketing products to black womens - with an s. 😒

After some delay, I got my content from #3 and it was just okay. Some typos. Some things I would've
done differently with font but whatever, just start posting cuz I had been doing it myself for 3 days and I was exhausted. Then I noticed that 3 days had gone by with nothing posted. I went to look at the calendar I approved and it was only through the November 15. So, I'm like wait, did I miss an email on the 12th, 13th or 14th? Did they send something for me to approve and I missed it? No. Nothing. I get an email from my account manager telling me about a connectivity issue with my Facebook Business manager, which is what is used to manage paid ads. Ummmm.....that's fine but what does that have to do with you generating content for posting? 👀

Actual photograph of me reviewing that content

Let's look at the timeline, no posting for November 16, 17, 18. Also, there is no content to approve. Seems like there was no intention to even post or resolve the connectivity issue IF that had anything to do with actual posting.

I can't call my account manager directly so I schedule an appointment to talk with her. We speak on November 19. We work through the connectivity issue together. She explains that she is working with a Facebook specialist but they are slow. Ok. She also tells me that I will have content to approve for posting on the next day, Nov. 20. After our call, I spent 2 hours playing around with Facebook Business manager and fix it. Nov. 20 comes and goes. No content. Nov. 21 comes and almost goes and I shoot her an email asking for my content. Nothing. Nov. 22 comes, I get the content. This time it has maaaaaaddddd grammatical errors. They used pictures of old products I don't use any more from a folder marked "old Product Pics". Come one y'all. I started to correct, make comments, and then I'm like "Fcuk this! They're fired. I don't have time to deal with this a week before Black Friday." And to add insult to injury, none of holiday deals were included in the calendar. At that moment, I knew it was over for #3.

We're now at day 8 of #3 not posting on my social media. My response to the content was "I'm very disappointed in the amount of grammatical errors. This content looks low quality and thrown together. Thank you for your time." My account manager asks to allow her team to fix it on Nov 25. "No thank you. I'm going to end this relationship. I will no longer be using this company".
The account manager responds on Dec. 2. THE SECOND DAY IN DECEMBER! Which means I've been having to manage my social media on my own for over 2 weeks and, most importantly, through the holidays. Her email read "I'm sorry but I can't let you out of your 3 month contract." LET ME?!?! *Drake vc* Ma'am....ma'am. You don't have to let me do anything because you didn't do what you were paid to do. What she didn't know was that I had already called the bank on Nov 26 and stopped payment on their ACH withdrawal. So, when my phone started ringing on Dec 6 all I could do was laugh. I check my email "I tried to call you a couple times today...."

Picture taken of me while on
that call....unbothered.

First of all, bitch. Make an appointment. The same way I made an appointment when I needed to speak to you after you didn't post to my account for 3 days. I am very busy and I don't just take random phone calls that I'm not expecting. Second of all, I said what I said. IDGAF about the length of the contract. I DO know that you ain't do what you were supposed to do so I'm not gonna KEEP paying y'all. Only an idiot would pay for the third month.
So, we make an appointment and she calls with her director on the line. I'm "ok"-ing them to death cuz there's really nothing to talk about. I could tell that her director, another white woman, was more pissed about me stopping payment than anything. Girl, what part of "I said what I said" don't you understand? The director decides to "research" how my account was handled to decide if they will continue to pursue the third payment. Ok, girl. You do that. No matter what you find, I still ain't paying. The director emails me the next day, saying that she didn't find any wrong doing on my account manager's part and that they were going to pursue payment for the third month. That's when the lawyer comes in....

My lawyer's drafted response "It's clear that you don't have a full understanding of the culpability of the account manager....." followed by an outline of dates, highlighting time lapses on my account manager's part, complete with screenshots. Tuh! The final sentence is what took me out "As you can see, services were not rendered as promised.  Hence, the reason I did not allow for the third payment.  Moreover, I believe my proposed resolution of terminating our agreement and allowing you to retain the funds already remitted was more than reasonable.  If you continue to feel otherwise and wish to discuss this further, you can contact my attorney, Krystle Myers directly, she is copied to this email."


Done and done. It goes without saying that #3 decided that it was best to release me from their lor janky contract without paying for the third month. When I completed the contract termination form, my account manager's name wasn't available in the drop down for me to select. I'm assuming she was fired, possibly for the gross mismanagement of my account. Or maybe it was because she lied about it. Either way. My attorney handled it.

I knew what #3 did wrong but I wouldn't have been able to communicate the way Krystle did cuz...I'm not a lawyer. Plus, there's something about "speak to my attorney" that sounds so boss and "STOP PLAYING WITH ME" LOL!

I will say, I messed up by not having the contract with #3 reviewed BEFORE I signed it. Usually, Krystle reviews contracts that I produce for my clients, I just didn't think about it for a social media marketing company that showed up so high up in my Google search. They should've known what they were doing. But...they didn't.

Lesson: Document all communications cuz screenshots don't lie. Don't accept BS work just because you're desperate. Stand you ground. And most importantly, have a business attorney on deck.

Shameless Plug Alert:

Fancy Free Hair & Skin manufactures quality products for hair and skin, as well as provides natural hair consults for women who would like assistance on their natural hair journey. Our motto is "Keeping you fancy and free of chemicals." Visit our website, www.fancyfreehairandskin.com, to see a full range of our products and services. Sign up for our mailing list to receive natural hair tips and stay up to date on sales and the latest happenings with Fancy Free.

Visit www.fancyfreehairandskin.com to subscribe to our mailing list. Become Fancy's Friend to receive a code for 10% off your next purchase.

"Delete All Dis Ish, Piggy!"

If you're just joining me on this journey, I am the founder of Fancy Free Hair & Skin, a personal care manufacturing company. I did not set out to start a business. It happened accidentally. I don't know much about marketing product. I am an expert at developing and manufacturing products because I spent 7 years running a laboratory.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I am always looking at my products, website, social media, pictures, etc. trying to figure out how they can be improved. Last year, I felt like I hit a plateau but wasn't sure what I could do to take my business to the next level. So, I decided to hire a new marketing company to give me a fresh perspective on the things I look at everyday.

The graphic designer I use for my labels and other marketing material has been with me since the beginning. THEE VERY BEGINNING. She was the one who sent me a message saying "Girl. You are too fancy for this janky label you have. Let me fix it." The rest is history. My product labels have gone through a few

adjustments over the past 3 years but no real overhaul. Last year, I finally decided to create individual labels for the 5 different scents of shea for hair and skin instead of continuing to use one standard label with separate scent labels. Sounds simple, right? That's because "you did not do your math" *Erykah Badu vc*. Let us add up the cost for ONE product's labeling:

• (2 labels per jar + 2 different sizes) x 5 different scents = 20 rolls of labels
• Each roll of labels (minimum 250 labels) costs about $80 per roll with my customer loyalty discount
• That's 20 x $80 to upgrade my labels for ONE product. 
• $1600 for just the labels

The labels for one product. I have 9 different products. My graphic designer and I went back and forth about a few things with the labels for this one product. So when I required new labels for another product, I was kind of over it. Plus I was on a time crunch because I had made promises on when the new packaging would be available. 

Fast forward, I meet with the marketing company to really dive deep into what Fancy Free Hair & Skin is all about and who I am as a founder. One of the first things they comment on is my packaging and labeling. AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I got that anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach because.... well, see the calculations above. By the end of the "deep dive" session, we had shifted our focus to other aspect of Fancy Free that could be improved and did not mention the labels again. Then I started working on labels for the Clay Wash and Castor Oil blend (Available sometime this summer. Continue reading if you want to know about what's taking so long). The marketing company asked to see the labels that my graphic designer came up with, the designer who has been with me since day one. The one who I trusted with a major part of my branding. I gave her the go ahead to use more color and to keep in mind that I approve changing the label design to be more "Fancy". The labels she designed for my new products were in line with all of my other product labels. I understood that she wanted them to be cohesive with my existing products but my marketing company had something different in mind. Whole time, I'm confused and unsure, so guess what I did. Nothing. I put the new product release on the shelf and started working on shampoo bar, soap, shampoo and body wash. SMH. 

About two weeks after "Label Gate", I go to the grand opening of the Made In Baltimore Pop-Up Store, since my products are being sold there. Fancy Free was set up in a display in the middle of the table with about eight other handmade personal care products. My sister, who is my creative director, and I were looking at my products among the others like "Something isn't right here." I didn't like the way my products looked next to others. I felt like mine looked amateur. I felt like Fancy Free products didn't measure up. Which I know isn't true but just looking at them next to other products made me feel that way. It hit me like a ton of bricks. The marketing company was right. I need to do something about these labels. *hears money flushing down the toilet*

Moral: Sometimes you have to throw everything away and start over.

I know this. I do it all the time during product development. I would make a change in the formula, just to see how it would turn out. The results....TRASH! As duly noted in my lab notebook. 

This same theory applies to my labeling. While my current labeling isn't "trash", I realized that they need to be improved in order to give my brand the image it needs to take Fancy Free Hair & Skin to the next level. And while it will cost me money to make changes, it will cost me more in the future if I leave them as they are. After all, marketing and branding are not my ministry, this is why I paid the marketing company to fix my life. Seems counterproductive to hire an expert and then not take the expert's advice. 

I spent 2018 putting systems in place, hire and training staff, and building relationships so that I could spend 2019 growing my business. This realization can definitely be filed in the "growing pains" category but Fancy Free and I will be better for it.
Ok. Now that I've told the story. Let me swallow my pride and order these new labels.

Shameless Plug Alert:

Fancy Free Hair & Skin manufactures quality products for hair and skin, as well as provides natural hair consults for women who would like assistance on their natural hair journey. Our motto is "Keeping you fancy and free of chemicals." Visit our website, www.fancyfreehairandskin.com, to see a full range of our products and services. Sign up for our mailing list to receive natural hair tips and stay up to date on sales and the latest happenings with Fancy Free.

Visit www.fancyfreehairandskin.com to subscribe to our mailing list. Become Fancy's Friend to receive a code for 10% off your next purchase.

You Just Killed My Vibe

I have always had a keen sense of discernment when it came to reading people but my naivety would want to see the good in people even when I could feel that something wasn't right. When I became a manager, reading people during the hiring process became one of my valued traits in my department.  I would get these vibes about interviewees and I would suggest that we didn't hire them. In every single case that the person was hired anyway, they ended up being trouble. The problem back then was that I didn't have any data to back up my decision, just my gut feeling or, should I say, bad vibes. Now, I can decide for myself who Fancy Free Hair & Skin will enter into partnerships with.

When I say "kill my vibe", I mean something about the person is "off" and there energy is telling me that their energy is not in sync with my energy. I am generally a happy go lucky person. I am honest and forthcoming with information that matters. I am fair. I am considerate. It is most disappointing when I engage with someone with whom I hope to have some kind of mutually beneficial agreement with and they give me weird vibes, or worse, bad vibes.  

In sales, I encounter all types of people. It's only been a few years for me, but I've sharpened my skills on being able to identify who to spend my time with  and who not to. I will say, I take all interactions in stride with a smile. However, I think the most disappointing interaction are the interactions that kill my vibe.

Most recently, it was with another business owner. I saw an opportunity that could potentially be beneficial for both of us. He was not marketing his services. I sought him out, found him - with no social media, by the way. When we spoke on the phone, he looked at my website and seemed impressed with what I was trying to do. We agreed to meet. I was excited. Then we met.....

I walked into the meeting space, I was immediately overwhelmed. Something wasn't right. I didn't talk much, I just listened and watched his body language. Some of what he was saying didn't line up with the research I had done. Remember, I found him and he did not have any social media accounts. #CreepLife However, I know how it is to have to shuffle paperwork with your business life when things come up in your personal life, so I brushed it off. I made mental notes and told him I would look at my numbers, discuss the opportunity with my partner aka husband, and call him back with my proposal.

When I called him back with my proposal based on things HE suggested he would be willing to offer in order to help me out, it was like he had completely forgotten what he said. VIBE KILLED! All of the sudden he needed me to make a move within a week, even though he saw that I am about to have a baby AND I explained that I wouldn't be able to finalize anything until after I have my baby. 

I was so confused. 

Bubble busted.

Balloon deflated.

Excitement out the window.

Now, I could have negotiated terms that were beneficial for both of us. But you know what Lil Duval said. And because of my initial "read" of something being off with this guy, I decided I would look for opportunities elsewhere. His change in perspective on how he would be willing to work with me in 24 hours solidified it for me. I've been there with an old tenant before. The tenant was a liar, going back on her word once, so I had to stop talking to the tenant. I switched to communicating via text or email only, so that I could have documentation. I told my property manager that I wanted her out cuz "something was off". He convinced me to let her stay and in the end, I was shafted. So, never again.

The trouble with vibes is that I have to make sure I'm not just being a punk, scared of doing something differed, and real bad vibes. If I've read the situation incorrectly, I am the one missing out. But, if I am correct, I dodged a bullet. The only way to know for sure is to go through with it. I just ain't in a position to risk it right now. #EntrePoorNeurLife 

Lesson: We all give off energy. Some people pay attention to it. Some do not. If you feel like something is off, it probably is. I'd recommend disengaging. If someone randomly walked away from you, you may have killed their vibe. It happens. Don't take offense, that relationship wasn't meant to be at that time.

Shameless Plug Alert:

Fancy Free Hair & Skin manufactures quality products for hair and skin, as well as provides natural hair consults for women who would like assistance on their natural hair journey. Our motto is "Keeping you fancy and free of chemicals." Visit our website, www.fancyfreehairandskin.com, to see a full range of our products and services. Sign up for our mailing list to receive natural hair tips and stay up to date on sales and the latest happenings with Fancy Free.

Subscribe and become Fancy's Friend to receive a code for 10% off your next purchase.