Scarlett Rocourt on Creating Effective Products for Curly Hair

Thank you so much for inviting me, Laura Faye.

Sure. I think so. My name is Scarlett Rocourt. I am a Haitian born Jersey girl. And as you see, I have a lot of curly hair and it’s probably for most of my life. I hated my hair. I hated that it was so thick and curly, unruly and frizzy. So for part of my high school, I relaxed my hair. I chemically straightened my hair.

And then my senior year of college, I decided I wasn’t going to do that anymore. And I wanted to embrace my natural texture. But the issue that I found over the years after that was that there were just no products on the market. And this was back in 1998. So I’m dating myself, but if you can imagine, like there were no good products, especially for Afro textured hair. And I became a product junkie just like a lot of people are today, a lot of curly hair people. And every time I was just disappointed and I decided I was just going to make these products myself. And I was living out in Florida at the time with my family. I was actually unemployed and I was like, well, I got time on my hands. And I just started doing a lot of research to understand ingredients, what they mean, what works for our hair, what doesn’t, and just started becoming a kitchen chemist. And it started from there and it just took off and I’m excited.

Yes.
So the idea behind Wonder Curl, it’s twofold, right? So the first one is to simplify the styling process. So anyone with curly hair knows that sometimes they have to use like so many different products just to achieve a certain look. And then it doesn’t even last that long, which is the most frustrating part, because it literally takes me four hours to do my hair. And I’m like, if it’s going to take me four hours, it better look good and it better last, right?

And so that was the first part of it was that, I wanted to make sure that it was simple. So on my wash day, I only use four products and that’s my shampoo, conditioner, a leave-in and a gel. And that’s it. I don’t add anything extra to it. Keep it simple. And the other part is keeping our hair hydrated because curly hair tends to be on the drier side and it breaks off easily, especially the more coily our hair gets, the more brittle it can become.

So that’s the idea behind Wonder Curl is that our hydrating products, our moisturisers will lock that moisture into your hair and you don’t have to re-wet or refresh it for days. And by doing that, you also retain length because a lot of black women, because our hair breaks off easily, we’re not able to achieve length and the products will help you to do that.

So that would be the moisturising hair pudding. I’m checking to see if I have that. Yeah, so this is, if you can see that, that’s the moisturising hair pudding. This is the best seller. I sell it on my website and also on TikTok shop. And it’s like a one size fits most, right? Like not everybody’s gonna love it, but most people who use it do.

And that’s because it works on different hair types, textures, and porosities. It just depends on how you’re going to use it.

Yes.
Absolutely, absolutely. Especially because you also colour your hair. So I’m sure your hair is probably a little bit drier because of that. I was blonde once as well. So I know like as soon as I went blonde, my hair had a harder time retaining moisture. So it would dry out very quickly. It almost felt like hay at times. you can.

The products will help you to coat the strands so that it locks that moisture in, it doesn’t make your hair feel greasy or way down. So you definitely can. And the crazy thing is that you’ll have shine on your hair.

Well, I have to send you some after this.
Yes.

So really social media has probably been the best one for me, especially being on TikTok. I think a lot of people, once you understand what your audience is looking for and you’re able to give it to them. really it’s been like, and it’s actually has shifted, I should say, like, because when I first started 14 years ago, there was no social media the way it is now. We just have Facebook and
So I was using local events as a way to get the word out. But now that has changed so much that I could just stay right here and create tons of content, push it out to my audience where I’m just the way that I was talking to you. I do the same thing with them and I’m educating them on how to care for their hair. So I’m Wonder Curl throughout all the social media, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and X.

I think for just anyone, it’s always about finding the capital, right? The finance, the resources. That’s always the hardest part. And I feel like we just have to figure out ways around it while we’re trying to raise capital. Like I’m actually in the process of raising capital right now as a part of me launching to be larger and scale up.

So, in between that time, it’s finding ways to be more resourceful. And I think that’s where I shine is that I can do things on the cheap, but make it look expensive. So it’s about understanding what you’re good at. And then I will take that

But I’ll outsource where I’m not so good and have someone else do that while I focus on growing the brand so that I can bring in more sales and bring in that more capital.

Wow. So I see myself probably being in the prestige market.I think like your Sephora’s, Ulta, place like that. I’m actually working with a manufacturer to reformulate all of the products to be clean. Because when I first formulated the products, this was 14 years ago. And with ingredients having changed and the market changing.

I also want to make sure I lift up the brand along with that.

Well, it was my pleasure. This is like two things I can talk about all day is like hair care. You know, like hair products and taking care of hair. Like just give me a mic and I’ll talk about it all.

Thank you so much, I appreciate it.