Meet the Team Behind She’s Happy Hair

As a company, who or what is She’s Happy Hair?

She’s Happy Hair is a phenomenally successful, veteran, black-owned business that recognized a void in the community. Seizing the opportunity to provide great customer service, products and a sense of social responsibility, the company has grown into a household name with six storefront locations in Houston, the Dallas-Ft. Worth area as well as Detroit, Michigan and plans to open more stores in the immediate future. She’s Happy Hair is the #1 virgin hair supplier in the United States; with an online store that ships worldwide, this international brand has a five-star product line that includes their all-natural shampoo, conditioner, and Sleek Edges (edge control). The company has just partnered with Macy’s in Lenox Square Mall and has also negotiated a deal with Walmart to put She’s Happy Hair Locations inside Walmart’s across the United States.

In addition to giving women a way to enhance their beauty, She’s Happy Hair does its very best to support the community by giving back and spreading the love their customers give to them. Over the years, the hair company has hosted a number of charity events with the purpose of serving women and children including the customer appreciation event, “The Happy Experience.” “The Happy Experience” is an event where women are treated to beauty services, hair treatments, food, entertainment and given the opportunity to audition for a model spot on a She’s Happy Hair commercial to be shown on national television. It is a signature event the company loves to host to show their gratitude for the loyal customers and communities they serve. She’s Happy Hair also hosts school supply giveaways, food drives, annual toy drives, as well as career days serving grade schools, colleges and universities. All of the company’s charity events are done out of love and a genuine concern for bettering the community.

When and where did you two meet? Were there any specific events that led to you both finally putting your foot down and wanting to create a change for yourselves financially?

We actually first met in high school, but because we both grew up in poverty we ended up going to the Navy in hope of a better life.

Marcus left the Navy and went on to college and obtained several degree’s and worked as an Engineer. Warren became a Houston Firefighter. Although they were doing well they still were barely able to make ends meet and realized there had to be a better way. This was the driving force to start both She’s Happy Hair and the She’s Happy Foundation.

The Foundation was started because they wanted to instill valuable gems into the lives of inner-city youth that don’t see successful people that look like them. They also wanted their customers to know that they do care. Although the customers are spending money with them a portion of those funds are going right back into the community to help those that are in need.

Being the first African-American US Veterans to sell your products and products inside both Macy’s and Walmart is the first of any private beauty company. Congratulations! When you both decided to join this venture together; did you believe that you would achieve this pinnacle so early in your careers? Walk us through your journey from the beginning of your ideas to the present time.

We both have always had an entrepreneurial mindset and knew from the very beginning that we were going to give this business our all. It started with Marcus making the phone call asking me if I would be interested in going into the hair business with him. Neither one of knew anything about hair. So as a Houston Firefigther I worked two days and was off five days. I used those five days off to go into the beauty salons and ask a ton of questions to learn all that I could about the hair industry and what women were actually looking to purchase. After our research we depleted both of our bank accounts and had a total of $900 and that is what we used to purchase our first batch of inventory.

We had a vision from day one. It started with selling those bundles from the trunk of our cars in Walmart parking lots and today we are building She’s Happy Hair retail stores inside of Walmart stores across the United States. If you dream big then you will set goals to make those dreams a reality. Was it easy? Of course not but we treated each fail as if it was a win. It was a win because we used it as a learning experience and built off of it.

What has brought you to this specific industry and the development of She’s Happy Hair products? Why is this company important to establish to the masses?
We are a black veteran-owned business. A business owned by two black men and that certainly is not the norm in the hair or beauty industry. We want our customers to know that we truly care. We listen to what they need and then we travel overseas to actually meet the suppliers to make sure we are providing them with top quality hair. Instead of just ordering Malaysian Hair from the internet we are actually going to Malaysia to make sure it is a quality product for our customers. Our haircare products go through years of research and development with a full team before we even introduce it to the market. We currently have quite a few hair care products in the final stages of R&D and it’s been about 2 years now. But quality is more important than quantity for us.

What do you want people to get from the way that you conduct business and your product line?

We want our customers to know what sets us apart from others? The quality of our products, the excellent customer service we provide and our community givebacks that take place in every city that has a She’s Happy Hair location. Our customers are spending their hard-earned dollars with us and we are giving a portion of that back to the communities in which they live.

What do you feel has been She’s Happy Hair products greatest achievement so far?

We are the first minority-owned retailer to sell hair extensions inside of a major retailer. That alone is huge and gives hope to other minority business owners.

Can you describe to us the top three obstacles you have encountered while establishing your current phase of the business?

In business, there is always going to be obstacles and definitely will be setbacks. Those things are not as important as how you deal with those issues. For example, on the night before our first retail store opened, we were robbed. That could have been an opportunity for us to give up. Instead, we still had the grand opening and used it as a learning experience. We have locations across the United States and all of our locations have top-notch security.

How easy was it to manifest a full business that is involving the standard LLC, EIN, Trademarks and more? What advice would you give entrepreneurs that are wanting to start their own businesses but are scared of how hard it may be or scared to start due to not having all legal information needed to begin?

I would say to jump in full speed and give it your all. You can’t be worried about the amount of money you have to get started. We started with $900 and turned that money into a multi-million dollar company. You have to be fearless and realize there will always be obstacles along the way. Someone recently told me that we have to operate like a duck. A duck is floating across the water looking cool, calm and extremely collective. But, in reality their feet are going full speed and they are working hard. My point is regardless of how easy any business may look trust me when I say entrepreneurship is not easy and we are working really hard under the surface to make sure we are successful. I tell everyone that if we can do it then you can too.

Along with your incredible achievements thus far; what should we expect to see in the future from She’s Happy Hair? Are there any new projects we should be on the lookout for at this time?

We always have a lot of exciting projects going on at She’s Happy Hair. However one of the things we are bringing back to the table is Financing. We were the first hair company to provide financing to our clients. It is coming back and we are making it affordable for everyone. If approved our customer will be able to split their hair and product purchases into 4 payments. We are very excited to offer the financing program back to our customers.

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