Today we’d like to introduce you to Joy Edwards.

Hi Joy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The decision to start my business resulted from a “bad” day at the beauty shop.

For years I permed my hair to make styling and maintaining it more manageable. I had been loyal to my stylist for more than two decades, and she became the only person I trusted blindly with the health of my hair.

She was in high demand and always worked on multiple clients simultaneously. Usually, she managed her time pretty well, and even though she always seemed to be running behind, the end result was always worth the cost and eight-hour-long appointments.

One particular day, she got behind and left the perm on my hair too long. Although I told her my scalp was burning, having to wait a few minutes more was all it took for the chemicals to burn my scalp and change my life forever.

My scalp had most likely received second-degree chemical burns and was pretty nasty. I wanted something to soothe the residual burning, tightness, and tension, but I really wanted to clean my scalp and get those nasty scabs off my scalp and out of my hair, but I couldn’t find anything with ingredients that sounded like it would be soothing.

It made no sense to me to use chemical-laden products to help heal and treat a chemical burn and I have no idea why I never sought medical treatment. As a Black woman, I thought chemical burns were commonplace and just part of getting our hair done.

To mitigate this, it was common to not comb or brush your hair, and you definitely made sure not to scratch your scalp a day or two before going to the beauty shop to get your hair done. For the most part, this worked, but sometimes, you just get burned on your scalp, edges, nape of the neck, and ears.

At the time, the natural hair community was new and just beginning to grow so there weren’t products available to me in stores, and very few available online, as the few brands out there were constantly sold out.

Desperate for relief, I took to the internet and began reading and researching natural ways and ingredients to heal and soothe chemical burns. At the end of every article, it was suggested to seek the advice of a medical professional. I read it so many times, that instead of heeding the advice, I skimmed over that part and kept reading.

After many hours of reading and research, I decided on a few oils and butters and began mixing and blending until I discovered what is now my whipped body butter.

As many women of color know, when styling your hair with oils or cream-based products, the excess product on your hands gets rubbed in, washed, or wiped off. In this case, I rubbed it in and was blown away at how good my hands and scalp felt.

Not only did I discover the soothing treatment I needed for my scalp and hair, but I also found a miracle worker for my extremely dry hands! It was an instant transformation!

I had to make sure this wasn’t a fluke, so I quickly made another batch. I don’t know about other women, but even though the ingredients were the same, once I use a product on my hair, it’s strictly a hair product and no longer used for my body.

I continued to use my formula for my hair and scalp and loved how my scalp was healing and my hair began thriving. I began using the second batch on my hands and body and, I could not believe how my skin drank up the oils and butters.

Growing up I always had sensitive skin and as I got older, my sensitivities grew and I also developed atopic dermatitis on my hands. My hands were so dry, discolored, and often cracked leaving me with tiny scabs on the backs of my hands and wrists, it was embarrassing.

Once I began using my body butter, my skin was the healthiest and softest it had ever been. The transformation of my skin created a transformation in my self-confidence that was just amazing. Seeing firsthand how well it worked for me and my family, I stopped buying lotions in stores and used my body butter exclusively.

My husband noticed the transformation in my skin and loved using my body butter too. When picking me up from work one evening, he asked me if I would consider selling it to help other women and their families who needed it just as much as I did.

The thought of helping other women and their families overcome their dry skin issues was beyond exciting so it didn’t take long for me to jump into action.

When I got home that evening, I began researching how to start a business and without looking back, without hesitation, my journey began and Sweet Surrender was born.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been everything but smooth!

As a new entrepreneur, I learned things as they came up, and I had no idea how much I didn’t know.

There’s so much information out there, and so many “gurus” it’s hard to know whose advice to follow and what works and what doesn’t. Even with having a coach, there’s still so much you learn with testing, but having a coach drastically shortens the learning curve.

At the beginning of my journey, my biggest hurdles were my lack of knowledge and information overload. As I progressed in my journey, information overload remained an issue, but as a boot-strapping entrepreneur, financing, more specifically, the lack of has definitely been a huge challenge.

Every penny counts. When you have limited funding, you have to be extremely cautious about what programs you invest in as you don’t have the same budget and allocations for losses as a large, well-established business.

It didn’t take long for me to learn most webinars are marketing ploys to grow email lists and sell high-ticket courses. Most give helpful nuggets of information, but it’s all leading up to their $5k – $20k offer at the end.

These little nuggets are just enough to reel you in but aren’t very actionable. Over time, if you’re not careful, you’ll spend hundreds of dollars and priceless amounts of your time on these webinars and masterclasses that teach very little when you can invest in a business coach who can help you with tailored information and processes specifically for you and your unique business.

I’m still a student of Google and YouTube University, but I’ve learned they are best for generalized information and how-tos. Every business and business owner has different needs, so there won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution. Time and testing with the help of a coach or mentor have been very helpful in smoothing out my journey.

Entrepreneurship is anything but a smooth ride, but with an open mind and lots of flexibility, it’s a journey that’s very fulfilling.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Sweet Surrender is a brand specializing in bath and body care for women with dry, sensitive skin.

Although my products are formulated for women of color because melanated skin has different needs than our counterparts, skin dryness and sensitivities are very common; therefore, my products are enjoyed by most.

There are many wonderful bath and body care brands in the beauty industry. Some are focused on skin health with a high focus on natural ingredients, while others are focused on certain aesthetics. Sweet Surrender prioritizes both aesthetics and skin health and is, therefore, focused on skin health and luxurious experiences.

I was a working, single mother of three boys for most of their lives. I understand how difficult, stressful, and tiring juggling the responsibilities of motherhood and parenting, maintaining and running a household, and working outside the home full-time is.

I can’t count how many days I’d come home from work after picking up the kids from the 6 to 6 programs at school, mentally and physically exhausted. All I wanted to do was take off my shoes and rest, but I had to help with homework while cooking dinner, and after dinner, clean the kitchen, make sure the kids finished their homework and got ready for bed at a decent hour, so I could finally take a shower, relax for 15 minutes, before falling out in bed to sleep for a few hours to get up before the sun to do it all over again. My day started at 5 am and ended at 11:30 pm, yet there was no time for me.

Those few moments alone in the shower in the mornings and the evenings were the only time I really had for myself. The products I used in these moments set the tone for my day and night, and they also determined the health of my skin.

I had to make a choice between products that promised (and failed) to nourish and soothe my skin, or products that looked and smelled good but irritated my skin. With Sweet Surrender, you can have both!

I’m so proud to have learned how to formulate beautiful bath and body care with natural, plant-based ingredients that nourish and soothe dry, itchy, and irritated skin that looks and smells amazing.

All women deserve to feel beautiful so Sweet Surrender is a brand that helps women relax and create luxurious, pampering bathing experiences while maintaining the health and vitality of their skin.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success for Sweet Surrender is helping as many women as possible to fall in love with taking care of themselves.

Success is empowering women to prioritize their needs, the needs of their skin, and pampering themselves daily, not just when they can get an appointment at their favorite spa.

Success is seeing women embracing the uniqueness of their skin, making self-care part of their daily lives, and feeling beautiful and confident about themselves without comparing themselves to anyone.

Success for Sweet Surrender is helping women become their own standard of beauty and loving the skin they’re in!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sweet-surrender.biz
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweet_surrender_co/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4sweetsurrender
• Twitter: https://x.com/SS_BathBody
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEFbsAV5PyEITSJNoVIb7Cw
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sweet-surrender-spa-quality-bath-and-body-care-henderson-2?osq=sweet+surrender

Image Credits
Joy Edwards