We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ivanna Almonte. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ivanna below.

Ivanna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our mission at Curlis is to empower the curly hair community to embrace their natural beauty with confidence. The brand was born from a social media community where thousands of people, came together with one purpose: to learn how to properly care for their curls. What started as conversations, tips, and shared struggles quickly grew into a movement, and Curlis became the natural extension of that collective voice.

This mission is deeply personal to me because I want to help people feel proud of their hair and supported in their self-care. It’s more than just haircare; it’s about building confidence, identity, and community around something that represents who we are.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Ivana Almonte, and I am the founder of Curlis. I am Afro-Latina, and since I was a little girl my biggest struggle was my hair. I grew up hearing negative things about my curls, and that made me very insecure. Many of us in the Latina and African-American community were told our hair was “bad hair,” when in reality the problem was that no one taught us how to take care of it, and there were no good products for us. With time I started to heal that part of me, and I wanted to help others do the same.

I first began sharing my curly hair journey on social media while I was still learning myself. From that community, Curlis was born. Our first product is the Rosemary & Lavender Hair Growth Oil, because I wanted to fight the idea that curly hair doesn’t grow. This oil helps with growth, dryness, and even for people who are in transition trying to get their natural curls back. What makes Curlis special is that it started from real people and real stories, not just from a company following a trend. Only three days after I launched Curlis, I lost my 9–5 job, and I took that as a sign to put all my faith and time into this brand. Now Curlis is one year old, and what I am most proud of is turning something that was once my biggest insecurity into a way to empower others to love their curls.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my audience on social media by being real and sharing my own curly hair journey. At the beginning I didn’t know everything, I was still learning how to care for my curls, but I shared the process, the good and the bad. People connected with that honesty, and little by little the community started to grow because many others were going through the same struggles. It wasn’t about being perfect, it was about being relatable.

My advice for anyone starting is to just be consistent and authentic. Don’t wait to have everything “perfect” to post—share your story, your progress, and what you are passionate about. People follow people, not just pretty pictures. If you stay true to yourself and show up often, your community will grow.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Right now Curlis is available on Amazon, TikTok Shop, our own website, and also in some local salons and beauty supply stores. But our main focus has been Amazon and TikTok Shop, because they give us the chance to reach more people faster. For a new brand like ours, being on big platforms is important, since it opens the doors to customers who maybe would not find us otherwise.

The good thing about these platforms is the visibility and trust they bring, you can connect with people from all over the country. The challenge is that there is a lot of competition, but I see that as motivation to keep improving and to make sure Curlis stands out with real quality and authenticity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://curlishaircare.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curlis.us/
• Other: Tiktok : https://www.tiktok.com/@curlis.us