We were lucky to catch up with La Terra Stevenson recently and have shared our conversation below.
La Terra, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Well, I always thought of myself as more of a creative. I was feeling stuck in between what brought me joy and well….what pays the bills! I wanted something to do outside my healthcare job that really filled my cup of passion. I have always been into hair and with a background and license in hair I fell in love with products. I made alot of my own products when I stopped chemically straightening my hair over a decade ago and figured I would make small batches and sell it at saturday market. I began to deep dive into research of my absolute favorite ingredients that really had helped me on my transition from relaxed hair to natural. It was within this timeframe that my sister began to experience hairloss. It seemed so bizarre because nothing that we could put our finger on would have caused it and the doctor only responded with “I’m not quite sure but it could be the stop of your birth control”. Without any answers, my sister began to hide behind wigs. The hairloss began to increase to the point a large portion of her hair espcially in the front was almost completely gone. Her beautiful curls that we all have known her for were replaced by smooth baby soft skin, similiar to the back of her hand. This was the time where I just knew I had to try and find something that would support her hair while she regrew it. I eventually came up with a sample and told her to remove her unit each day after work and gentle massage a few drops of the sample oil onto the bald areas. I told her it was absolutley no miracle and she would need to be monitoring her internal health as well, but it should definitely help her along the way. It was about ten days later she had called and said “I have to show you something. I will be arriving in 5 minutes” Next thing I know she has came to my home and goes immediately to the restroom. “She calls me into the bathroom and she says “I want you to look at me and tell me what you see” So I walk to the bathroom and shes standing near the sink with her wig removed. She still has a wig cap on with it pulled back and I remember my eyes grew big and I said “OH MY GOD!” & she replies “So I’m not just losing it…you see what I see dont you?” I stood back in awe and with both hands over my mouth in shock I said, “You have hair!” And sure enough, small black hairs were everywhere within the hairloss areas. By no means was it thick or completely covering it, however both of us saw a huge jump in just ten days of hair sprouting. Thats when I knew I was onto something. With more research, and $300 dollars Seal the Deal Elixir was born. Seal the Deal Elixir was my very first product, designed to boost anything it touched. You could use it alone, or with other products to amp up your hairs favorite nutrients to support what hair needs. I wanted something focused on the health of everyones hair, whether you were straight, wavy, curly, coily or kinky. Hair responds to nutrients in the same way our body does. I recall making a facebook post stating I was going to make a small batch and who would like to try. I also included photos of before and after that my sister and I took. I got enough responses that I agreed on 40 bottles. Fast forward in time, we never made it to saturday market. We sold online! I sold it to freinds, families, people that knew me and recommended it. I began bringing it up to seattle when I visited monthly and I even posted it in other states. I posted it in a group for hair geared toward Arizona residents thinking the heat propbably does a number on hair in that state and sold out in a couple ours. I was making larger and larger orders and still selling out to the point ive sold my product to clients in almost every state in america, plus canada,singapore, germany, caribbean islands etc. Towards the tailend of covid I got so busy I started asking myself. “What do I want to become of all this?” I started slowing my marketing to focus on how I want to rebrand and showcase my brand identity. Often when you blow up very quickly with something you didnt plan to make a business but more so a hobby you dont get to ask yourself those kind of questions. The Brown Beauty was discovered as the name that I felt suited the brand best. The brand is designed to pay homage to melanated women who beautified themselves with nature that was available in the part of the world they resided in. I take key ingredients known to support healthy hair from areas of the world that they live and create products. In todays busy world I find most people dont have the time to make their own hair products. Some of the best ingredients are just outside people’s doors in many places across the globe. Ingredients that I find more promising and abundant in my products that I typically find in drugstores. My goal is to bring forth relationships and employment with people in other countries so they can professionally assist me with sharing the stories of their ancestors and traditions. These peoples beauty rituals deserve to be known, respected and used by evreyone in the world and I hope to be apart of that mission.
La Terra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hello, Im La Terra. I live In Portland, Oregon and I am the owner of The Brown Beauty! It is a hair care line for all that is centered around hair rituals of melanated women across the globe. I studied and made haircare items for myself for years prior to the brand by purchasing raw ingredients that were apart of traditions of hair and skin in different parts of the world. I got into the industry looking for a hobby. I was in healthcare and looking for something to fill my passion cup! It was after my sister had a major hair setback did I start going to full throttle creating samples for friends and family. What I think sets me apart is that this line is made from a minority woman with focus on hair for all while celebrating women of color around the world. I also know many of our hair care lines we see on shelves today are not made by a person of color nor a licensed stylist like myself who truly understands different textures of hair and how different hair patterns may respond to products. Having a background in haircare and research for years helps know what is missing in todays haircare. I am most proud of be jumping out and creating a brand that was just supposed to be a hobby. I know currently have clients in almost every state in america as well as many other countries in under 3 years. It would not have been possible if I had not put myself out there and say “Yeah were going to do this!” What I want people to know about The Brown Beauty is that we believe in haircare for all with the celebration of women of color that highlighted natures gifts of beauty. These gifts are being harnassed in all our products to create a better you for everyone. I believe in not being fooled by pricing, packaging, gimmicks in commercials etc. I want to pay respect to women before me but also teach our clients about great ingredients. I always say if I don’t see any ingredients I like in a product and can directly link it to helping support a problem that my hair is experiencing then I dont need it. Ingredients should be the key factor in choosing a product and it should assist in remedying a issue. Thats whats most important.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I think one thing that helped me be reputable so far is I built trust through knowledge. I have been researching hair for many moons and often during covid which was my first peak season I went live alot. I was always on live doing my own hair and demonstrating how to use products, what they were, key ingredients to look for and what they solve as well as answering questions. When people see you know what your talking about and its not scripted they know this is a passion not a performance. I think with so much of life being recorded and posted, it was refreshing to some to see someone kick it old school and just live. I love impromptu chats that help inform people. I almsot committed to doing over 75 free consultations during covid where I would do a one on one with someone Ive never met and give them free haircare advice.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Give. Give. Give. Give. Give. I cannot say it enough. Be of service first and give your time, expertise etc. It truly helps build trust. Let your passion shine through by not putting on a performance but supporting. I added almost every single hair group on facebook. Most of them catered to states I had never been to. I learned quickly my bread & butter clients would not be people who knew me so I had to get out in the world and let people see me. It was no point posting on my own page only because I had loved ones that didnt care about hair. As long as it was on their head and not falling out they could careless about anything else. I knew that those people were not my target audience. My audience cared deeply about how their hair represented them and how well it was doing. My audience had hair goals to make and issues to solve. So I knew I had to speak to those groups of people. So thats when I would pick a post and I would copy and paste it numerous different groups. I would go live in one group and save that live and post it to other groups. I maximized a solo piece of content so many diffferent ways. I knew everyone wasnt online at any given moment all the time so I reposted things at different times and areas to get more and more exposure. I truly made everyone being at home during covid my advantage. I also spoke so confidently even in the beginning on lives. I spoke as if I had been doing this for decades! I didnt care if only 1 person was watching. I would come back and the numbers started jumping as the weeks went by. In order to sell anything to anyone, you first have to be sold on it.
Contact Info:
- Website: thebrownbeauty.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrownbeautyllc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBrownBeautyLLC/
- Other: Tiktok- https://www.tiktok.com/@thebrownbeautyllc?lang=en
