CURL PRIDE AND A COCKTAIL NAPKIN
As with most great stories, this one starts in a bar.

When Michelle Breyer and Gretchen Heber were newspaper reporters living in perennially humid Austin, Texas they lamented about their curly hair. Not that they didn't like it, they did - it's just that no one else seemed to. Why did curly hair have such a bad rap? Why did every stylist they visited see their hair as a problem? Why did nearly every celebrity they could think of straighten their waves? On one particular day in 1998, after many mimosas, a friend suggested they start a magazine for people with curly hair.

They started researching and could find no magazines, no websites, and virtually no products dedicated to curls. How can this be, they scratched their curly heads bemused, when nearly 50% of the planet has curly hair? “It was as if people with curly hair didn't exist for the straight world,” says Michelle.

Sometime later (back at the bar), they jotted ideas on cocktail napkins and eventually recruited their neighbor's 13 year old son to set up the first naturallycurly.com site. They knew they were onto something the day the site launched: “we had so many visitors – without any advertising or pr – it was just a lifetime of pent up frustration of being ignored that drove people to us,” says Michelle.

In the past decade, Naturally Curly has attracted a serious curly following, consulted for hair care companies around the world (convincing them that a curly customer is worth creating products for), and most importantly, succeeded in their goal of empowering curly heads to believe that their waves are beautiful. Bb. reached out to them when creating Curl Conscious because of their uniquely strong understanding of curlies everywhere.

When asked what they are most proud of, Michelle speaks thoughtfully about the letters she receives every day from curly heads, explaining how Naturally Curly helped to change the way they view themselves. “You know, when we first got into this we didn't know what we were doing, and it was scary, but we had passion and we wanted to stand up for ourselves and for other curlies, and now I see our readers being proud of their hair (and themselves) and it's such an inspiration. She adds: “It's all been so worth it.”

Take a look at www.naturallycurly.com