We couldn’t celebrate Women’s History Month without celebrating female CEOs, especially black female CEOs! In a special podcast episode, Renee Morris sat down with Ceata Lash, founder, inventor, and CEO of PuffCuff to discuss, her journey as a black woman in business and how she found the motivation to turn an idea into a business.
How PuffCuff Was Founded
The idea for PuffCuff was planted in 2006 after Ceata went longer than usual between relaxer appointments. Ceata found immediate relief from dandruff and irritation caused by the relaxer and decided she was never going back. It was time for the big chop, followed by a big question, “am I going to like the new hair that’s about to grow out of my head?”
Ceata gravitated towards a puff as her go-to style but ran into another problem: how to achieve a puff without suffering a massive headache? Shoestrings and elastic bands all cinched and pulled the hair, causing breakage and chronic migraines. Seeking recommendations and scouring the aisles of the beauty shop turned up fruitless. Banana clips couldn’t accommodate curly hair’s natural fullness, and rounded clips would get stuck in curly hair.
“If I could find something with teeth that didn’t penetrate the hair and worked like fingers that held it in place… That made sense!”
Ceata could envision the solution, but she never imagined she’d be the one to create it. She sat on the idea for almost six years before one weekend brought two life-changing events. First, Ceata’s 99-year-old grandmother moved in due to congestive heart failure. During this time, the Lash family was also in the process of finding a new baby to adopt and provide a home for, which seemed like a monumental task after Ceata’s grandmother moved in. On the day they would cancel their adoption application, Ceata received a phone call. Her new baby boy, Greisen, was on the way.
“If we can do this… We can do anything….”
The entrepreneurial spark was lit when Ceata asked her grandmother these questions… Did she do everything she wanted to in her long life? Did she pursue all her dreams? The answer was a resounding and confident “YES.” That’s when Ceata knew she couldn’t sit on the idea of the PuffCuff any longer and began using her network at the college she worked at to put plans into motion. Testing began, a prototype was made, and PuffCuff LLC launched in August 2013.
Persevering Despite Obstacles
In 2014, Amazon shut down the PuffCuff store after a customer mistook a flow line for hair and reported their PuffCuff as used. Being the sole source of revenue at the time, Ceata was defeated, crushed, and voices of self-doubt began to appear.
“The voices were there… That Black business automatically made it negative, not up to par, not quality… I could hear it in the background of my head.”
Although the voices were there, it became a matter of pulling back to view things from the customer’s perspective – most of the time it is not personal! After multiple appeals and a refined plan, The PuffCuff was back up and running!
As a business owner, when you get knocked down, you cannot stay down. Get back up, look at the situation objectively and create a plan to move forward and prevent this issue from happening again. There will always be lessons to learn; it’s how you handle them and emerge from the other side that determines if you’re going to be successful!
xoxo
PuffCuff (@thepuffcuff)
