Camille Heard - 1st Place Winner
Camille Heard is the Founder of FELOH (For Everyone's Love Of Hair). Her natural hair journey inspired FELOH. After cutting off her chemically straightened hair, she found herself lost when finding experts in the hair industry that she could learn from and relate to. Camille was confused by which products to use for her unique hair texture.
Simultaneously, she also wanted to support smaller hair care brands while easily locating Black, LatinX, or LGBTQ+ owned brands but found it challenging to do so. This frustrating combination of her lived experience and what she learned inspired her to create FELOH. Their deeper mission is to provide a digital space that redefines beauty through the lens of inclusion, self-love, and incentives so that everyone sees themselves as beautiful and feels valued for their unique perspective.
Tonya Fairley - 2nd Place Winner
Tonya Fairley is the Founder of Strandz Unlimited. Strandz Unlimited's purpose is to unleash the unlimited potential for all hair types.
After 30+ years in the beauty and hair industry, stylist and owner of multiple salons, Tonya developed Strandz Unlimited to satisfy the demand of clients who were unhappy with the current selection of products for curly hair types. She wanted to create a product that she truly believed in. Tonya envisioned a line of products that gave hair moisture and hydration, frizz control, and strength to grow and flourish.
After years of sourcing the finest ingredients, tons of research, trial, and plenty of errors, Tonya partnered with a chemist and manufacturing plant in the U.S. She first provided samples to her clients. Tonya then expanded the Strandz Unlimited collection nationally to help everyone who desires to grow and maintain their hair in healthier ways.
Their Strandz Unlimited products are perfect for wavy to super curly hair, textured hair, and hair simply lacking moisture and shine. They produce small batches of bottles and jars with natural and organic ingredients, including organic watercress oil, bamboo, and aloe.
Rozalynn Goodwin - 3rd Place Winner
Rozalynn Goodwin is the co-founder of Confidence. She and her seven-year-old daughter Gabby solved the age-old problem of disappearing hair barrettes by inventing GaBBY Bows—the first and patented Double-Face Double-Snap Barrette.
GaBBY Bows, along with their entire line of plant-based girls' natural hair products, saves families time, money, and frustration while removing stress from the styling process so parents and girls can cherish precious time together. Confidence has filled online orders in all 50 states in the U.S. and thirteen countries. Their story has been featured on The Real, HSN, QVC, NPR, How I Built This, and Forbes, Inc., Kiplinger Magazine, Readers' Digest, The Washington Post, Black Enterprise, and Essence.
Subscribe to the Digital Orange Juice for juicy ideas and the people who fund them. You can find out about our next pitch competitions here. Also, be sure to join our new communityBGV Connect!