Vignette 1: Gunk!
Like many women in my life, I didn’t set out to be a founder, especially not the founder of a company as big as Nuele. I really thought my life would include getting my degree, getting married, and having children. But (and there is always a but isn’t there!), but when I sat down with my good friend Christine we both realized we were experiencing the same issues with our hair. And you can look at us and see that we have very different hair types. But the problem was easy for us to pinpoint—gunk! The products that we were using would leave our hair filled with gunk. What they claimed to do on the label was not long lasting. The allure of the branding fell away after a few uses. We would add the product to the graveyard of bottles collecting dust on our bathroom shelves. If the two of us, with vastly different hair types, were having this problem then we knew there were others out there feeling the same way. Why couldn’t we have hair products that did what they said they would do and didn’t make wash day arrive so quickly? Why couldn’t they be clean, long lasting, and truthful? As women we knew we could do something about it. We decided to lean into the search for clean beauty products. It became our mantra until one day, we decided that the best route was to make them ourselves. Like so many women who seek to fix an obvious problem, we became founders.
Vignette 2: Household Dreams
I personally believe that hair is so important to a young person’s self esteem. It really shapes how they see themselves in the world and who they see themselves eventually becoming. I am no different than any other mother. I’ve always wanted my kids to have the kind of confidence and grace that opens doors for them.
Another thing I can say is that I hate waste. It irks me to my core to put my money into items for the household—be it food, hair products, or socks—only to see those things in the trash or sitting around unused.
Unfortunately, like so many households today, not everyone has the same hair type. I was often faced with this conundrum. How could I give my kids the tools they needed to look their best when hair products so often would turn out to be gimmicky, not work, or just filled with gunk? Spending money on multiple products only to come up empty handed was heavy on the budget!
But you know what, I had a dream, just like my kids have their own dreams, and that was to create something an entire household could use together. Today there are founders all over the globe whose inventions are stemming from personal need. I want to meet those creators, those movers and shakers. I want you to meet them too.
Vignette 3: Friendship & Business
I’ve been asked before if it’s a good idea to go into business with your friend. Listen, you would be so lucky to find a friend as I have. I think what makes our friendship work is that we’ve never needed to compete—we’ve always chosen to celebrate each other. And when you get to work alongside someone who knows your heart that well, it doesn’t feel like work… it feels like purpose unfolding.
We’ve seen each other in every season. The wins, the mistakes, the in-between moments nobody else sees. So when we sit at the same table professionally, there’s already trust there. There’s already love there. That’s what makes it easy and real.
It’s a blessing to build something with someone who doesn’t just understand your vision, but understands you through and through. Because when the work gets hard—and it will—it’s the relationship that carries you through. At the end of the day, we’re not just colleagues, we’re chosen family. The work is beautiful but our lasting friendship is the real success.