The Queen of Curls started her distinctive company based on a very personal passion.  And as a result, Ouidad has changed the lives of curly-haired consumers forever, building curl confidence one amazing product (and twirl) at a time!

Now Ouidad tells The Wall Street Journal how she’s serving the unique needs of the curly hair community, in this great video, part of the Journal’s How I Built It series.

But curl confidence is not the only thing Ouidad champions; she also encourages entrepreneurs to have confidence in business, inspiring those just starting out to believe in themselves!

It’s all about that confidence with Ouidad!

On October 20^thin New York City, The Queen of Curls was invited to share the story of how she revolutionized curly hair care business over the last 25 years. It was all part of the How I Built It entrepreneurial panel, moderated by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and hosted by the small business editor of the WSJ, Colleen DeBaise.  Also on the panel were Liz Lange (founder of Liz Lange Maternity) Stew Leonard Jr. (president of Stew Leonard’s) Chinedu Echeruo (founder of HopStop.com) and Ron Gonen (founder of RecycleBank).

This WSJ forum series provides a high profile platform to help up-and-coming small businesses by tapping the wisdom and experience of successful established business people, such as Ouidad.  She was able to share some of the successes and pitfalls that she experienced while building the business… and you know it’s a great story from Ouidad; after the now famous coin flip in 1983, Ouidad and Peter Wise built their revolutionary salons from the ground up. Now “Ouidad” is a household name.

Ouidad not only inspires men and women to embrace their natural curls, she also sets an example for anyone with the dream of doing what they love for a living. Inclusion on this WSJ Panel is one way that Ouidad continues to lead and inspire with her curly story, empowering future entrepreneurs.

If you were born with straight hair, chances are you have always envied the look that only bold, beautiful curls can achieve. Admit it, curly hair is totally irresistible! It’s just like the character from Beverly Cleary’s popular novels, the young Ramona Quimby, who was simply fascinated by her nemesis–Susan Kushner–and her “perfect” long, curly locks! As the stories go, when Ramona finally gave in to the overwhelming urge to pull one of Susan’s springy ringlets, she and Ramona became unending rivals!

Luckily for all you fans of curly hair, Ouidad knows just how tempting it is for straight haired girls to get their own irresistible curly look. So we are happy to see OK Magazine recently feature soft and touchable curly styles on some of today’s hottest Hollywood starlets. And you know that we weren’t surprised at all to see a typically straight-haired beauty in the layout, Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto, trying out a truly tousled curly look. Her luscious locks look so great in her new curly style – it’s hard to imagine them any other way!

So many curly styles have been highly desirable over the centuries, from the dramatic curly-haired periwigs of the Britain’s16^th century to the classic and glamorous 20^th century curls of Marilyn Monroe.) And what straight haired person could resist those curly haired perms of the big ‘80s?)

Here at Ouidad we know that curly hairstyles always make an impression and they’re here to stay, but we think it’s great that OK Magazine is trumpeting yet another resurgence of the curly look. Just don’t envy those bold, beautiful curls though – get them for yourself!

In this new video, the Queen of Curls reflects on these harsh and dangerous methods that can damage and dry out curls. Ouidad empowers us with education and with healthy alternative treatments.

Learn about her safer, more natural treatment that will enhance the natural elasticity and bounce in your curls!

Click here to view the embedded video.

We are proud to present our grand prize winner, Jennifer, known as HiddenCurls during our contest, and her thoughts on winning below:

“Help! Let us go free!” The most fun we get is an hour of freedom before getting blow-dried, smashed and FRIED in a flat iron!”

This is what my curls were saying until about six weeks ago- when they were finally let free! In New York City, Ouidad reintroduced me to my fabulous curly hair!

My curl weekend in New York, at first was almost cancelled. After the east coast was hit by two huge snow storms, my curly companion for the weekend, my mom, was snowed out and her flight was cancelled! After digging out of the snow, I was ecstatic to find that the day of my trip to New York, the trains were finally operating normally and I would be able to make it to my curly weekend, but unfortunately without my mom.

After arriving in NYC, I found my way to the Ouidad salon. Straight hair and all. Ouidad couldn’t believe I came in with it straight- but I told her, you knew I would from my entry!

After we talked about how I felt about my hair and what I was looking for, her team took action and I got a deep treatment to revive my dry and fizzled hair. Everyone was great and talked me through all of the steps, arming me with the knowledge to maintain the new look I would leave with.

Ouidad let me know the nature of my hair and how best to take care of it. We discussed how resilient curly hair actually is, and that her fabulous looking hair was going on its third day after being washed and styled- I couldn’t believe it! I expected to have to wet and style my own hair every morning- something I was not looking forward to after getting accustomed to washing and straightening my hair only once a week.  Ouidad told me all I would have to do, was wear it in a loose high pony tail at night and with a few spritzes of botanical boost in the morning it would look great- I kept saying, I won’t believe it until I see it, and that the next morning would defiantly be my test to see if I could stick to this!

After leaving the salon I was excited to spend the weekend out on the town with my new hair! I found that all weekend I kept catching my reflection and making a double take, I couldn’t believe how great my hair looked and that it ended up being fantastic all weekend!

Six weeks later I can say I have not straightened my hair, and I don’t plan on doing it any time soon! I am LOVING MY HAIR! It took a few tries to get used to styling it on my own and to get the results I was looking for, but boy is it easy! I am amazed that in about 30 minutes I have my moisture lock leave in conditioner and climate control gel in and my hair dried with a diffuser.  With a little touch of clear control pomade and shine glaze serum, I am out the door and on my way without any fear of the wind, snow and rain! I find now that after the my previous attempts at curly hair, it didn’t work because I had not found the perfect products. Ouidad really has done something amazing, and helped me let my hair go free!

The only thing that could have made this experience better would have been for my mom to be there with me! She is the one who taught me to straighten my hair and has been straitening hers for the majority of her life. We already have a trip planned for her to visit and we are planning on trekking up to NYC so she can get a Curly hair makeover of her own! I can’t wait to introduce her to Ouidad so that we both can proudly wear our hair curly together!!!

Thank you so much to everyone for your support and especially Ouidad and her team for helping me discover how wonderful and easy my curly hair really is.

Jennifer/”HiddenCurls”
Grand Prize Winner
If These Curls Could Talk Contest

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a serious issue that Ouidad has been fighting for over 25 years; women simply don’t need to endanger their hair and health with harsh, dangerous chemicals to get gorgeous hair. Ouidad said just last week: “it’s become a matter of life and death, and not just the risk of a bad hair day. Consumers need to be properly educated about the risks involved with these treatments, and to seek a safe solution.”

The good news is that the Ouidad Softening System (available only at Ouidad’s flagship salons in New York City and Santa Monica, Ca) is a deep treatment with a gentle formula, customized and hand mixed by Ouidad. This formaldehyde-free formula safely softens curls and includes a complete hair analysis along with gentle treatment application and deep treatment sealant.

Ouidad’s Softening System is not a straightening system – and does not contain the high levels of harsh ingredients that standard straightening does. The exclusive treatment uses half the processing ingredients, in combination with the protein and amino acid enriched deep treatment. The results are completely customized waves that are soft, frizz-free and shiny, lasting up to three to four months.

For clients who come to a Ouidad salon after having a Brazilian Blowout straightening, Ouidad would not recommend a Softening for at least 3 months post the straightening.  First she would recommend repairing the hair with her Damage Control Treatment, formulated to re-strengthen curls seriously damaged by chemical processes. Also, bi-weekly use of Ouidad’s 12 Minute Deep Treatment to help restore the hair to health would be recommended.

The Queen of Curls has pioneered the curly hair industry for 25 years as a stylist, entrepreneur, global educator and author and… always a woman with proud curly locks, working for curly haired women everywhere. That’s the Ouidad way.

For a recent update on the Brazilian Blowout Controversy, check out this report from ABC News’ Good Morning America

The good news is that more and more stylists are getting this type of training, thanks to Ouidad, the undisputed Queen of Curls!

Ouidad takes curl education seriously, whether she’s on the road, or hosting trainees at one of her flagship salons. With facilitating sessions for stylists from New York to Santa Monica (and anywhere in between) Ouidad provides stylists with a thorough education about every aspect of cutting, styling and caring for curly hair.

So, whether you need a trim, a whole new style (via Ouidad’s famous and trademarked Carving & Slicing technique) or just some advice about products for curls, our Ouidad-trained stylists are the only way to go!

It was in New York City twenty-five years ago that Ouidad laid the groundwork for her curly hair empire, starting the country’s first hair salon expressly focused on curly hair.  She soon found out that carving her extraordinary place in the hair care industry would challenge her both as an entrepreneur, and as a mom. Her pioneering curly hair philosophy helped us all to find our own curl confidence.

Now Ouidad reigns as the “Queen of Curls” with flagship salons on both coasts, and her patented Carve & Slice and Rake & Shake cutting and styling techniques. But her passions don’t stop there, as Ouidad has also given back so much to society.

Now there’s no stopping her as the recent launch of Sephora all around the country—and Ouidad’s goal to certify 100 salons this year—proves. The future is bright, and after all, there’s no business like curl business!

Image via wikipedia

Scientists have recently discovered the gene responsible for giving us curly hair.  The finding, which was reported in Australian newspaper The Daily Express’s Mail Online, came from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research where researchers identified trichohyalin as “the curly hair gene.”

The discovery has the potential to make treatments that turn springy spirals into incessantly straight strands easily – and vice versa – without a struggle! (We can’t see anyone wanting to reverse their beautiful curls to straight hair though!)

But beauty is not the only focus of this finding.  According to lead researcher Nick Martin, the discovery will have an impact on the way DNA kits are used by forensic specialists. The gene discovery will also make it easy for parents-to-be to be able to predict the probability of their baby being born with curly hair! And you know that we wish all parents good curly good luck on that!

Some more thoughts… 12 years ago our technology and experience didn’t contain the options and possibilities that we offer today. We now have the mastery to create style and provide solutions that yesterday’s hard work and research presented to us. There were no curly hair cutting, styling, products, or anything 25 years ago. From nothing but vision, determination and passion, Ouidad developed creations, which turned into curly answers.

Today we are able to communicate with the level of expertise and concern that only curly haired clients can relate to. I listen to my clients, I can see and literally feel her hair’s history and shape the curls into a style she loves and can care for by herself. Now, my clients can understand their curls and achieve the look that is best for them!  Today’s curly women can have ease and speed with certainty, which life often demands on Saturday at 9pm…..they know that their hair will be stunning.

Vincent stylist, 57th Street Salon, NYC