When you come from a long line of curl-health professionals, you tend to grow up with really healthy hair. Likewise, when you also grow up surrounded by several hair moguls, you’ll also most likely start a hair business of your own someday. Both of these are true in the case of organic hair-care entrepreneur, Porsha B.
Owing to her heritage (or as she likes to call it, her “HAIR-ITAGE”), Porsha has created a sleek, luxury hair-care line of products that caters to all hair types. The line, Atlas Haircare, which is a customer favorite in her home city of Orlando boasts a brilliant range of hair care products that are both organic and vegan friendly. Today, we got the chance to speak with Porsha about how she started her hair care line, the value of organic products, and the future of the hair care industry.
In the beginning, what motivated you to start Atlas Haircare by Porsha?
Porsha: Well, my motivation stemmed right from when I was growing up as a little girl in Orlando, Florida. My family has always been very hair-health-conscious. In fact, a lot of what I know about hair—especially my own hair, I learned from my mother and grandmother. My grandmother was a certified cosmetologist for over 30 years, and she owned several hair salons in Orlando. My Aunt Shiquitta was also a cosmetologist and a hair mogul too. So, I’ve always had women who were business-minded hair experts to look up to.
My mother herself inherited that hair-health-consciousness from my grandmother, and so our hair care days in my family were always a big deal when I was little. As a result, many of my family members—myself inclusive—learned to love taking good care of our hair and even made hair care something of a family talent. To this day, many of us are still into hair care and hairstyling. So yeah, that’s where a huge part of my motivation came from.
Alright, tell us how you got started in the hair care industry?
Porsha: Okay, so like I narrated, my heritage was a big part of what spurred me to create Atlas Haircare. And one thing that my family has always been big on is organic products. I remember, my grandmother, or “Momma Mary” as we used to call her back then, and my mom, they both had so many hair care recipes that they would use to care for our hair. They were true “recipes” because I recall these mixtures would contain products that were obtained from our home kitchen-aloe, mayonnaise, eggs, oils.
These organic hair recipes were the reason why we all had hair that was so shiny, bouncy, and all-round healthy. It was their concept—the concept of taking from nature to provide nourishment and care tailored for your own hair type and texture that inspired me on the exact direction to take with my hair care line. Coupled with my preexisting passion for her, that’s what pushed me to get started in the hair care industry. Plus, I already had a lot of family recipes to start off with, so it all just happened… naturally.
How did you come up with the name for your hair line?
Porsha: An atlas is a map, and I believe that hair health is a journey. So, my products are like the map that gets everyone to that destination of healthy hair. That’s exactly how I came up with the name!
Has the way you think about hair care changed during the pandemic? And if yes, how so?
Porsha: I won’t say that it has changed exactly. If anything, I think that hair care is now more important than ever, especially during the pandemic. Everyone’s health took a huge hit over the last two years; thus, we have to be very conscious of our physical health, mental health, and for me, our hair health is just as vital. Don’t get lazy with your regimen just because you’ve been asked to stay indoors. Being indoors is the perfect time for everyone to take good care of their hair and start a hair health journey if they haven’t already.
What, in your opinion, are the top 3 must-have hair care products? And why?
Porsha: An organic co-wash conditioner because these are great as an everyday wash. A good detangling spray because it softens the hair spectacularly and we also don’t want any tangles that can cause unnecessary breakage. And an oil that promotes hair growth and stronger roots because I also find it very soothing to my scalp. Yeah, those are my top 3.
If you could be anything other than the owner of a hair care brand, what would it be and why?
Besides owning my hair care brand, hmm… I’d probably be a beauty supply owner. It’s still under hair, I know, but as I said, hair runs in my family. So, if I didn’t have Atlas Haircare, I’d want to own my own beauty supply store with my family members. That would be hella fun.
What do you think of the hair care industry now and where would you like to see it go in the next decade?
I’m pretty happy with the hair industry today. There’s a lot more representation in terms of the broad range of hair types and textures we have out there. These days, everyone can enter a store or shop online and easily find products that are good for their particular hair type, which is so much better than when hair products used to cater to just one hair type.
In the next decade, one thing I want to see in the hair care industry is a lot more importance placed on organic ingredients used in products because that’s really the key to strong and healthy hair. I’d like to see all those harmful things that people use on their hair in the industry become less acceptable, and then a more widespread popularity of organic products.