wegg® showcase: To Be the Best, Learn from the Best
- Posted by Ali Foley
- Date October 1, 2026
- Categories Featured, Prepare, wegg® showcase, weggs
Issue 29: Oct. 2026
Sponsored By: 
What inspired you to start Nature’s Syrup Beauty?
One of my two daughters came home from the second or third grade one day, looking really sullen and sad. She said, “I want long, straight hair. I want my hair to look like my friends. People laugh at me at school.” Because I was using a chemical relaxer back then, I, too, had long, straight hair. So my daughter wasn’t just looking at the girls in her classroom, she was also looking at me.
I believe people should embrace their differences. Diversity is what makes the world a better place. It gives people freedom to accept who they are. I wanted my daughter to know that she was beautiful and her hair should be worn the way it grows out of her scalp. So I chopped my own hair off to about two inches. And I loved it! I loved how my hair felt. I loved the twists and turns of every coil. But I also realized that natural hair needed totally different care, so I started making homemade hair butters in my kitchen. I researched using Google, YouTube, all of the above. I curated ingredients based on what I learned.
What made you start selling your creations?
One Christmas, I was intent on making rather than buying all of my presents. I gave people at my church some of my homemade hair butter and they loved it! They asked if they could buy more from me. I was like, “What? You’d pay me?” I made more the next week.
My grandmother sold sweets out of her house when we were growing up, and she was especially known for her lemon pound cake. So in honor of my grandmother, our very first product was Lemongrass body and hair butter. I kept adding to the collection, different scents like Mango Honey Child and Lavender, shampoo and conditioner, and our Hair Grown Activator Oil.
I have now formulated close to 90 products. While we have manufacturing for most of the products, we still make some in-house. Formulating in my kitchen is still my favorite thing to do.
How did you transition from a kitchen project into a fully-grown business?
About six years ago, I asked myself, “If you are on your deathbed, what would be the one thing you will regret?” It was never having given Nature’s Syrup the love, focus, and attention it deserved. It was at that moment I knew I needed to go full time.
Once I said yes, it was like a flower blossomed and opened. It was immediate: within a month, I was on a plane to New York participating in the Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women business program. Within 90 days, Nature’s Syrup was on Macys.com and Walmart.com. A year ago, we launched into Hy-Vee’s. It is a journey and I’m constantly reminding myself that you are so much farther away than when you started.
Your product spoke for itself and things unfolded from there. It sounds like the biggest roadblock was deciding to say “yes?”
I’ve gotten a lot of no’s, for sure. I’ve applied for grants and programming and been told, “You’re almost there, but you’re not quite there.” The most important connections have come from people who said, “I don’t think you’re ready for us yet, but we’re going to introduce you to this person who can help.” Those connections are preparing me to be handed back over to the people who said, “You’re not ready yet.” I take it one day at a time, and I’m not in a hurry to get into a position I’m not ready for.
What advice would you give to a woman entrepreneur who's looking to take a company international?
Spend time learning about the brands you want to be. Learn about all of the products, know exactly what the companies are worth and what path they’re on. Learn about the founders, listen to what they’re saying and not saying. Pay very close attention, because that is how you learn.
There are things you can learn in your local ecosystem, but I’ve made it my business to travel. New York is a very instrumental ecosystem for beauty brands, and I need to be there. Estee Lauder, L’Oréal, all of those big brands hang out in New York. If you want to learn from the best, be around the best. That means connecting with organizations that put you in the room with brands you want to be like.
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