Meet Khat Rabbani and Ashley Williams, who are the co-founders of Hair Are Us, a successful line of hair extensions. The two best friends started their company in 2011 after going through multiple struggles in their quest to make money so as to live a comfortable life.
The idea for the hair extension brand came when the duo decided to collaborate and work together on a project. With their entrepreneurial background, they started the hair business when it wasn’t popular as it is now.
“Since I was already an extension specialist, I had a lot of information in the field, and Ashley has always been business savvy and she had her contacts, so it worked out well. In the beginning, we didn’t expect it to grow as fast as it did,” Rabbani told Globalgrind.
They used $1,000 each to launch their hair extension business. They began selling the hair out of the trunks of their cars in Atlanta.
“We went from selling bundles out of the trunks of our cars in parking lots to having three retail stores and a thriving e-commerce business,” they told Black News. “We’ve had many ups and downs. But we have learned so much from starting, maintaining, and growing a business by doing this together.”
Now, they have several retail locations and a seven-figure e-commerce business with products sold globally.
“We did all of the groundwork, passing out flyers like we did in the beginning in Atlanta; we were our own promotion girls, we did all the online orders, we were customer service reps. We just did everything! At the time, it was only three of us running the business,” Rabbani told Globalgrind.
According to Black Business, their brand made $2 million in revenue in just two years. And they now want to help others to start in the hair and beauty industry said to be worth billions of dollars. They have launched a new curriculum to teach other entrepreneurs everything they need to know about the Black beauty industry.
The Black Business reports that “their curriculum which currently consists of digital guides is designed to reduce challenges for those starting a hair business as much as possible; giving you the tools to build a successful company without experiencing all the mistakes they’ve made along the way.
“Along with their master courses that will be released in the near future, their curriculum is everything that aspiring entrepreneurs to get a piece of the multi-billion dollar hair and beauty industry.”