Autumn Yarbrough is the founder of NU Standard Haircare, which is bringing change to the haircare world with a focus on textured hair. Her journey in the haircare business is rooted in her family’s history. She is the granddaughter of Comer Joseph Cotrell Jr., founder of Pro-Line Hair Products which produced The Jheri Curl, and the daughter of Renee Cottrell Brown, inventor of Just For Me brands.
Yarbrough said she was inspired to pursue the haircare business because she got involved in it at a very young age. Observing the production of Pro-Line products from start to finish motivated her.
“Yes. I was that weird kid. I would go down the aisles looking at new products. I loved being a part understanding how products were made all the way down to the manufacturing, to packaging supplies, understanding suppliers, ingredients all of those things. I was very fortunate that my grandfather, actually, had a manufacturing plant,” she told BE.
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Yarbrough graduated from the University of Southern California and worked in finance and insurance before being pushed to start her own haircare line after her experience with hair loss.
Now, her brand, NU Standard Haircare, intends to ensure that the black and textured communities no longer feel marginalized in the hair industry.
“Like recipes, heirlooms, and facial features, I inherited many things from the women in my family,” she said. “One of those hereditary traits is hair loss, a common challenge for women with textured hair. Out of necessity comes innovation, so I decided it was time to address the lack of products catering to this need. I created NU Standard® to promote overall wellness and tackle common hair issues like dryness and breakage through our revolutionary system.”
“I want to continue to push everything to the edge and disrupt the industry in a positive way, really solving a lot of our pain points,” she told BE.
Yarbrough positions her brand as the industry’s new standard, touting NU Standard innovation.
“We focus on how hair really works on the inside then bring the science into it. We love traditional methods but it’s important as we advance to make sure we’re bringing along the science and focus on a lot of our pain points — which is the hair loss, the hair breakage,” she said.
She further explained that her product is “a one-wash bar and then that conditioner bar which we call the ‘butter bar.’ It’s a rinse-out or leave-in. We realized that it makes it easy to travel and easy to use. The concentrated ingredients are absolutely safe even to leave in. We have the appropriate butter so they are not endocrine disruptors. The ingredients are not making any hormonal changes if you’re leaving it in your hair.”
Reflecting on her most valuable experience as an entrepreneur, she emphasized the significance of establishing a strong foundation through initial setbacks to withstand challenging times.
“If you learn quickly where the failures are, then you will know where your successes are. Embrace that failure is not a bad term, and it’s not a permanent term,” she said.
“Use failing moments, embrace them, learn from them, and pivot; don’t be ashamed that you’re failing. Entrepreneurship is an infinite game. There is no long game and definitely no short game.”
Yarbrough recently made headlines after becoming the first Black woman to curate and distribute a bond system specifically designed for textured hair with Nu Standard’s new HYDRASILK Hydrating Bond system.
