Natasha Anderson and her daughter Khadija Imara teamed up to create The Original Unbraider, which can take down up to eight braids at one time, and it also combs the hair while taking out the braids.
During an interview with AftoTech, Anderson spoke about creating her company.
“As I was designing it, going through the prototype phase, and dealing with the engineers, I shared it with him when he was visiting my husband [and] he said, ‘I can take that back to Taiwan,” Anderson said to AfroTech. “And if my family is not able to create the mold for this idea, my best friend’s family also has one,’”
Anderson added: “So, we technically ended up going with his best friend. The whole family — four at that time — flew to Taiwan. We got to see the manufacturing and how they poured it and made the mold. It was really a great experience. And my husband really helped out by allowing us to pull money off our house in order to do that.”
Once The Original Unbraider came to life, Anderson sold her product at hair shows, salons and it even caught the attention of Tamar Braxton.
“The response has been amazing and I’ve had an amazing mentor to be able to follow in her footsteps and she provided me a blueprint,” Imara said. “It was just about utilizing today’s time and the resources and the tools that we have. And the lesson learned was how to approach with a systematic approach, the social media strategy.”
“This marketing strategy has pivoted since we first launched because it was different when [my mother] launched, we had a completely different strategy because e-commerce wasn’t a viable option at the time … So, we were doing a lot of on-the-ground work, hair shows, and whatnot. And so we continued to do that as well,” she added.
“Expanding our product line is something that we’re interested in, Imara said. “And expanding our reach, going international. We have a lot of demand in the U.K., the Caribbean, Canada — so many places. We’re also looking to be able to help that hair care journey because we’ve all been on it. I have cut my hair several times and done the [big] chop and said, ‘This is the last time.’ I’ve been there before. I know exactly what has helped me and I want to help others in that journey as well.”