Today we’d like to introduce you to DeShawn Bullard.
Hi DeShawn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
What began as a way to make money while earning a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science during my college days at Tuskegee University has grown into a means of turning passion into profit. After graduation, I landed successfully in corporate America as a computer programmer, where I worked for seven years. However, my true passion for the beauty industry kept calling, and I chose to follow my dream.
In 1993, I had the choice of pursuing a master’s degree in Information Technology or going to cosmetology school. I chose where my heart was leading me, cosmetology school. After completing cosmetology school, I obtained a position as Educational Director for Professional Products, Inc. where I traveled the world educating other cosmetologists on hair care, styling, and business. It wasn’t long after, that I began using my skills and talents in hair competitions and eventually began hosting my own hair classes at major hair shows such as Bronner Bros., America’s Beauty Show and Premiere Shows to name a few. My teaching style afforded me the opportunity to travel international to places such as Brazil, Canada and the Virgin Islands with standing room only classes.
When the company I worked for as a Hair Educator decided to transition their salon professional brand to a retail consumer-based brand, I decided that I wanted to pursue owning my own Salon Professional Brand. This brand would focus on hair restoration, assisting with a common issue I had begun seeing in the salon, hair thinning and hair loss.
In 1998 NouriTress Hair Products was born. This salon professional brand was sold only in professional salons across the United States. I had used the relationships I built with salon professional distributors as an educator to distribute the NouriTress Professional Hair ReHab products to licensed salon professionals across the country. After rave reviews of the results of the NouriTress Brand, I was afforded the opportunity in 2012 to distribute NouriTress Products in J.C. Penney Salons. After the success of the J.C. Penney partnership, the doors for distribution began to open with other retail chain stores. In 2013 NouriTress launched in Walgreens stores and since, NouriTress Hair Products has graced the shelves of major retail stores such as Walmart, Sally Beauty Supply, Target and in select grocery store chains and beauty supply stores.
These successes began to have my name and products buzzing in such places as Steve Harvey’s Act Like A Success Conference as a Speaker, Black Enterprise, Huffington Post, Essence Magazine Women’s Health, Hype Hair Magazine, Black Doctors.org and major Television networks such as ABC, NBC, CBS, BET and FOX to name a few. NaturallyCurly.com named me as one of the top Women Pioneers who influenced the Natural Hair Movement and Essence.com has named me as one of the top salon experts who actually know their stuff!
I was nominated by the Atlanta Business League for “Outstanding Business Woman of the Year” in 2009 and was recognized as “Outstanding Business Woman” by the Georgia State Representatives in 2013. I have made several appearances as a guest hair stylist on the USA’s TBS nationally syndicated TV Show “Movie and A Makeover” and I am an experienced platform artist and a multi-award hair competition winner.
As a radio personality, I provided weekly hair advice and hot hair tips to millions of listeners on the local radio in the USA and hosted my own radio show “Mane Talk” which aired on local Atlanta Radio WAOK 1380AM. For six consecutive years, industry source Salon Sense Magazine has named me one of the most influential women in the beauty industry. I am also a salon owner (26 years) and have authored two self-published books and authored a book for Milady, the largest publisher of cosmetology books in the USA.
My dream of just quitting my job as a Computer Programmer and to own my own salon has turned into what the bible calls “More than I could even ask or think”! I went from owning my own salon, standing behind the chair servicing clients to working on top celebrity clientele such as T-Boz, Lynn Whitfield, Ann Nesby, Tramaine Hawkins, Tamar Braxton and Betty Wright, all while building a multi-million dollar successful hair product line and other business entities.
My goal in life is simple, to use my life as an example of what passion, hard work, dedication and perseverance will allow you to achieve.
AWARDS
Mogul Award – MogulCon Nov. 2021
Product of The Year – Beauty Supply Institute Jan. 2020
Trailblazer Award Jan. 2018 (National Women’s Empowerment Ministry)
Bronner Bros. Educator Award Aug. 2018
Pioneer Award May 2017 – Atlanta Tuskegee Alumni Chapter
“Outstanding Business Woman” by the Georgia State Representatives in May 2013
Atlanta Business League for “Outstanding Business Woman of the Year” in Jan. 2009
Personal: I’ve been married to Dr. Mack Bullard for 30 years and the mother of a set of 20 years old twins;-) I’m truly blessed!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has not been smooth at all. We started our business out in a grassroots kind of way. Again, using relationships built to distribute the brand to licensed salon professionals. Our focus was hair restoration, scalp therapy and hair treatment. We also were selling other salon products such as relaxers and styling products to our salon pro clientele but when the natural hair movement shift took place along with the growth of social media marketing, we found ourselves treading in water!
We were still advertising in radio and in magazines and had no clue about social media. We were also faced with re-formulating our products to remove things such as parabens, sulfates, mineral oils, etc.. that was now considered “un-natural”. Consumers were ditching the relaxer and looking for something different. This was a critical moment for us. We were either going to sink or swim. New brands were emerging that focused on the natural hair population which changed the landscape of what store shelves looked like. For us, this would require major changes that would cost a lot of money. We had successfully made profits up until this point with no funding from outside sources but immediately began to see our sales decline.
I was offered to participate in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program that allowed me to look at my business model differently, put on my boxing gloves and fight. And oh what a fight it was. This fight was fought with tears and perseverance to see the full manifestation of this purpose-driven brand.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
NouriTress Hair Products was created and developed in 1998 to assist multicultural women who experienced hair thinning & hair loss and wanted to regrow their hair. Understanding that healthy hair and hair growth begins inside, the company’s first and lead product was a daily hair vitamin sold exclusively in salons. The results were so astounding, that we responded to the consumer demand by expanding distribution of the products worldwide.
As hair loss in women continues to grow, NouriTress Perfect Hair Product’s goal is to provide quality products to customers who desire to experience beautiful hair again and to be the leader in consumer hair rehabilitation products for multicultural women who are relaxed or natural. We will use our expertise in the beauty industry to continue to develop products around hair growth, healthy hair, and hair loss prevention & restoration. Today with over 5,000,000 tablets sold, women & men who have used the products and provided consistent testimonials and evidence of performance.
The thing that set our brand apart from other brands is 1) The owner is a Board Certified Licensed Cosmetologist/Certified Trichologist and/Hair Loss Specialist 2) We don’t only sell our products to consumers, we service the consumers who have hair concerns at our NouriTress Salon & Hair Clinic. 3) We have over 25 years of experience in hair restoration with customer results. Since we have a Hair Clinic, we are able to provide clinical studies of results. We know what works and what doesn’t work. We have salons that use our products that also share their results. We are a hands-on brand, literally, We exclusively use NouriTress Hair Products at our Salon & Hair Clinic! We also have partnerships with medical professionals that assist with hair restoration. If hair restoration is not obtainable, we can offer hair replacement. We are committed to helping our clients get results with a smile.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I have learned along the journey is to commit to your own process! It’s your journey and you can’t measure your journey with someone else’s journey! Neither can you allow anyone to compare your journey with someone else’s journey. This is your race, and you have to be like a horse with blinders on to commit and successfully finish your race at God’s pace not the pace of others!!! If you do this, in DUE SEASON you shall reap if you faint not!!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nouritress.com
- Instagram: @nouritress
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/nouritress
- Twitter: @nouritress
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NouriTressHairProducts
Image Credits:
Photo Credits: Gloria Sebastian, Kimazing Photos
