Merian Odesho of Bounce Curl on Clean Chemistry, Natural Ingredients, and Scaling a Purpose-Driven Beauty Brand

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Merian Odesho.

Merian Odesho is the Founder and Product Formulator of Bounce Curl. Her main goal is to empower all individuals to embrace their natural hair. Recognizing that the haircare industry had not yet embraced natural-derived ingredients, Merian paired her love of mixology and her chemistry expertise to launch a company dedicated to creating safe and clean hair products.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

It started more as a hobby that led to a successful business. I was in school to be a dentist and studied science in college. I have always been a goal-driven person and was interested in starting something on the side as well. Spending most of my time in chemistry labs, I started cosmetic formulating. Hearing comments of how many people did not like their hair, I wanted to help others embrace their hair like I do and help them feel confident with their natural hair. I created my own Light Hold Crème Gel as my first product and it sold out within two weeks!

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

We are constantly helping individuals feel beautiful in their natural state. Bounce Curl is more than a company that just sells hair products. We are also here to help and teach individuals the best practices on how to take care of their hair. I am always on social media sharing techniques and recommendations on how to care for your hair. We want to spread love throughout the whole curly community and encourage our customers to embrace the natural you. Next year, we are also going to start investing in small, medium, and large businesses and sell their products through our channels, fostering a collaboration where we can help other businesses grow and add more value to our customers’ lives.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

There have been so many mistakes when I was first starting as I had almost no business education or experience. I remember when I was printing our orders myself — there was an issue with the way I was printing and I was actually sending the same customer double or triple the products. The customer contacted me and told me she got a few orders that she didn’t place. But luckily, I only did that for a day! Ever since, I have been committed to learning about every aspect of running my business from marketing and shipping to human resources.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I have always looked up to a chemist that helped me when I volunteered at a lab in my early 20’s. She was very patient with me and taught me a lot about cosmetics. Understanding the challenges of launching a business independently, I want to share that knowledge and help others succeed as well. I am currently mentoring women who have experienced challenging life situations or who are in need and helping them start their own businesses.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Considering disruption as positive or negative depends on which side of the issue your company is on. I would say we disrupted the curly hair industry in a positive way when we first launched Bounce Curl six years ago because we really paid attention to all the ingredients. Bounce Curl was created during a time where everyone was using harsh, and potentially toxic ingredients for their skin and scalp. I did a lot of research and developed a line of products that rates very clean in terms of ingredients and safe beauty. We regularly revisit formulas of our existing products — if there is a new ingredient that would be beneficial in one of our existing products, we always evaluate that!

So, our ‘disruption’ of the industry resulted in many other companies starting to focus on clean ingredients — generally, I believe disruption is a win for customers. The only negative I could think of — a disruptive change may result in companies who are implementing that change to raise their prices. That is NOT the case for Bounce Curl products when we introduce a change or improvement! Also, some companies may not survive such a disruption and their going out of business might cause less competition in the market and potentially higher prices.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

For a student, I always say to multi-task until you find your career. I was in school to be a dentist and I came out with my own product line and became more successful doing that.

For young professionals, I would suggest taking your time building your career. Many people are in a rush for no reason, and it can cause mental breakdowns and stress if you are going too fast.

Lastly and for anyone at any stage of their career, always stay true to yourself and your career!

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

We will be continuing to focus on developing new product lines and expanding. We are coming out with a body line collection very soon!

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

One of the biggest challenges faced by women is that it has been harder for us to get the funding we need to run and scale businesses. I am trying to make a positive impact on the issue by supporting other women who want to start their own business with mentorship, advice, and access to resources.

Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?

Entrepreneurs On Fire is a great podcast. It has inspired my entrepreneurial journey and educated me about all things business.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Coming from a Middle Eastern background, I would like to build a program that encourages the development of more successful Middle-Eastern-owned brands. Such success would allow them to support others in their community. This is just a thought right now, but I hope to build on this idea more in 2022 and beyond.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit. Be patient and stay the course.” I love this quote because I started my company four years before we officially launched.

How can our readers follow you online?

@herbalmmo on Instagram and TikTok.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!