Tiffini Gatlin is the founder of Latched and Hooked, a Black-owned and operated company that offers non-toxic protective hairdo treatments. According to her, the company was founded to meet the need of customers and hair stylists for a safe, economical, and time-sensitive alternative.
Gatlin told Rollingout in an interview that she founded Latched and Hooked after switching from corporate to entrepreneur. About 2014, she claimed to have utilized hair to supplement her income as a lifestyle writer.
At the time, crochet braiding was quickly becoming the best hairstyle for Black women. Although beautiful, she noted, “the method of brushing kinky textured hair, rolling around a perm or flexi rod and covering yourself with thick towels as your prepared to dip your head in a pot of boiling water–was extremely dangerous.”
According to her, there were thousands of hashtags on Instagram and many YouTube videos with millions of views advising women to follow the method in order to achieve the look of textured curly hair that could withstand any temperature with minimal upkeep.
She stopped using the approach after nearly burning a customer with steam and hot water after trying it multiple times, including on herself. She went to a beauty supply store to find pre-curled and looped synthetic hair. She discovered that there were no pre-looped crochet options on the market, which led to the creation of Latched and Hooked.
She had dabbled in a variety of fields before to starting her beauty business. She had previously worked in finance and banking, and Latched and Hooked was her second beauty enterprise. Because she was afraid to birth such a vast vision on her own, she started her first beauty company with a stranger. Although the collaboration did not last, she described the experience as “very vital” for her to go through the difficulties in order to grow wiser, more careful, and educated, and to share her experiences with other entrepreneurs.
Latched and Hooked, Gatlin’s second beauty brand, has made history by launching a collection on the home shopping channel QVC – a first for a Black-owned faux hair creator. She explained that making history on the channel was delayed twice due to a variety of issues, including the pandemic and product testing.
“I will be making history as the first (and hopefully not the last) Black owned and woman operated faux hair designer and distributor to debut on QVC!” Gatlin wrote on Instagram last month. “Never could I have imagined that my first purchase order would come from QVC! Like many of you my mom would watch and order (porcelain dolls were her obsession) and now decades later I’ll be in millions of homes as I showcase live from QVC studios!
“My first meeting with my buyer was on June 2, 2021 at 2:30 pm and I finally made it to the finish line! It was a grueling experience, one I will not take for granted because I learned so much.”
Latched and Hooked had previously been recognized by Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, which resulted in a $100,000 investment in her company.
The Black entrepreneur struggled to make Latched and Hooked a profitable enterprise. Gatlin creates and manufactures her own synthetic hair products; nevertheless, getting her items into independent beauty supply stores proved challenging because customers preferred Asian own brands.
“Buyers of the beauty supply stores or generally Asian and they would rather purchase hair extensions from other Asian-owned brands. But, where there is a will, there is a way. The advice that I would offer to other minorities in the world of beauty is don’t give up on yourself and create your own tribe (community) when another tribe will not accept you into their space,” she told Rollingout.