Shequitta Kelly, a Dallas County judge, invented The Hair Shield, a satin-lined protective unit that can be used to store women’s hair extensions, wigs, and weaves. The invention is thriving, but it almost did not make it to market because Kelly did not intend to pursue entrepreneurship in the first place.
“I had no plans to be an entrepreneur. I’m a book person, so I’ve always been that student that made good grades. If I applied myself, I could learn anything. I was not an easy learner, but if you gave me the material and I studied it hard, I can get it. Entrepreneurship is completely different. It never actually was something that I dreamt of doing,” Kelly told AfroTech exclusively.
Kelly would later have an epiphany while combing through tangled and dried-out hair extensions the night before a hair appointment. She realized the extensions couldn’t be saved because they hadn’t been properly stored. Kelly spent her hard-earned money on new hair yet again, but she convinced herself that there had to be a solution to her problems somewhere. So she searched the internet.
“I was getting ready for a hair appointment I had the next day and I was just going through all this hair that was just unusable and it was frustrating for me,” Kelly told us. “So, I got online and I looked for something where I could find a neat way to protect and store the hair so I could reuse it and I couldn’t find anything.”
Frustrated by the lack of options, Kelly used her sewing skills to create a prototype of what would eventually become The Hair Shield in 2018. According to AfroTech, the protective satin unit is a high-quality product that “provides the optimal surface for storing extensions and ultimate quality preservation by reducing frizz and dryness.” It also ensures that the hair is free of bacteria and mildew.
Kelly reveals that her product saved one of her favorite hair pieces, which she had been storing since 2018.
“It still looks like brand new hair. I’ve had this hair since I made The Hair Shield and it proves that it’s not about so much spending all this money on hair. It’s about how you protect it and how you’re storing it. So, if I can have hair from 2018 to 2022 that looks like I just bought it, that means this product is working,” Kelly said.
The Hair Shield intentionally sits at $35 to ensure accessibility for customers.
“Black women don’t like to compromise when it comes to our beauty and we shouldn’t have to. The mission of The Hair Shield is to make women be able to still have that glamorous look that they want, without having to continuously throw money down the drain,” Kelly told AfroTech.
The product is increasing in favor among consumers but this has not necessarily put a halt to the tough lessons often faced by entrepreneurs.
“Because I don’t have the experience in entrepreneurship, I had a lot of pitfalls and I spent a lot of money where I could have avoided if I had a mentor. I made a lot of mistakes as a young entrepreneur that I guess you have to make to become wiser in life. There were costly mistakes, so it was not fun for me. I’ve had a lot of struggle to get this product to the marketplace because it’s not a product that people can pick up like a t-shirt and know what it is.”
She continued: “Although it has been a struggle, it is my baby and The Hair Shield has blossomed. It’s an amazing quality product and women who buy it absolutely love it. I am glad that I went ahead and pushed it and continue to hone my skills as an entrepreneur and learn new things. It was an unexpected blessing.”
Kelly hopes to secure a patent for the product in the future. This would put her in a select group of Black women who have accomplished this feat. Furthermore, the founder hopes to secure a few store partnerships by 2023 and employ youth in order to rekindle their interest in entrepreneurship.
“As an entrepreneur with a successful business, I want to be able to employ a lot of young people and people like myself,” Kelly shared. “I want to be able to give someone a job where they can grow within the company and pursue other things like their own business or have someone like myself who can say, ‘This is how you can take your education or your career to the next level.’ That would ultimately be the goal for The Hair Shield, to affect my community on a whole other level like that I can’t do as a judge.”