This interview highlights how the founder of Coiff Dew Natural Hair Care, Holland Strong, supports Where Wild Women Wander by promoting rest, wellness, and empowerment for Black women.
- What inspired you to get involved with Where Wild Women Wander and support this celebration of rest and wellness for Black women?
“I have found the SwagHer team to be a great partner to me, but they also appear to be a fantastic support to other entrepreneurs. I admire the work this team appears to put into providing visibility for entrepreneurs, which is one of the most expensive and scarce commodities for small businesses.”
- Your brand/business clearly aligns with empowerment and self-care. How do you incorporate those values into your work or products?
“Coiff Dew Natural Hair Care was designed for women who need cost-effective, quick, easy, and versatile natural hair maintenance when they have a very busy and active lifestyle. With work/travel, workouts, etc., doing one’s natural hair at home is often necessary. It is empowering to know how to manage your self-care by your design. My brand does not require heat appliances, but one can decide to modify how to use the product to meet their needs. The brand is designed for the entire family. The brand can even be used as a dry shampoo, if that is what one needs. The leave-in conditioner can also be used as a beard conditioner, if needed.
I also try to highlight that the brand ingredients are 100% non-toxic. I post educational information about this and why I think it’s important to everyone. Recent reports identify personal and self-care products contain potentially dangerous ingredients that seem to be contained in disproportionately high amounts in products marketed to Black/Brown communities. You can’t make a better choice without the information and a broad range of products to choose from. I try to be a part of the conversation on this important topic.”
- Why do you believe rest, healing, and wellness are important topics for our community right now?
“I’ve experienced the harmful effects of the opposite behaviors. Until I changed my professional/personal lifestyle, I was drained, depressed, and somewhat disinterested in the future if it looked like the unhealthy lifestyle I was living. I was not aligned with whole health; now I am a lot closer to that goal. I feel how great it is to focus on my mission(s), pray/meditate on gratitude, and guard my environments so I won’t drift into unhealthy activities again. Once you experience feeling good, you no longer want to feel bad.”
- In what ways does your business contribute to helping people feel “Well, Inspired, Liberated, and Divine” — our WILD acronym?
“Business, like many endeavors, is what you make it. Business has, in many cases, a profile of being hyper-competitive, ruthless, cutthroat, vicious — and that is just the environment on an average day. If you define your success in terms other than financial, business pursuits can be “WILD” as you describe the acronym. What revenue you may have to sacrifice to align your business with a set of wholesome goals that enrich your product users as well as the environment — who knows. Each business has to decide which is more important, and whether wholesome can eventually lead to accomplishing all of your goals in the manner you want to do it. I’m trying to find out if that is possible.”
- What impact do you hope your sponsorship will have for the event and its attendees?
“I want to expose attendees to my brand and why I think it’s the product for several of them. If they don’t use my product, I hope to expose them to many of the topics I consider to be important, which are posted on my website and my Instagram.”
- What is one piece of wellness advice you live by that you would love to share with our audience?
“My Grandma used to say, “Don’t let nothing take your joy.” Try to really understand that term. I’m still working on it. I think we are taught to chase personal and momentary happiness, which can be fleeting. Joy, I think, is an everlasting resource pool of strength that one can go to for replenishment when life starts “Lifing.” Find your joy and hold on to it.”
- Where can people learn more about your brand and connect with you online?
My website is – www.coiffdew.com – my IG is @coiffdew. Thank you.
