At just 13 years old, Lexi Proctor (Lexi P.) is holding a golden opportunity in the palm of her hands, with the help of her mother. Before Lexi heads to a Prince George’s County Public School (PGCPS) as an eighth grader, the kidpreneur is creating a social media buzz to urge the public to vote for her company, Curlanistas, LLC (Curlanistas).
Lexi and her mother, Monica Proctor, are one of four semi-finalist hair care brands vying for a $25,000 monetary grant, product distribution on SallyBeauty.com, and support to help grow her business through the Sally Beauty Cultivate program.
Online voting ends on August 12, 2017. The number of votes, and how well each brand pitches their business at Sally’s headquarters in Texas, are factors which determine who will be awarded the top spot.
Courtesy Photo
“This (winning) would help Lexi continue to expand her product line and get it on shelves across the country at Sally Beauty Supply at an accelerated rate,” Proctor said. “It would also help her gain even more exposure to a larger audience.”
Proctor—a Morgan State University alumna— is operations manager of Curlanistas, LLC. The dedicated mother explained that Sally Beauty Supply, the largest retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies, crafted a Sally Beauty Cultivate program called “For Women by Women.” Sally Beauty Supply has an established track record of supporting emerging products and entrepreneurs before they become household names. A business accelerator program was designed to help women beauty entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
All of these reasons explain why Lexi aims to make her big dreams come true.
“Vote for me because my brand needs this opportunity to help get my message of self-love out there even faster. My curl cream and detangler are really magical and will help so many people with their daily routine of caring for their natural hair,” Lexi said. “I also have other products I’m working on, and this will help me get there.”
Ironically, Curlanistas was launched in 2016, and the hair line kicked off in 2018, because Lexi was once teased about her big, curly hair. She decided that she wanted to help girls going through the same things by sparking a Curlanistas movement, which complimented her first book, “Curly Girls Love Your Curls.”
Lexi’s goal was to develop her brand to help girls to feel empowered to wear their hair big, bold and proud. She aimed to share her personal lessons about learning to love herself in her first book. Her second book, “The Ice Cream Talk: Loving The Skin You’re In!,” expanded on the self-love topic.
“I [teach] girls how to love their hair with my books. Now, I want to teach girls how to care for their hair with my line of hair products,” Lexi said. “I launched my Curlanistas hair line in February 2018, but did a soft launch at the world famous Bronner Brothers Convention in Atlanta, Georgia in August of 2017, and I sold out the first day.”
Lexi has even recognized by Instagram, in partnership with the Book Confidence Code for Girls, through their #CaptureConfidence initiative. However, Lexi’s ambition has been observable since she was a young girl. Proctor revealed that her daughter began showing interest in business at approximately nine years old.
“She asked me to buy some candy, so she could sell it in school [to buy] a new toy she wanted. She soon learned she wasn’t allowed to sell the sweet treats at school, but quickly learned about another passion of hers which is writing,”
Proctor said. “Her fifth-grade teacher had Lexi enter a contest for a book she was required to write as a creative writing assignment, and a spark was lit.”
After a few short weeks, Lexi informed her mother that she completed a draft of “Curly Girls Love Your Curls.” That was the beginning of Proctor knowing that her daughter was serious about becoming an author, plus so much more.
“From there it was only natural for her to transition into the world of being a businesswoman in beauty. When we both saw the impact and responses we were getting from girls, and even grown women, we knew Lexi was doing something so important,” Proctor said. “Lexi is passionate about her message and wants to help girls around the world feel good about themselves.”
You may vote for Lexi’s Curlanistas brand daily until August 12, 2018 via https://www.sallybeauty.com/cultivate.html.