Is Natural Hair A Dumb Investment? This New York Writer Thinks So!

We hear all the time that black or at the very least ‘textured’ hair products are a multi billion dollar a year industry and with black women spending three to six times more on hair products that their white counterparts it seems like a sure thing for many investors right?

Not so according to Kevin Rose of Nymag.com. Just over a week ago he posted this scathing article titled “Dumb Money: Exposing Silicon Valley’s Stupidest Investments“. This is what he thought of natural ladies’ popular website Naturallycurly.com.

Some of tech’s clunkers never get off the ground, but others manage to get big, high-profile investments despite having no redeeming qualities whatsoever. (For example, what kind of genius decided to throw $1.2 million at NaturallyCurly, the “leading social network and community for people with wavy, curly and kinky* hair?”)

Now on the one hand I can understand the caution advisable in investing that kind of money in a business that doesn’t have a physical shop-front, investors prefer bricks and mortar right?

On the other hand US shoppers will spend $226 billion on the internet this year up from $202 billion in 2011 and it is projected that that figure will rise to $327 billion or an estimated 9% of all retail sales by 2016. I’m sure that most would agree that these figures are nothing to sniff at.

According to Blackgirllonghair.com, Texturemedia, the company behind Naturallycurly.com jumped into the comments to defend the investment with this rebuttal (although at the time of publishing this, that comment seems to have disappeared!):

As the straight-haired CEO of TextureMedia, parent company of NaturallyCurly, I thought I would share a few facts about the size and engagement of this market. The first is that approximately 60% of the world has textured hair (waves, curls and coils). That’s a lot of people — close to 80 million textured hair females 18+ in the US alone.

Combined with other brands in the TextureMedia portfolio, NaturallyCurly serves close to 2 million unique visitors every month who appreciate having an engaged community platform to share and learn more about products, stylists, photos, trends, hair health and more.

Women with textured hair spend 3x more on average than their straight-haired peers.

Our community alone spends an annual $1/2 BILLION on hair care. They create 15,000 pieces of content every week, and they constantly struggle with weather, frizz, body chemistry changes as well as with social feedback ranging from recruiters recommending straightened hair in order to be taken “seriously” in job interviews to millionaire matchmaker, Patti Stanger insisting guys don’t like girls with curly hair.

Every day is a new hair day. Hair does not define someone, but tied to hair are intangibles like identity, self esteem, confidence, and personality. It’s a big deal to a lot of people.

Our small, medium and global partners and advertising brands would agree naturally curly, wavy and coily hair is a serious market. I’m happy to discuss more in person with Kevin on my next trip from Austin (where the frizz factor today is high) to New York.

Great rebuttal! If the importance of hair to curly women around the world is unfathomable to a man like Kevin Rose then surely the $500 million dollar amount spent yearly by us curly girls on just this 1 site should bring into focus the value of the company? Another person calling themselves TMINVESTOR further commented:

Im an investor. We review hundreds of companies & chose Texture Media (TM), parent of NaturallyCurly. Why?
• Market Size. As Crista notes, 60% of the world has textured hair
• Consumer Spending. $500 million annual spend among 2 million people & that is only TM community
• Global Marketplace has greater potential. Scope of curly females 18+ in US is 80million. .
• Curlies are loyal to products & willingness to try new one
• Established company with proven growth in uniques and revenue
• Profitable company
• Experienced management who knows consumer products & digital marketing
Company dedicated to beauty & self esteem

For sure natural hair products and websites may never make an investor billions like the people who got in on the ground level at Facebook. Neither do I expect our communities to impress Silicone Valley investors to any large degree but I don’t know about you, being offered a piece of a $500 million dollar a year business for a mere $1.2 million sounds mighty fine to me!

Did the genius Kevin Rose even bother to check the facts before writing this nonsense?