The Hair -Restoration- Business

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Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair Care

Podcast Overview:

00:00 Researched and created US hair product line.
05:43 Expanding online sales to reach nationwide market.
08:15 Leveraged knowledge of hair products for formulation.
11:54 Hair loss impacts cancer patients’ identity and confidence.
14:24 Rising demand for gluten-free, cruelty-free products.
17:54 Consumer perception studies show hair growth results.
21:28 Managing stress, importance of self-care, business success.
23:53 Sent gift baskets, held weekly staff meetings.
28:48 Managing separate ecommerce and brick-and-mortar teams.
29:48 Support for hair loss, career growth, digital marketing.
35:57 Selling products in stores and directly to customers.
38:20 Challenges with website management and team coordination.
41:11 Beneficial business practices and ego management.
43:22 Glass bottles weighed differently, prompting packaging adjustments.
46:09 Thicker, manageable hair, no need for wig.
52:13 Transition from store ownership to philanthropy and coaching.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:00]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphal successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you’re listening or watching this on the web, you could do us a huge favor and share it with your entrepreneurial friends. Audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at draw in customers.com. Today, we’re welcoming slash preparing to learn from Helena Gibson from unveil restorative hair care. And, Helena, how is it going today?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:00:32]:

It is going awesome. It’s Beautiful weather. It’s nice, like, overcast day in sunny California.

James [00:00:40]:

Oh, nice. Well, any day in California is probably better than a day in Wisconsin, and so you win. Okay. You definitely win. So tell us, what is Unveil?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:00:51]:

So Unveil is a restorative hair care line that helps to thicken the hair. So a lot of our clients, I have brick and mortar stores that I’ve had for the last 21 years in San Diego And in Fresno, California, which is central California. And I noticed a lot of the people were coming in and buying, Rogaine based products. There are certain ones, Viviscal, RevitaGen, and there were things that they didn’t like about it because they had synthetic ingredients or they had shellfish in them. And so I started thinking about that when COVID happened and it shut my business down. I was like, okay. What am I gonna do? I’ve had 19 years of this business, and now all of a sudden the government can shut it. I’ve gotta come up with something else.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:01:38]:

Well, I couldn’t do wigs because wigs are all usually manufactured overseas. So then I thought, okay, what’s my next biggest SKU And that I can create in the US, which were these hair products and which were these things that clients had been complaining about over the years. So I started doing some research and I found that plant stem cells actually can regenerate. And what happens is as our hair gets older, our Scalp and our hair follicles, they miniaturize. And these plant stem cells actually help to you can imagine it Kind of coming down and, like, atrophy, it actually helps the bulb, and so the hair starts regrowing again. And so then I just, you know, hired some formulators. I went through, like, 3 different ones and everything during COVID that could Come up trying to, you know, find people and chemists I could work with and understand their lingo, and I would want this, and they would say that wouldn’t work. Well, After 2 years, unveil was finally born with my hero product, which is our syrup.

James [00:02:37]:

Wow.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:02:38]:

Yeah.

James [00:02:39]:

That is crazy.

Speaker C [00:02:41]:

So you

James [00:02:41]:

took this pandemic. You know, it’s interesting how a lot of people reacted to the pandemic. Because, I mean, shutting your business down, that had to be a not great thing. I certainly know it wasn’t a great thing on our end.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:02:51]:

Yeah. No.

James [00:02:52]:

And that’s, but that’s very interesting that you took that gear shift to something like we’re coming up with a whole new product, designing it from scratch or something?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:01]:

Scratch? I believe. Yeah.

Speaker C [00:03:02]:

Yeah. Wow.

James [00:03:04]:

That is cool.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:05]:

So Yeah. I was very Oh,

James [00:03:07]:

I’m sorry. With the, with the salon, what did you end up doing with the salons? Because California I’m trying to think where California was at with their closing and stuff like that.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:17]:

Oh, he closed us. Yeah. We’re not in Florida. We got closed. Luckily, though, I’m not an actual Salon. So what I’ve done for all these years is I’m in hair replacement. So I do wigs and hair pieces for cancer patients. So we do cranial prosthesis.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:33]:

So after I was done crying for about 3 days in my shower, then I realized to let my salon license go, And we went we opened back up 3 days later as DME, as durable medical equipment for the cranial prosthesis. So I actually didn’t close.

James [00:03:50]:

Smart woman.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:03:51]:

I love it. So 3 days later, we were back open. Now Later. Staff didn’t wanna come back. So my Fresno store was completely closed. I just stayed open down here in San Diego, and I was open 2 days a week by appointment. So then people would come to the website, and I would just stack them on those days. And we actually did the same volume during those 2 months that I didn’t have staff in As we usually do just by booking them, you know, because they were serious to come in.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:04:22]:

I had the referring to me. I let them know I was still open because, unfortunately, people were still losing their hair, and there’s still mirrors in their houses, and they still wanted to feel Good during COVID, and so the business actually took off. And then on the days I wasn’t in the store, I was working on launching unveil.

James [00:04:39]:

Wow. That is impressive.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:04:41]:

Thank you.

James [00:04:42]:

Oh, I love him. People like you on the podcast. That’s fun.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:04:45]:

Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, that’s what entrepreneurship is about. Right? Is you know, all these things come at us, but it’s, what are you gonna do about it? Yeah. I mean, I did. I cried for 3 days, you know? But then And I sat down and thought, okay. What can I do? Because I’m a single mom. My daughter was just in her senior year of college. She was flying back.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:05:05]:

She was in Canada. So she’s watching what I’m doing. I had to finish paying off her school. I mean, I had a lot of obligations, so We just had to make it work and figure out how to do it.

James [00:05:17]:

Work. Yeah.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:05:18]:

I love it. Work.

James [00:05:19]:

Yeah. So tell me, what was the you I guess you had to understand that going through trying to come up with a serum thing was gonna be a huge undertaking. So on top of the stress of your business being challenged with the pandemic and all that jazz. Now you’re taking on a whole new business. Was that what was going through your head to say this was the best path forward?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:05:43]:

I think it was because that was something I could do in the US. It was something that is My stores, I’ve only been able to sell to a 30 mile area in each location, so I’ve always been landlocked. And the only way to grow after being in this business for so long is opening more stores. And I didn’t want that headache, especially being in the state of California with more employees because Most of the time, I’m at about 12 between both locations. I didn’t wanna deal with more landlords. The retail rents have gone through the roof because It’s not like office space. Everybody got PPP, so we also had money to pay rent. So it was, okay, what can I do that’s online? Well, the The cool thing now is I sell to the whole country.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:06:28]:

Most of my orders for UnMail are are everywhere. I mean, I’m always shipping to, you know, New York or Georgia, Florida, it it doesn’t matter. So now I’ve opened this whole new world, and that was one of my biggest considerations was I didn’t wanna be landlocked again. How can I do something that I can scale all the way to the moon versus not with my stores? It’s how many hours am I open, how many chairs do I have. That’s it. And once you have every chair booked every hour, there’s no more to do but open another store.

James [00:06:59]:

Alright. There’s nowhere to grow.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:07:01]:

There’s no more there’s no more to grow.

James [00:07:03]:

And then opening another story, now you’re talking getting employees, getting chairs, and you have to build up to before you’re even profitable.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:07:09]:

Right.

James [00:07:10]:

So to scale each time is another big headache, I suppose.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:07:14]:

Huge huge undertaking. Exactly. So those were some of the things that were in And plus, this was one

James [00:07:19]:

of the

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:07:19]:

the this was one of the only things where people complained a lot and that I didn’t see Something in that market that was, you know, all natural, nontoxic. Because remember, I’m working with cancer patients, so So they don’t want something with synthetic ingredients. They don’t want hormone disruptors. So that was really important to me to make sure that this was clean And that it wouldn’t, you know, if they can use it while they’re on chemo or if somebody’s post, pregnancy, so then they can use it even while they’re Breastfeeding because whatever you put on your scalp is absorbed into your bloodstream, and people forget that sometimes when they’re putting Rogaine or different, you know, synthetic products on them.

James [00:08:00]:

Interesting.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:08:01]:

Yeah.

James [00:08:01]:

So tell me, did you start out with, a rough idea of what you wanted chemically, or did you have to meet with Some people in lab coats that knew all kinds of chemistry or something like that. I didn’t know where you start with something like this.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:08:15]:

Well, I had an advantage, like I said, was I was selling other products in this field. Right? So I had somewhat of a knowledge of what’s in them and how they work, what the Timetable is I know about the hair cycles and your antigen phase, antigen phase, telogen phase, all that. So I’ve always I’ve known that just by being in the hair loss industry. So what I needed the formulators for was when I was trying to come up with, you know, like, with our shampoo that’s gonna come out in the next couple weeks is, You know, I wanna put rice water in it, and then I need it to be sulfate free. But then how do you make it sud? Because sulfates are what makes The the bubbles and stuff so that, you know so all of those things are what I used and that they coached me through. So that’s why it took about 2 years Was because I would say, hey. I saw this online. I wanna put this in there.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:09:04]:

No. That’s water based, and this is oil based, and you can’t mix them and stuff like that. So It’s it’s a whole new world. So for me, this is gonna be my next 20 years, I hope. And now you get so excited because you look at things different and like, wow. I could make that better or I wonder wonder how they put that together. I wonder what’s in that. And then I find myself looking at the back of, you know, other shampoos and stuff in the front of it.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:09:26]:

Oh, I know what that does. And So, it it’s pretty cool. It’s like a whole new world. Yeah.

James [00:09:32]:

Tell me, you’re trying to find the people in lab coats, the scientists, the chemist that put this stuff together. How do you find that? Because I can’t imagine that you can just go on fiber.com or something like that to find Lab people, I don’t know. Where do you find people like that?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:09:48]:

So I have a network. I’m in a couple business groups, so I reached out to some of my friends in there, And then also Google, the you really can kind of, you know, find people that make formulas and so forth. You can also start with private label. So my product is not private labeled. It’s completely proprietary, but I had private labeled Items before for Strut, for my brick and mortar stores. So then I talked to them and I asked them first if they would formulate something for me. They said they don’t do that. That That’s strictly all they do.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:10:20]:

That’s why their price point’s low, and they can sell you 24 versus when I did unveil. I had to buy 5,000 units.

James [00:10:27]:

Oh, wow. You’re talking bottles or jars?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:10:30]:

Yes. Yes.

James [00:10:31]:

5,000. Ready or not?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:10:32]:

The minimum. That’s the minimum. And that means, And I’m a very small fish still. You know? I mean, they’re they’re wanting 50,000 units before you even start getting price breaks.

James [00:10:42]:

Wow. Oh.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:10:43]:

Then you learn about lead times, and then you learn about every ingredient takes a different amount of time, and then each cap, each, you know, lid, the the label, there’s so many pieces pieces that go into it. And many times, I was like, what am I doing? The stores are back open. We’re back away. You know? But I stayed focused on why I did it, which is what I told you is I wanted a larger audience. I wanted to be able to reach more People, I wouldn’t be here on your podcast without something like this. Right? Because this doesn’t I mean, it’s good because as I told you, I had my own for a while Helping salon owners, but this gives me a bigger reach and to talk about nontoxic beauty and to talk about, you know, What you put on your skin, on your body, your lotions, all that stuff goes in your body. And I know for myself until I really started digging into it, I didn’t think about that. I just Put whatever I wanted on my skin because it smelled good or looked prettier or whatever.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:11:38]:

And that’s a big deal, especially with, You know, toxins and stuff building up and metals and metallics, you really have to think about that because cancer is a big thing because I see it every day in my store, and they’re getting younger and younger.

James [00:11:51]:

Oh, interesting. That’s scary, really.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:11:54]:

It is really scary, and especially in San Diego, I get ladies in their thirties, You know, that are going through chemo, and they’ve never smoked, they’ve never eaten meat, they’re yoga, all they do is drink wheatgrass, and they’ve got cancer. And a lot of times right? And I’ll tell them, I’m like, you know, I think it’s environmental. And it could be all these other things that are in our house, like carpet or paint and and stuff. So if we can do one thing and this one thing that, actually really changes the way someone feels about themselves, Because hair is part of your identity, and that’s what I think sometimes even the doctors lose sight of with the, wigs because a lot of times they’re not covered Under cranial prosthesis, it’s viewed as cosmetic. It really makes a difference on how a woman feels and how she shows up. I know when my hair looks amazing, I show up totally different than when it’s in a, you know, ball on the top of my head. Right? We all do. You you feel great about yourself when you just gotten your haircut.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:12:52]:

Whatever. It really does make a difference.

James [00:12:54]:

Yeah. Totally. As much as we like to say that we’re not superficial like that, We’re totally we’re I mean, we’re visual creatures. That’s just the nature of the business like this as far as that goes.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:13:05]:

Exactly. And you see yourself with it.

James [00:13:08]:

Yeah. Absolutely. You just feel good when you when you look good, I guess, as far as I can.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:13:12]:

Yeah. Yeah.

James [00:13:14]:

So when you were tackling this well, let me back up a step. My sister, was dabbling into making her own makeup.

Speaker C [00:13:22]:

Okay. And because

James [00:13:23]:

of the same reasons that you mentioned, the toxins, the metals, all that kind of stuff. And And I was trying to understand why doesn’t or why hasn’t some big, huge conglomerate company come out with something safer. Is it cheaper to make stuff that’s less good? Or is it Yes. I guess I don’t even wanted to guess. You probably know. Yes. Can you help me understand

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:13:44]:

Yeah. Why

James [00:13:45]:

this stuff hasn’t already been out there?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:13:47]:

Well, it is cheaper. The ingredients are when you start getting into organic, it’s just like buying raspberries For for instance, right, organic raspberries always cost more than the regular raspberries. It’s the same thing with getting ingredients. Getting certified costs a lot. Like, we’re doing consumer perception studies now. We were also, when I I emailed my formulator, I’m like, what does it mean to say that we’re, You know, clinically or clinical products and all of this kind of stuff. There’s so many extra things that go into it. And if you throw 1 ingredient in there that’s not, Like, you know, we have probably, like, 30 things in there.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:14:22]:

It throws the whole thing off.

Speaker C [00:14:24]:

Oh, wow.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:14:24]:

So that’s where, You know, it gets very expensive. I think that a lot of them, though, are getting on that train now, especially like animal testing and all of that. You know? People don’t want that anymore. Like, we have we’re cruelty free, we’re gluten free because that’s another thing here in San Diego. Gluten’s a big deal. A lot of People are sensitive to it or don’t wanna, you know, absorb it. They don’t want it in their hair products, which blew my mind, but I have a client Here, and when we did the private label shampoo, first thing she asked me was, was there gluten in there? And I was like, what does that matter?

James [00:14:58]:

She’s like,

Speaker C [00:14:58]:

well, you know,

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:15:01]:

Exactly. But it matters. So I remembered that from a few years ago and made sure that the product was gluten free. So I just paid attention to what people were Saying, no matter how out there it was, I wanted to make sure it was inclusive for all those things that I heard.

James [00:15:16]:

Interesting. That is a lot to keep track of.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:15:19]:

Yes. Yes. Yes. It’s a little overwhelming.

James [00:15:25]:

When you when I look at the back of a shampoo bottle, I see water and a few other ingredients that I can pronounce. And then below that, I see many, many very large words that I imagine have some kind of Latin in them or something like that. Yes. So and there were there was a time way back when when I thought it’d be fun to look up what each of these ingredients does, and why it does what it does.

Speaker C [00:15:49]:

Yes.

James [00:15:50]:

So and a lot of times, The information that I found was not necessarily uplifting. You’re like, oh, that’s not great. Right. So how do you accomplish the goal of is Is it hair growth or hair rejuvenation? Or

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:16:04]:

Yeah. Well, technically, I can’t say hair growth because that’s making a medical claim. So we, yes. So I and that’s the other thing, is I’ve had to hire attorneys to scrub my labels, to make sure that I don’t make any claims. So we promote hair growth.

James [00:16:20]:

Okay.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:16:20]:

We don’t. We don’t grow it, I guess, to to to be clear. It’s so funny, right, because you have to be so careful of what you Say, I heard a really funny story from the attorney. So I guess this lady bought some bust lift cream, And it said instant lift. So she buys it, uses it, I guess, for, like, a week. Didn’t lift her bus. She sued the company and won because it said instant bust lift. So I always think of that when I’m writing something down.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:16:54]:

Like, you have to be So careful because there’s that 1 person out there. I mean, really, really, you think it’s gonna instantly do it?

James [00:17:00]:

You just watch and pop up it goes.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:17:02]:

But that’s what they said.

James [00:17:04]:

Wow.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:17:06]:

Yes.

James [00:17:06]:

That is great.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:17:07]:

We say promote thicker, fuller a thicker, fuller head of hair.

James [00:17:12]:

Okay.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:17:12]:

Which is so generic, and I hated it, but my attorney’s like, that’s the best thing you can do. You know, I had Target’s causes of hair loss and all this, like, cool stuff, he said. Yeah. I wouldn’t do that.

James [00:17:23]:

Alright. It’s just that he notes it.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:17:26]:

Right.

James [00:17:27]:

Interesting. So is that an FDA thing, or who’s making that, distinction, or says you can’t make that distinction?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:17:34]:

The lawyers.

James [00:17:35]:

The law So the idea is that they don’t want somebody to say, hey. I use this product, and it didn’t do I didn’t instantly lift my butt or something

Speaker C [00:17:45]:

like that. Right.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:17:46]:

Right. Yeah. So

James [00:17:47]:

Gotcha. Where promote is a vague enough term. Yes. It’d be tough to define like, hey, this my hair didn’t get promoted.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:17:54]:

Exactly. Yes. So we stay very big. Yes. But Interesting. Like I said, that’s why I’m doing the perception studies because it it does work, And so, that’s where the consumer perception studies is that so we’re we’ve hired a company out of LA to where, you know, a 100 people are gonna be using it and then they’ll Say, you know, 90% of them noticed, you know, new hair after 6 weeks because that’s kind of your hair growth cycle is 90 days. So what we have on the bottle That I’m okay with is in 6 weeks, you should start noticing your hair feeling thicker, stronger, less breakage, Less shedding because it’s anti shedding, anti breakage, and promotes the hair growth. And then in 90 days, you should start seeing the little vellus, little baby hairs coming in Because it take because every hair on your head’s in a different hair growth cycle.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:18:45]:

So you have so that’s why it takes you know, usually, you need to go through 3 3 bottles at least, Which would take you about 6 months to actually see a big difference. So we’re really big on taking photographs because a lot of times you forget what it looked like originally 6 months later. So Yeah.

Speaker C [00:19:03]:

You know

James [00:19:03]:

what’s interesting that you say that because I wanted to ask, how do you know if you’re growing hair? Is it Are you measuring? I can’t imagine somebody’s counting the hairs on your head. Maybe they are.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:19:11]:

I don’t know. Well, there’s there’s companies you can pay to do that, by the way.

James [00:19:15]:

Oh, really?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:19:16]:

Yes. Yes.

James [00:19:17]:

Okay. Are they looking at a little spot, like a, I don’t know, 3 inch square spot, and then just multiplying that times ahead and

Speaker C [00:19:24]:

Yes. Figure it out?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:19:25]:

They actually magnify it, and you can see the follicles. And then they put, like, a little tattoo right there, and then they just keep counting it over and over. Yeah.

Speaker C [00:19:34]:

Alright. Yeah. Interesting.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:19:35]:

So you can. I don’t ask my clients to do that. I just tell you to take pictures.

James [00:19:39]:

Alright. Just look in the mirror if you see anything good.

Speaker C [00:19:42]:

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:19:44]:

So I

James [00:19:44]:

imagine a lot I guess the concern is that it’s to a point subjective Yes. So that you want them to take pictures so that they know, hey. Before or after, is that a clear distinction?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:19:55]:

Yes. So you

James [00:19:55]:

know that it’s working?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:19:57]:

Yes.

James [00:19:57]:

So is the idea that once they get it going, they have to use the product indefinitely? Or is this something that once we’re good, we’re good? Or Tell me how that works.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:20:06]:

So there’s no cure for hair loss, at least not yet. So, yes, it’s like toothpaste. You’re gonna have to just keep it in the bathroom and keep using it because whatever your trigger is And the interesting thing that I’ve learned with this is it’s almost like a road map. So for instance, with a woman per se. She’s gonna be having babies, and so she’s post pregnancy, so she’s gonna need it. She’s shedding. Then after that, she’s in her thirties, she’s married, she’s stressed, she’s gonna need it. Then COVID happens, she’s stressed, she’s gonna need it.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:20:38]:

Now she’s perimenopausal, she’s gonna need it, she’s about to hit menopause. Then after menopause or hair changes. You almost need it the whole time because there’s all these different factors. Well, if you stop using it, it’s like dieting. You lost Wait. You quit eating the donuts, then you go back to the donuts, and you gain the weight again. And then we did the same thing for men. Right? So now you guys have DHT, you have higher Prostherone.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:21:01]:

So then you have different times where that spikes because you go through hormone changes too. Plus you’re married, now there’s 3 kids, you’re stressed, they’re screaming, so your hair start Shedding, you lost a parrot, you lost an ant, all these different things. Stress is one of the number one things besides genetics that can cause hair loss. Stress Yes.

Speaker C [00:21:21]:

Stress is huge.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:21:23]:

Stress stress is gonna kill you. I mean,

James [00:21:26]:

you’re probably not

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:21:28]:

wrong. It’s a big deal. And and for me now with having 3 businesses, I’m very keen on watching that because I get overwhelmed and stressed with so much stuff going on, and I work really hard to have, like, a really strict morning routine to ground myself before my day starts and my staffs at me and Customers and all these things and deadlines because there’s so much, and I know that that’s so important to also take those breaks in there. And that’s really good for your hair, so we also had a candle. It’s called unwind. And the reason I did the candle was for that. A lot of the stuff I kinda built even around myself, you know, thinking about, okay, how can I remind myself to relax? How can I remind myself? Set the mood. It’s okay.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:22:11]:

You know? All these things that got us where we’re at, James, That that shows that we’ve got this. Whatever’s here, we did all of this, and so here we are. And so remember to light that candle. Set that mood because candles actually bring your stress down. And so we’re using coconut wax in it so that that way it doesn’t have chemicals in the, candles, And then it smells like our shampoos. We have a signature scent of bourbon, mandarin, and vanilla. So that was unisex.

James [00:22:42]:

Alright.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:22:43]:

And so when you come in our stores, we have it you know, the candles lit, and then you’re like, oh, that smells so good. Well, that’s what our champagne’s gonna smell like when it comes out.

James [00:22:52]:

That’s cool. Are those scents together, or are those 3

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:22:54]:

Yeah. No. They’re together. It’s a blend.

James [00:22:57]:

Oh, that sounds cool. That sounds like a good drink.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:23:00]:

Right? I had to put the bourbon in for you guys.

James [00:23:03]:

I appreciate that. We’re big fans. So tell me about the candle. When are you lighting that candle then?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:23:11]:

So I light the candle in the evenings or when I’m working. I am very much a spiritual person, and I believe that that fire gives me creative energy. So when I’m reading all those labels and looking up all those words I don’t understand, I light the candle because it just kind of lifts up my mood. And then at night, if I take a bath or whatever to soak my legs and stuff, then I put the candle on. So I use it, you know, couple times a week.

James [00:23:36]:

Alright.

Speaker C [00:23:37]:

That’s cool.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:23:38]:

That’s very cool. Yeah. Yeah.

James [00:23:40]:

So tell me the employees that you had that were afraid to come back, did they end up going away forever, or did they eventually come back? Or how did that work?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:23:49]:

All my team came back.

James [00:23:51]:

They did. Well, congrats to that.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:23:53]:

Thank you. I sent gift baskets and, you know, really, we did still weekly staff meetings and stuff. They were afraid, you know, a lot of people, you know, of COVID and being around customers and stuff. So I you know, since we were all social distancing, it was just my daughter and I. So I wasn’t out and about, and I was very careful since I was working with people with compromised immune systems. So I would just go in the shop, help them, and leave. And I didn’t feel nervous around them because, Like I said, they were immune compromised, so I know they weren’t out and about. And I never got COVID during that time, and so it was It was fine.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:24:28]:

So, yeah, everybody came back that June. We opened back at June 1st in both stores, so I lost no one. And that was really good. That felt that felt good. That really took my leadership to a whole another level. I was a co author in a book, Lead Like A Woman with my friend Andrea, Houston. And one of the things in there that I was talking about is how going through something like that, and I think at the time then I had 8 people, Keeping them positive, feeling good, that they had job security, they had a place to come back to. I wasn’t upset that they didn’t wanna work in the store.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:25:02]:

I I was disappointed, but I wasn’t upset. You know? Like, it’s okay. I understand. And understanding that I had 8 people that all felt differently how this How COVID is. I’m sure all of your listeners, right, everybody had a different opinion. So I had to be okay with that and and and understand stand someone else’s size. So that was really cool to play that neutral with it. But for me, I had bills to pay, and I was going to work.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:25:28]:

Oh, you know?

Speaker C [00:25:29]:

Amen to that. Yeah. Yeah.

James [00:25:31]:

I can remember with my crew, I felt like there wasn’t great leadership around us on Any level.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:25:39]:

K.

James [00:25:40]:

So I with my crew, I felt or I guess the way that I understood it, they had a lot of fear. They didn’t know what was going on.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:25:47]:

Exactly.

James [00:25:48]:

And so I’m like, we gotta just lead them and say, this is what’s gonna happen. Right? I made a promise to you when I hired you that you’d have a job. You got a job. We’re cool. We’ll figure this out. It’s not the end of the world, though a lot of people want to preach that it was.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:26:01]:

Yeah. Exactly.

James [00:26:02]:

We’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it out.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:26:03]:

And Exactly. It worked. It worked.

James [00:26:06]:

Yeah.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:26:07]:

Rob. And that’s what people are looking for. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. They’re just looking for someone to tell them it’s gonna be okay.

James [00:26:12]:

Mhmm.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:26:12]:

And that and that’s kind of you know, I just hired someone new. She started yesterday, actually, in my San Diego store. And one of the things she said to me, she’s like, I’ve seen you for the last 12 years here. I’ve seen you. And I said, exactly. We’re not going anywhere. I I’m looking for people that want a home. And then that makes them feel good that they know.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:26:31]:

And then when COVID happened, I had already been through 2008, 2009, 2010, so I leaned on that. And Actually, during that time was how I was able to afford to move to San Diego. Because coming from Fresno, it’s way cheaper. It’s like the least expensive Part of our state, farming town, because my grandparents were farmers. And in 2011, I moved to San Diego and actually signed a 10 year lease, and everybody’s always like, You signed it even your eyes. You signed a 10 year lease.

Speaker C [00:27:00]:

Right?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:27:00]:

And I said, I was going for broke coming from Fresno to move to a metropolitan city like this. I was like, I have nothing. What’s he gonna take from me? I’m just I’m going all in. And that’s what I do is I burn my boats. I cave, and now I’ve been here 12 years in his location and, Yeah. It was just finding somebody that you’d take a chance we both took a chance on each other.

James [00:27:21]:

Alright. Landlord and you, essentially?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:27:23]:

Yeah. Exactly. Well, because I had looked at some other spaces When I decided I wanted to move here, and one of them said they would lease to me, but because I was from Fresno, they didn’t think I’d make it, so they wanted a double deposit.

Speaker C [00:27:36]:

Wow. And I

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:27:36]:

said I can’t move in here with that kind of energy on me. Like

James [00:27:39]:

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:27:41]:

Then another word

James [00:27:42]:

gonna fail? That’s crazy.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:27:45]:

And her space is right down the street from mine, and she’s turned over at least 2 or 3 times in the 12 years I’ve been at Myspace. So every time I drive by, I smile. They’re like, you lost that. Uh-huh. And then the other one, which was in Del Mar, he wanted 50,000 cash after I opened. So I had money to open, and then he’s like, I need that sitting there to make sure I could pay the rent. And I said no. And so then the guy, Marty, that I ended up leasing with, he just he he fell in love with me and my daughter and the dream, And, yeah, I took the chance, and the rest is history.

James [00:28:22]:

So far so good. Right?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:28:24]:

Yeah. So far

Speaker C [00:28:25]:

so good. Awesome. Yeah.

James [00:28:27]:

Did any of your people, your employees, did they transition over to help you helping you with, I I wanna say chemicals out of the, the hair care stuff or the the Internet stuff where they’re doing the the local stuff, and then you have other people doing the

Speaker C [00:28:45]:

Yeah. Nationwide.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:28:46]:

A whole new different team.

James [00:28:48]:

Gotcha.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:28:48]:

So, my salespeople for Strut Consultants, they’re they’re pretty much in that. This is a whole different business. This is ecommerce versus brick and mortar. So it really doesn’t transcend, and I’m lucky enough that my my team in the stores are so busy, they couldn’t help me even if they wanted to because I need them to service the people walking in the store. So I have, 2 full time people that work with me on the social media team and the influencer outreach and all that. Then I have a PR firm that I hired back in September, then I have an SEO slash ads guy that works with me, then I have the 2 attorneys, and I have my formulators. So I and Vail has its own its own team, so I manage both sides.

James [00:29:32]:

Wow. So how do you juggle your time between the 2? Because I imagine there’s headaches with both.

Speaker C [00:29:39]:

Yes. 1 or 2?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:29:41]:

Yes. The people on each side are really good people.

James [00:29:47]:

Okay.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:29:48]:

And they and they believe in what we’re doing on both sides. This side really wants to help The, you know, the clients that are struggling with their hair loss that need wigs and so forth. And, you know, I have store managers, they wanna grow in that area. We have front desk, but then they move into sales. So they have a trajectory that they can go there. And if they ever wanted to come on this And if they ever wanted to get into digital marketing, because really that’s what I am now, not only a formulator, all I study now is digital marketing. Right? We’ve got these products. I’ve gotta get them out online, which is very different than what I’ve done brick and mortar.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:30:22]:

You know? I’d knock on doors. Right? Now this is a I can’t go knock on doors. Then this side believes in this business. Like, I was on the phone with the PR company before I came, and the main lady Martha was telling me how great her hair looked and how she Saw new baby hairs, and her hair is growing so fast and how happy she is. And we were talking about that’s amazing because if you don’t believe in it, how are you gonna pitch me and my product If you don’t love my product.

Speaker C [00:30:47]:

Right.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:30:47]:

So they love Unveil, and they believe in the vision, and they’re passionate about it. So that That’s what’s that’s really cool is I have a really great team on those sides that support me.

James [00:30:57]:

That is awesome. That has gotta be rare. Yeah. I know that I lost most of my hair from employees, so kudos to you. Good tea.

Speaker C [00:31:06]:

I’m assuming employees. I know.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:31:08]:

Oh, they caused me to wanna pull my hair out too. There’s extensions in here as well.

Speaker C [00:31:12]:

Oh, nice. I thought we’re all good.

James [00:31:16]:

Tell me about the one thing that I talk to people that do food is the packaging, the size of the bottles, what what the material, whether it’s glass or plastic Yes. Squeeze bottle versus a cap and all that kind of stuff. Tell me about how you figured all that out.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:31:32]:

That was that was like I was saying about the components. Right?

James [00:31:35]:

Mhmm.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:31:35]:

So we’re using glass bottles because I’m trying to stay sustainable. My daughter, as I mentioned before, is 26, So she’s in that generation of everything is you know, really has nothing in it, so how do you even have a product? Right?

James [00:31:48]:

Right.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:31:48]:

So she She was very much my sounding board because she was living with me at the time during COVID. So we decided on the glass bottles. And I actually like that. I think it’s better. I couldn’t find the, a sustainable, sprayer, which we are looking on because my serum’s actually a spray. But we did find our scalp brush, and it is made out of wheatgrass, So it’s actually biodegradable. And as I said with the candle, it’s glass, and then it’s got the coconut wax in it. So everything that we’re bringing out so So as I’m working on the shampoo, we’re using, like, bamboo for our, our lids.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:32:27]:

So as you unscrew it, And then we’re doing the squeeze, and we’re using recycled plastic because I can’t really do glass, shampoo, and stuff. So we’re trying to do all of these kinds of things and then the labels and so forth. So, yeah, everything I’m doing, our boxes are, biodegradable That we have the, product in. So yes. And all that costs more. So what you were saying about with, like, the big companies and stuff is I’m trying to source all of these things. When you use recycled, when you use a 100% cotton, anytime you do those kinds of things, they charge more for it.

James [00:33:01]:

Mhmm. And just the scale of getting 5,000 versus Whatever, 5,000,000 bottles of

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:33:08]:

Right.

James [00:33:08]:

Whatever it is that competition is.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:33:11]:

Yes. So I pay much more now for 5,000 than once I hit I think the next Benchmarker, they told me it was, like, 25 or something. So they’re big jumps as you go. And then what’s interesting is you’re buying, like, the the lids, And they’ll sell you 10,000 lids but 5,000 bottles. Or you have to buy 8,000 stickers, but you only have 5,000. So then you always end up with Sure. So 12 months Yes. 12

James [00:33:36]:

months, 8 hot dogs. Right?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:33:38]:

Yes. Exactly. It’s so crazy. So it’s the same thing with this. You can’t you can’t make it all kind of line up, so then that’s kind of a bummer because it it’s a little bit of waste, but, We’re using that in case, you know, maybe a bottle breaks or something happens, then we can redo it. So it’s okay.

James [00:33:56]:

Alright. So from a manufacturing point of view, does the where does this the chemicals come together? Is that you guys in a kitchen somewhere, or is it Some guy with a 55 gallon drum, or is it in some mad scientist factory somewhere? How does it all work?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:34:12]:

He’s in that factory somewhere.

Speaker C [00:34:14]:

Alright.

James [00:34:15]:

For it to end up in a bottle in someone’s hand, take me from whatever chemical places to the finished product. How does that all flow together?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:34:24]:

Yeah. So, the I’m lucky with the final chemist that I ended up with actually works At this place where they actually put the stuff together. So they’re a turnkey company, so they actually do everything. So, the chemist is there. They have all the machines and everything. They’re in Arizona, and then they ship me the final product. I actually have the label shipped to them, the box ship to them, and then they do all of that together. So they allow you to do that so I can have less touch points.

James [00:34:55]:

Wow. That’s incredible.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:34:58]:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, this last time though, the see, and then you have to time everything. The the packaging wasn’t actually ready When the bottles were done and I wanted them so fast, they sent me the bottles and were actually hand stuffing this first 5,000 bottles because I couldn’t get them the The boxes in time and anyway. So it’s a lot. I get it. So worth it. It’s it’s so amazing, and it’s such a journey.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:35:25]:

And When those bottles landed last October, I mean, it was, like, giving birth again. It was

James [00:35:31]:

Oh, amazing. Funny. Yeah. It’s just funny. It’s gotta be cool feeling.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:35:35]:

Yes. To have something that you totally did from scratch, it’s amazing. Yeah.

James [00:35:39]:

Yeah. To go through all that. So this product has been on the market for a little over a year. Is that right?

Speaker C [00:35:46]:

Yeah.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:35:46]:

Yeah.

James [00:35:47]:

Alright. And what is tell me about You have this product. You have these bottles. How do you transition into getting those in front of people and actually moving product?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:35:57]:

So I’m very lucky since I have my stores. That was one of the first ways we started moving them. So that’s why I didn’t worry about the packaging because I just as soon as the product was ready and approved. I wanted it in the stores. So that’s one of our main ways that we sell it. Also, my trunk, I did, like, $20,000 in 3 months last year just Selling. As soon as I would meet someone and I’m like, oh, I’ve got this hair product or they’d say something about my hair, literally, I just go to my car like the Mary Kay lady lift my trunk up and I’m like, here you go.

Speaker C [00:36:26]:

Oh, that’s awesome.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:36:27]:

My Venmo blew up. Yeah.

James [00:36:31]:

That’s not a bad thing. Right?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:36:32]:

No. This you know what? People you I always like guerilla marketing was always one of my biggest things, especially when I started so long ago and I didn’t have any money at all. It was getting out there, and however you can sell it, you sell it when you’re starting. Plus, this was my 1st order, so I was doing still proof of concept. Because one of my mentors told me, if you can’t sell 5,000, you don’t actually have a business.

James [00:36:58]:

Not wrong. Yeah.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:36:59]:

Right? So because when I was like, oh my god. That’s so many. He’s like, no. You need to be able to sell that thing. So that was pretty awesome. And then what else? So then we get the product, and then I, got the website done. That took longer than I thought. So that was supposed to be done in August of last year.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:37:18]:

Didn’t get done until June of this year, which is when our ads started.

James [00:37:22]:

Woah. That’s a timeline lapse. Holy cow.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:37:26]:

2 different people.

Speaker C [00:37:28]:

Oh, no.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:37:29]:

2 different people. So, you know, the things just keep hitting, and that’s where I think people get knocked off. Right? Every every thing I did, there was always a moment to quit. It’s like, you know, the guy promised me the website. It’s a Shopify site, for goodness sakes. It can’t be that difficult. Right. You know, 3 months later, and my you know, we started in August.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:37:48]:

My product was coming in, October, so well, first, that was supposed to even be here in in in July. That was even late coming in, and then I still didn’t even have the boxes. So, like, your first thing you kind of learn, it’s like cooking. I’m trying to time all of these things together and none of it came together. So then, being my overachieving self, I’ve tried to be as patient as I can that there’s so when I can’t control it. And finally, that’s when you light the candle and you zen yourself because it’s like, I have no control over this.

James [00:38:19]:

Mhmm.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:38:20]:

I mean, this is what they’re doing, you know, like, with the website. And then even, like, Black Friday, this was our first 1st Black Friday, I started noticing the sales weren’t what I wanted them on Friday. And then one of my team members went on vacation, And I decided after that, nobody can go on vacation on Black Friday because I’m up at, like, 9 o’clock on Sunday changing our ad copy On the Shopify site, you know, it’s like you just have to be willing to go. And then the orders started spiking on Monday for our Cyber Monday. I was like, that wasn’t good enough, You know? So then I, you know, I realized we didn’t change the homepage banner and all this stuff, and then I was like, damn. Whose job is that? There’s 4 of us. 4 of us didn’t realize? Oh, so so then, you know, my mom’s like, that’s okay. You know, you just write it all down and you know for next year, like, but That’s not the point.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:39:11]:

4 of us because she’s like, well, you know, you guys should have said and thought about it. And, like, we have a whole calendar. Like, we we had it all mapped out. How did this get missed? But I caught it, and I fixed it. So that’s the thing. You gotta just get in there, and, you know, like I said, that’s that’s the founder’s job. Right? 9 o’clock on my Sunday, and then, wax, sales went right through the roof.

James [00:39:32]:

Yeah. That’s funny. I always joke with my crew. I’m like, you guys get to punch in and out. I punched in once, and I’m still waiting to punch out.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:39:41]:

Yes. You’re

James [00:39:42]:

in it. You’re in it.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:39:43]:

You’re in it. Then I wouldn’t know what to do with myself now. I’ve been punched in for 21, almost 22 years. What would I do On a Sunday.

Speaker C [00:39:50]:

I get it.

James [00:39:51]:

I get it.

Speaker C [00:39:52]:

Get it? Yeah. There’s,

James [00:39:53]:

I suppose I don’t mean this offensively, but to myself as well. There’s a little bit of ego involved there. Just like any any entrepreneur, we just feel like we can do it better because we can. And so I mean, I don’t know if it’s ego or you’re just I don’t know. Whatever. You have the experience, the drive, whatever it takes to make it happen, but you also have the experience and drive to make it happen because your employees may not necessarily or not even be aware.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:40:20]:

Well, then it’s ours. Mhmm. They’re not checking it Sunday night. I was. Yeah. I saw something was wrong, And so then I changed it.

James [00:40:29]:

That is interesting that you just changed a little bit of copy, and that was enough to move the needle.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:40:34]:

Yeah. Well, copy is huge. Right? The offer just wasn’t compelling enough. We were doing a, buy 1 bottle, buy 1 serum, get the scalp brush free, And it was converting, but just not you know, I had made goals, and it wasn’t hitting those goals, and then I went to 25% off-site wide. And then whack, up it went for for Cyber Monday. So, you know, we as a team thought, oh, that sounds so great because we want them to get the brush to go along with it. We’ll give them that free. That’s a $14 value.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:41:02]:

They actually get more off with the brush unless they order a whole bunch than the 25% off. But it sounds bigger.

Speaker C [00:41:11]:

Sure.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:41:11]:

So it actually works to my benefit. But, yeah, I start seeing all these sitewide sitewide, and I’m looking, and I was like, That’s what we that’s what we needed, but it’s ours. I know what you mean about ego, and, of course, it is because the first thing everybody asks me is how’s your Black Friday going? How’s your weekend going? Yeah. It’s my ego. But number 2, it’s my business. They are our employees. Now I do bonus my teams. The more we make, what they do, and as it increases sales, then I give them a piece of it because I want them to watch too.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:41:41]:

Mhmm. I want them to see, Hey. That’s not converting. That’s gonna affect my check too. So, apparently, I need to give them a bigger bonus. They weren’t watching.

James [00:41:51]:

Oh, that’s funny. I just interviewed a guy talk telling about ESOPs and stuff like that, and I was trying to navigate how you bonus employees or give employees enough of a piece, but it’s based on how the company does each month so that they’re motivated to actually do their job.

Speaker C [00:42:07]:

Yeah. What you want them

James [00:42:08]:

to do. Yeah. Yeah. Challenging, but, I mean, that’s that’s the game that we play that’s in it.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:42:12]:

Exactly. Exactly.

James [00:42:14]:

What have you seen over the course of the year? I imagine that you’ve seen like, hey, This I don’t know. This packaging isn’t working or this the way that we ship it isn’t working or something like that. What have been some of the challenges logistically that you didn’t necessarily know were gonna be a thing?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:42:29]:

Well, I’m gonna show you on the packaging that wasn’t working. So this is very hard to read, And they wouldn’t send me the label. And so what happened was when I got it, I went, you can’t read that. Now keep in mind, I got these before I got the boxes. And so I’ve got 5,000 of not as readable as I wanted, and so it happens. Like, They sent me a photo, and on the photo, it shined. So I was like, oh, okay. That looks great.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:42:56]:

And I’m like, are you sure, like, when this sits by itself on a display, it’s gonna show? Oh, yeah. It’s gonna Great. I get it, and I was like, who approved this? Have you guys ever worked in retail? Like, that’s not gonna work. So now now it’s boxed, So it it it’s fine. And then I learned about double brushstroking. Like, the thing is is you learn as you go. It’s gonna keep, You’re gonna keep making iterations. Next time, we’re gonna wrap it all the way up to the top because also it didn’t fill all the way.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:43:22]:

I guess glass bottles have different, Waits and they go by weight because the way it’s blown. And when they came, some of them were down below the line and I said, oh, that’s not gonna work because remember I had all my boxes. I said they all look different levels while they’re sitting in the store. People aren’t gonna grab those. Oh, well, blah blah blah, the wait thing or something. Well, then I learned about that and I said, well, we’re gonna wrap those all the way to the top now. And so you just have to have forgiveness on these 1st couple runs, but the The pill is is you’ve got so many of them in those 1st runs.

James [00:43:54]:

Oh, sure. So you got a bunch of the wrong ones.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:43:57]:

You know, but well but you know what, though? They were great. They took them back. They took my whole pallet at their expense, grabbed the pallet back, Build them up for me and sent them back because I said I’ll never order from you then I’d have been on formulator number 4. But they took them back, so He redeemed himself. But Alright. You know, it’s stuff like that that, you know but I pushed on it. I mean, I was like, hey. That’s your job to tell me.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:44:21]:

How would I know That it’s based on the weight, and the glass is all different versus plastic. So there’s so many different things when you’re doing it. It’s, My my brain, like, wants to explode.

James [00:44:34]:

I get it. I totally get it. I can imagine, you know, it’s interesting. The guy took him back, took a whole pallet back.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:44:41]:

He

James [00:44:41]:

did. Either he just understands, hey. We messed up, so we gotta eat it. Or he’s like, this lady’s gonna be making trillions of bottles. We’d better make it right.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:44:51]:

Yeah. Probably both. Probably a little bit of both.

James [00:44:53]:

Yeah. Kudos to you for that. That’s awesome.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:44:56]:

Yeah. Thank you.

James [00:44:57]:

Yeah. So where can people find this?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:45:00]:

So, online, unveilhaircare.com, and we do have, a code for your listeners. Nice. Just type in James. They can get 20% off, and we’re gonna have that live from for 30 days from the date that you air this.

James [00:45:18]:

Oh, very cool. Well, thank you for that.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:45:19]:

That’s impressive. Course. Yeah. Of course. We wanna get everybody having fabulous air.

James [00:45:25]:

Yeah. I you know, it’s interesting. I look in the mirror. Well, I got a camera, a security camera recently, and I was looking at a video because it said motion detected. Right? And turns out it was me. But I’m like, who’s that bald guy? Because the camera’s up there. Right? I’m like,

Speaker C [00:45:41]:

oh my gosh.

James [00:45:43]:

That is Well, I’m

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:45:44]:

gonna have to send you a bottle. Give it a whirl. And when I tell people to manage expectations so here’s the thing, because my mom uses it. She was kind of the reason why I started Strut. My mom was struggling with thinning hair and, was, you know, playing in wigs and all of that stuff. Well, With unveil, she wanted to use it. And I said, why are you gonna use this? You wear the wigs and stuff. And she’s like, well, I just wanna try and see what it will do.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:46:09]:

It’s actually made her hair thicker, more manageable to where she feels like now if somebody, like, knocks on the door or something, she doesn’t even have to put Put her wig on. Like, I cut her hair not long ago, and she’s like, oh, it’s like an actual little style. Now will she go out to dinner and take photos and all that? No. She wants to wear her wig, but she loves it, and she knows the difference. So, basically, what I tell people is it doesn’t give you hair you never have. My mom will never have my hair. I got it from my dad luckily, so that that’s not gonna happen. However, it did make her hair Go back about 5 or 6 years, and that made her feel amazing, and it feels thicker.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:46:47]:

It, like, kinda changed the texture of her hair because the caffeine and niacin coat the hair, So it immediately makes your hair feel and appear thicker. Just the existing hair that you’ve got. Then it helps with breakage. Because myself, being in my forties now, you know, your hair starts breaking and you notice women, they’ll have thick hair on the top, but then the bottom starts thinning out. So it helps with that. So it helps with breakage. It also is recovering our grays and all that. And then the shedding because of all those different things.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:47:15]:

So her hair stopped Shedding is nuts. She showed me in her brush. Look. I don’t have any hair on me and all this. I was like, wow. That’s so cool. Wow. Yeah.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:47:23]:

It’s It’s really it’s really cool with that. So even, like, for yourself, I’m not gonna tell you, you know, you’re gonna have you heard that you did when you were 20, but if I can take you back about 10 years and make it to where No more comes out because what happens is as we get older, that’s just a natural progression for most people. I mean, there are those guys that have thick, full hair when they’re older, but most don’t. And then it starts just slowly deteriorating, and this will help with that with, like I said, that follicle minuturization And the DHT blocking and so forth.

James [00:47:54]:

Interesting.

Speaker C [00:47:55]:

Yeah. I’m excited now. Yeah. I keep

James [00:47:59]:

having to blame my employees.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:48:03]:

But you can still blame them for that too, but I won’t

James [00:48:06]:

That’s you’re probably not wrong. I guess that was something from anyways.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:48:11]:

You know, they do their best. It’s they’re like kids. Right? It’s like you know, it’s just it’s a lot.

Speaker C [00:48:17]:

Yeah. Yeah. I get it.

James [00:48:18]:

I get it. That’s cool. Tell me I just I know we don’t have a ton of time here, but I wanted to talk about shipping because that seems to be like it’s a small world until you wanna ship something. Yeah. And then it gets to be a very large expensive world. Yeah. Tell me, especially with the glass bottles and stuff like that, has that been challenging trying to find ways to ship affordably or quickly or without breakage?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:48:42]:

Yes. Yeah. The box helps, And then we have this really cool, like, green, it’s like the stuffing that looks really neat, and we put it in a bag. I had these really little bags made so that the unboxing is lovely. So we put the box and the bag and the stuffing. So we actually haven’t had that problem. The big problem we have, actually, A friend of mine just placed an order, and I shipped it to him. And then he said it said it was delivered in his mailbox, and then it wasn’t there.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:49:11]:

And I’ve had that happen with someone else too. So where did the package go? I dropped it off. They it says that it got delivered, and then I don’t know if it went to a neighbor, and then the neighbor decided to keep it or how that went. So that’s been a challenge. Is then I, of course, I reship it to whoever it is, but eating those costs have been more. Those ones I told you most of the people aren’t in California, So the shipping’s a lot higher. I ship a lot to the East Coast, and then we put it in a really nice box. So that’s been kind of expensive.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:49:43]:

I also kept my, Shipping in house. I’m not using a three p l. I wanted to personally touch a lot of the first ones. A lot of times, I’ll initial it. Oh, wow. And yeah. Yeah. Just right now while I hand, while it’s still small enough, you know, that I can do that.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:50:00]:

So I make sure, look, that everything goes out, has a cool little card, you know, with like I said, where I sign it personally or something. And, yeah, I think that’s really important Before I give that away and we get too big and lose that personal touch, because eventually, I won’t be able to do that.

James [00:50:15]:

Right. You just scale to the point that you can’t or it’s not reasonable to.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:50:19]:

Right. Yeah. So that helps with our cost. That manages a lot of my cost because I’ve got it in house at my store, and then my staff can do it. We check it. You know, some of those things with 3 p l’s, I had another friend that, her product was sent there. There was a problem with it. Well, she didn’t realize till some of it had already went out to customers.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:50:38]:

They complained, then they had to pull it out, see if I get it. When I saw that the sizing wasn’t right, I was able to do it right away because I saw it.

Speaker C [00:50:45]:

I’m not

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:50:46]:

having to wait yet, so I can quality control everything that comes in. Like, we have a supplement. So we have 3 product main products right now is our hair serum, The scalp brush and then our supplement because you also wanna do from the inside as you’re doing from the outside. And then our supplement is vegan because I’m So we have a vegan supplement. There’s no gelatin in it. There’s no shellfish in it, and it can actually replace your multivitamin. It’s bioavailable. So I learned all of these things when I was researching on this.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:51:15]:

So when you ingest tip with food, your body actually absorbs what it needs and then passes what it doesn’t. So that’s super huge that a lot of people don’t think about when they’re supplements because there’s really no regulation on it.

James [00:51:28]:

No. Not much at all.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:51:30]:

Not at all.

James [00:51:32]:

Interesting. Yeah. It’s fascinating. It’s fascinating on so many levels. Just when I think that I was busy, I meet someone like

Speaker C [00:51:39]:

you, and I’m like, oh, I must be bored.

James [00:51:45]:

That is cool. Well, Helena, I really appreciate you being on the show. Can you tell us the website one more time?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:51:51]:

Sure. Unveilhaircare.com.

James [00:51:54]:

Unveilhaircare.com. I love it.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:51:57]:

Oh, code James for 20% off.

James [00:52:00]:

Awesome. Thank you very much for that. That’s cool. I’m excited.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:52:03]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker C [00:52:04]:

What do

James [00:52:04]:

you see, I don’t know, 2, 3 years down the road? Are you gonna come up with more products, or what’s the What is, excuse me, your road map looking like?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:52:13]:

So, mostly just focusing on unveil. Eventually, I’m hoping to sell my stores to my team. I’d love them to buy me out. In, like, the next 5 years, I’d like to be out of strut And then run this baby for the for the next 20. And then I figured I’m in, like, 12th of 20. I got my 1st 20 with brick and mortar, 2nd 20 with, unveil. And then probably my last 20, I’ll do, you know, the give back with my, you know, coaching program I had and all of that, bring back on MBA and, help other people, you know, with their businesses and, you know, more philanthropy and stuff like that.

James [00:52:48]:

Yeah. That’s cool. Yeah?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:52:51]:

That

James [00:52:51]:

is impressive. So congrats on all that you have going on. I’m excited to check this out.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:52:56]:

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to, be here. Your Podcast is amazing, and I love all the shows. And you have some really interesting, topics that I think are very, poignant to where we’re at right now, especially in the world we live in.

James [00:53:10]:

We’ve had some cool guests, and you are definitely on that list. So I appreciate that.

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:53:14]:

Thank you.

James [00:53:15]:

This has been Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the Struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you’re listening or watching this on the web, You could do us a huge favor, give it a big old thumbs up, subscribe, and of course, share it with your entrepreneurial friends, especially those that may have some thinner hair due to employees, challenges, all the entrepreneurial headaches that happen. Right? 1 or 2? My name is James Keith, and And Authentic Business Adventures is brought to you by Calls On Call, offering call answering and receptionist services for service businesses across the country on the web at calls on call.com. And, of course, the bold business book, a book for the entrepreneur in all of us available wherever fine books are sold. We’d We’d like to thank you, our wonderful listeners, as well as our guest, Helena Gibson, owner, founder, chief super awesome woman of Unveil Restorative Hair Care. And, Helena, can you tell us that website one more time?

Helena Gibson – Unveil Restorative Hair [00:54:15]:

Sure. Unveilhaircare.com.

James [00:54:17]:

Awesome. Past episodes can be found morning, noon, and night. Podcast sync fun at draw in customers.com. Thank you for listening. We’ll see you next week. I want you to stay awesome. And if you do nothing else, enjoy your business.