Assertion Supported
Ouidad Wise: Over 60% of people worldwide have curly hair
“Over 60% of people in this country have all over the world have curly hair.”
Assertion Contradicted
Ouidad Wise: No commercial curly hair products existed in the 1980s
“And there was nothing for curly hair out there, because the only thing that were out there that people knew how to manage their hair with was to put oil on it.”
Insight
Ouidad Wise: Properly served curly hair clients remain loyal for life
“A curly hair client becomes a client for a lifetime.”
Disclosure
Ouidad Wise banned her private equity partners from entering her salon
“And my poor partners were not allowed to set Foot in the salon. They were only allowed to be in the corporate office and whatever discussion they wanted to do was in the corporate office. No one was allowed to come into the salon. That was my domain, my kingdo…”
Insight
Ouidad Wise: Expanding niche hair SKUs fails without active consumer education
“And it took them Five years to understand in order for those extra SKUs to be sold, you couldn't just place them on the shelf. They had to be educated because they need to understand it, and you know, when you partner with an equity firm, they come in with the…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ouidad Wise and husband chose salon over restaurant via coin toss
“And then finally we came up with the idea. We'll flip a coin. If it's heads, It's salon. If it's sales, it is actually a restaurant, and we swore to each other we won't put our hands behind our back, cross our fingers, none of that, be really fully committed, …”
Disclosure
Ouidad: SBA provided $25,000 grant to help launch original salon
“Reagan was the president and he had just passed the law where he was allowing the SBA, which is the small business administration to grant little money for immigrant people to be able to open their businesses. And they gave us 25,000 dollars”
Assertion Partly supported
Wise: L'Oréal, Unilever, and Bumble and Bumble sought curl partnerships
“And then hair companies started coming after me and L'Oreal wanted me to work with them with their Garnier line and Bumble and Bumble were there. And then all of a sudden a lot of companies, Unilever I worked with. To help out with their product line in Latin …”
Assertion Supported
Ouidad Wise: 1970s salons required curly hair to be blown straight
“That's all they knew. At the time, the media, the newscasters, all the everything, the magazines were all blonde hair blown out and straight. Maybe some were brunette. Once in a while, you get a redhead, and if somebody came in with curly hair, the first thing…”
Disclosure
Wise: Rejected 10-Year Exclusive Agency Contract Early in Career
“So they had asked me to sign a 10 year contract to which I would be on there. I couldn't do anything and just work with them. And so I refused to sign a contract, and I was thrown into the streets.”
Disclosure
Ouidad Wise banned staff from speaking to each other before clients
“Everything was catered around the customer. Every little detail was thought about how we serve them. How we weren't allowed to speak to each other in front of the clients. We did a lot of eye signals because it was their space. We weren't allowed to pass anyth…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ouidad grew early direct-response business via client catalogs and magazine ads
“We printed up a catalog for our own clients, and then once it started, we started making a little bit more money we can afford to advertise. We started advertising in back pages of magazines where they have that, like, small eighth of a page ad, and we used to…”
Disclosure
Ouidad Wise lived apart from her family on weekdays for 16 years
“I, in return, stayed in the city for five days and went home on the weekends. So I would get on the train early Tuesday morning, get to New York, stay in New York till Saturday after work, get on a train, and go back to Connecticut. And we did that for almost …”
