Before there was Natural Kuruve, there was a girl learning to love her hair.  

Growing up, I didn't always love my hair.

For much of my childhood, my hair was relaxed. I remember sitting through relaxers that burned my scalp so badly they sometimes left it scabbed. At the time, natural hair wasn't celebrated the way it is today. It could be called messy, difficult, or unprofessional—and even in my own home, going natural wasn't something that was immediately embraced.

My hair was short, stiff, and barely moved. My edges were balding. I was bullied for it. And for a long time, I didn't feel confident in it. Eventually, I decided I'd had enough.

I did the big chop.

I felt free—but if I'm being truthful, freedom didn't immediately become confidence. Suddenly, I had almost no hair at all, and I had to learn how to see myself differently.

After I went natural, I wanted to grow my hair out, so I tried everything. Product after product, trend after trend, and I never knew what went where. Nothing my hair actually loved. The products were expensive, and my mom, understandably, wasn't buying them all. Wash day took the entire day. I hated doing my hair, and I didn't have any confidence.

After graduating high school in 2019, I began studying chemical engineering with a minor in chemistry. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I used my time at home to experiment with ingredients, formulas, textures, and techniques—determined to create the products my hair had been longing for.

I launched in August 2020, right at the start of my sophomore year. I was making products made-to-order straight out of my dorm room — mixing, pouring, labeling in between classes. My roommate Mikayla was right there with me, helping me in a space that was never, ever meant to be a lab.

I was a full-time student with a full course load and two part-time jobs, and somehow I was also running pop-up shops. Step one: a pink tablecloth. Step two: a table full of jars. Step three: hand your product to a stranger in a mask and hope they love it. Repeat, on top of classes and shifts, until I started to gain a following at school.

My parents asked me to stop making products in my dorm, so I packed up shop and brought production home to Houston. I started making bigger batches, and my parents became my first employees, packing and shipping every order. I don't know how I'd do it today without them.

I made the local news! WDBJ7 had me on to talk about Natural Kuru, the name we had before Kuruve. Sitting in that studio, telling the story of how I started a business in college and where it all began, is one of the moments I'm most grateful for, in my business and in my life. Making my parents proud made it even better.

I graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in chemical engineering and a minor in chemistry. Along the way I won two entrepreneurship awards, led an entrepreneurship workshop, and hosted an event where I gave out over 100 products to students. Not bad for someone who started out mixing in a dorm room.

I kept showing up: the NSBE convention in Chicago in 2025 and in Baltimore in 2026, farmers markets around Baltimore, and even my local Orangetheory. Different rooms, same folding table, and the same goal: put good hair care in people's hands.

This is my hair now, and this is Natural Kuruve, launching. The girl in those first photos didn't know if she'd ever feel good in her own hair. Today, I do. I've finally found my groove, and everything in this brand is built so you can find yours.

That's why Natural Kuru became Natural Kuruve: this next chapter is about finding your routine, your confidence, and your groove. These are the products I make, and after all these years of pop-ups, we're ready.

Find your Kuruve. Find your groove.