Candace Harris, founding father of MYAVANA, is revolutionizing the wonder business together with her AI-powered hair evaluation device. Because of her journey to grasp her pure hair, Harris, a pc science main from Georgia Tech, has created a platform that empowers girls to embrace their distinctive hair sorts and discover the perfect merchandise for his or her hair care wants.
Why did you get into the wonder enterprise?
It began after I was in school, going pure and simply rediscovering my hair once more as a result of I wore a relaxer since I used to be a younger woman. Relearning my hair took me on a path of attempting to determine what merchandise are finest to make use of as a result of I used to be utilizing completely different lotions and gels, however my hair was drying out and breaking off. I used to be majoring in pc science at Georgia Tech on the time. I received an e mail sooner or later about an inventor’s competitors, known as the InVenture Prize. It was about the right way to flip your thought into an invention and begin a enterprise. That was my first step in understanding the right way to determine an issue, create an answer for it after which construct a enterprise round it.
How does MYAVANA work?
MYAVANA is an AI device that may analyze your hair and let you know which merchandise are finest so that you can use. We do it by AI. You possibly can take a photograph and we will analyze all of the distinctive compositions of texture, kind and situation of your hair. Your hair is as distinctive as your fingerprint. You’re sometimes greater than only one hair kind. MYAVANA tells you the proportion breakdown of your distinctive hair composition and the merchandise which can be going to work finest.
How did you all acquire superstar companions?
We’ve been very blessed to draw wonderful individuals to MYAVANA. We began with our first superstar model ambassadors in 2019. I bumped into Latoya Luckett on the Essence Pageant. We’ve got been partnering with Essence to deliver our magnificence tech activation to the Essence Pageant over the previous 5 years. That led to us working with Keri Hilson and Indigo Bridges as a result of they have been doing a marketing campaign known as “If Not For My Ladies” on the time. MYAVANA is about sisterhood. We name ourselves haircare girlfriends, taking good care of one another by supplying you with the within scoop on the right way to handle your hair. These relationships are simply organically shaped. Then we met Viola Davis throughout Oscars weekend and we met Queen Latifah by our model ambassador Johnny Wright, who’s her hairstylist.
Why is one of these know-how wanted for underrepresented teams, equivalent to girls of shade?
I believe it comes again to acceptance, authenticity and being your genuine self. That’s core to the model. We simply need individuals to really feel like they don’t should put on a wig to look good, or they don’t should have their hair a sure option to be extra enticing or to be extra accepted.