In 2012, Ngozi Opara made the bold decision to dive into the natural hair business. The former financial analyst and trained cosmetologist, saw that African women had no options of hair extensions made specifically to match their texture.
Therefore, she launched the Heat Free Hair, the first manufacturer of virgin hair exclusively created to blend with textured kinky, and curly hair. Ngozi clients include celebrities such as actress Uzo Aduba and singers Jill Scott and Tamar Braxton.
“Four years ago, I stood at the top of 2012 with an idea I had been sitting on for MONTHS. I felt sick to my stomach with the potential the idea had to be a huge success or what I feared even more– a huge failure.
After months of going back and forth between every reason why the idea could work and my fears of why it couldn’t, I finally just said to myself, “Screw It, Just Do It.” These 5 words were a game changer for me and now @heatfreehair is living proof that taking a leap faith is worth the risk. By no means was it easy for me to “just do it,” and this is something I work on every day, but following a few steps helps me when I’m stuck between the desire to see a goal I have come into fruition and the fear of it failing (or succeeding!).
It wasn’t easy at the start, she faced the challenges of being a pioneer (starting from scratch, creating a new market). Travelling to China to learn the weave-manufacturing process (while living in less-than-ideal conditions) and much more she had to put in the hard work.
Recently, she shared the importance of “deep work”, which you can liken to the advanced version of hard work.
She recently shared on the impact focus has on whatever we do.
“For the past few months I’ve taken a step away from all things social to truly learn the concept of “deep work”. Deep Work calls for you to put all your focus into achieving a milestone or to strategize without any distractions. It is a powerful tool that I encourage anyone who has something major that they want to accomplish to do. I’m one for balance but I also know that to make major moves you have to also make major sacrifices.
Other hair manufacturing companies have since joined the line, but Ngozi has stayed on top by controlling the entire value chain from manufacturing, distribution and retailing through her website.
Comments are closed.