We had the good fortune of connecting with Manushkka Sainvil and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Manushkka, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I was frustrated with Black women being an afterthought in an industry where we are arguably the top customers. In 2018, $2.5 billion was spent on black hair care products, (Essence, Oct 2019). There’s an incredible amount of hair products marketed to the Black community, sadly, many of them contain the cheapest common denominator of ingredients that provide little to no benefit to our hair. I always encourage the natural community to read the labels and know what they’re putting in their hair.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think the thing that I found most surprising about myself is how much I enjoy the research and development needed to understand what natural hair needs are. How ingredients have various benefits, how they interact with each other and how to create the perfect balance. It’s critical to me to educate the natural and textured hair community about ingredients that benefit our hair, why they’re beneficial and how to identify the products that contain those ingredients to help mitigate a lot of the frustration that comes with styling natural hair. I am happiest when I’m talking to a potential customer about these things, they try the products and the expression on their face changes because a light bulb just clicked on!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
First stop – Red Rocks! Then I’d definitely spend a day hiking (and then recovering from) the Manitou Incline (one of my favorite hikes). Restaurants would include (but not be limited to) Bar Helix, Guard & Grace, Sassafrass, Welton Street Cafe and Mimosas. Finally, you can’t come to Colorado without a trip to the mountains, A-Basin is my favorite for snowboarding, I love their runs!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Absolutely! I have to thank Brother Jeff and the community at the Cultural Center as well as organizations like Sistahbiz and the Black Business Initiative for their support!

Website: www.chubbycurls.com
Instagram: instagram.com/chubby_curls
Facebook: facebook.com/chubbycurls
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAbHZmwBWvE

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