This Entrepreneur is Making Quality Hair Care Accessible

Over the years, Piersten Gaines struggled to find a hair salon to get a blowout that both looked good and was healthy for her hair. Twice she lost all her hair at the hands of licensed stylists. So when she went to Harvard Business School, the kernel of an idea was starting to formulate. In 2018, she launched Pressed Roots, a salon business that caters specifically to women with textured hair.

But raising money was not easy. Traditional investors did not share her vision. “I’m pitching a concept in a business for women with textured hair to a lot of people who were not women, who didn’t have hair,” said Piersten,“even the women that were in their lives didn’t have textured hair. So, the problem was a lot harder to conceptualize.” Eventually she was doing pop ups in three cities and the demand, she says, was overwhelming.

Piersten’s experience is shared by many Black female founders. Studies have found that Black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S., but 61% of Black women self-fund their start-up capital.

It took Piersten two years to raise the capital she needed to open her first store in Dallas. Now in 2023, Pressed Roots has three locations in Texas with 30-40 stylists at each location – and Piersten says there is more to come.

The Schultz Family Foundation has invested in Pressed Roots as part of the Foundation’s $100 million Entrepreneurs Equity Fund (EEF) commitment. Investments made through EEF work to accelerate the growth of emerging, high-potential, diverse-owned businesses through direct investments and underwriting philanthropic grants.