A Fort Myers company that started as one woman’s quest to develop natural hair products for her ethnic hair now has shelf space at one of the nation’s biggest beauty suppliers.
Alikay Naturals, founded by the husband-and-wife team of Rochelle Graham and Demond Campbell, is now being sold at 500 Sally Beauty Supply stores across the country. The company creates natural and organic hair products for “kinky, curly, wavy or straight” hair, along with skin care and bath products.
“Being featured on the shelves of the largest retailer of professional beauty supplies is a part of an ongoing expansion plan set forth by Alikay Naturals that encompasses a heavyweight marketing, sales and communications platform targeting major territories,” Graham said in a statement announcing the Sally Beauty launch.
The company started out of Graham’s decision to go “all natural” and her frustration when she couldn’t find natural products that promoted hair growth and health. Her research included the herbal books that her grandmother had read while she was growing up in Jamaica. Word of her emerging products, including her Essential 17 Hair Growth Oil (pictured), initially spread via YouTube and social media.
A launch party will be held Saturday, Feb. 28, from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Harborside City Pier, 1300 Hendry St., Fort Myers. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased through the company’s web site: alikaynaturals.com. A portion of proceeds will be donated to the McGregor Clinic, an HIV/AIDS treatment center, in Fort Myers.
