The Coin Flip That Changed the Curly Hair Industry

<p>Welcome back to the show! Today&#39;s episode is a truly special one. I&#39;m sitting down with the one and only Ouidad - the &quot;Queen of Curls&quot; herself - a woman whose name has become synonymous with curly hair care, but who is so much more than a brand on a shelf.</p><p><br></p><p>In this conversation, Ouidad shares her remarkable life story: her family&#39;s journey from Beirut, Lebanon to New York in the late 1960s, learning English at a vocational high school in Rhode Island, and working her way through Broadway, film, and fashion as the go-to &quot;curl girl&quot; when no one else in the industry understood curly hair.</p><p><br></p><p>You&#39;ll hear about the moment she and her husband Peter flipped a coin to decide between opening a salon or a restaurant - a coin toss that changed the curly hair world forever. She walks us through the early days of opening a curly-hair-only salon in Manhattan in 1984, when banks refused to lend, when the industry insisted curly hair didn&#39;t even exist, and when Peter stood on the streets in his one Armani suit hand-delivering flyers to women with curls. We also dive into her product philosophy - built from the inside out, water-soluble, and never suffocating the hair - the creation of her signature Carve &amp; Slice cutting technique, her legendary mentorship of stylists, and her current chapter of &quot;giving forward.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>This one is full of heart, grit, and curly hair wisdom. Trust me - you could listen to her for hours, just like I did. Let&#39;s get into it!</p>