Meet Briana Netherly | Mother & Owner of Zola’Amari Vegan Hair Products

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

Hi Briana, how did you come up with the idea for your business?

When I found out I was having a baby girl, I was so happy! The first few thoughts that popped up in my head were : I hope she is healthy, I can’t wait until she can talk and I can’t wait to start styling her hair. With all the heartburn I experienced I thought she would come out with a head full of hair, but that was not the case.

My daughter experienced a lot of baldness but I didn’t worry about it too much because she was only a few months old. When she reached 14 months old she was still experiencing some balding ,that’s when I started using hair products to try to fix the problem. Unfortunately every hair product I used for her hair was causing more problems, she was experiencing dryness, breakage, redness etc. This caused me to go on a mission to figure out the problem myself. I noticed a lot of the hair products I used on her hair had so many bad & unnecessary ingredients and most of the words I couldn’t even pronounce! After doing my own research on hair growth I decided to formulate a few products myself that were mostly from plants. I started off with a hair oil & hair mask, after a few uses of our new hair products I noticed an incredible difference in her hair, her texture went from dry & brittle to soft, the breakage had stopped and after a few months I noticed a lot of hair growth. So that is how I started our  business Zola’Amari LLC which is named after my beautiful daughter who inspired me to start making vegan hair care products. We have shipped our products all over the US and we have shipped to Trinida UK and Canada. My daughter is now 5 years old and she is so happy with our business.

What should our readers know about your business?
I never gave up, even at my lowest point I decided to continue and push until something happened. Giving up was never an option for me… Was it easy ? Absolutely NOT, as a single mother I felt everything was against me, I truly thought I was meant to fail at everything I started. With little to no support it was always challenging for me to complete any task because I had my daughter to raise. After many tears, after many rejections, after many doors shutting in my face I realized I had to stop feeling sorry for myself. I had to become the role model I never had, I had to figure out how to juggle mommy life & entrepreneur life. Instead of making excuse, I just started doing the things I thought I couldn’t do because I was a single mom, yes it is very had but it was always very rewarding knowing how much I had accomplished with my daughter by my side. I want the world to know that when things were sent to break me, it made me 10 times stronger. My business wouldn’t be as successful if I gave up.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was visiting, we would start with a morning hike at Runyon I am all about beautiful views so I know she would love the view of the city once we reach the top. Next stop would be Kickin Kasian in Northridge, hands down the best seafood place imo. We couldn’t leave the valley without hitting up Follow Your Heart for a healthy green juice and then we would head to my favorite beach in Malibu to watch the sunset.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate my shoutout to my best friend Chrissy, we’ve been friends since middle school. Like most bestfriends we’ve had our fair share of disagreements but that has only made our friendship stronger! Without her encouraging words I don’t think I would be where I am today!

Website: www.zolaamari.com

Instagram: Zolaamari

Youtube: Zola’Amari

Image Credits
@Essie.smile