After dermatologist-prescribed treatments for her itchy, flaky scalp resulted in a traumatic hair experience, Courtney Howard created the all-natural scalp care formula she needed to feel confident in her own skin. A year later, after seeing a dramatic improvement in her own scalp health, she founded Always Love Your Scalp in order to share her formula with the world. Now, as an alumna of Future Founders’ 2022 Startup Bootcamp cohort and Seed Grant recipient, Courtney has transitioned from a career as an attorney to being a full-time founder—and she’s taking the scalp care industry by storm.
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Courtney Howard didn’t always love her scalp. But she didn’t realize how much she hated it until her first year of law school.
As a lawyer, she knew she was supposed to feel confident. Powerful. Able to take up space in the room, to project strength and self-assurance to clients and opposing counsel alike.
Unfortunately, Courtney didn’t feel any of those things. She felt self-conscious, hyper-aware of the flakes falling like unwelcome snow onto her shoulders at her slightest movement, distracted by the maddening redness and irritation that constantly threatened to pull her attention (and her fingers) from her work.
“I had tried everything,” Courtney recalls. She saw multiple dermatologists, each of whom prescribed her a litany of creams, ointments, and medicines to address her scalp problems. But nothing helped. In fact, she realized, each of the treatments had only exacerbated the issues she faced.
“I can remember going to my beautician sometime that year,” Courtney notes, “and having her show me how much [those treatments] had damaged my hair. I’d experienced significant hair loss, and what edges I did have were damaged and unhealthy.”
So Courtney began experimenting with more natural ingredients she hoped wouldn’t harm her hair further. It took her four tries to find a blend that worked for her, but, after a couple weeks, her flakes disappeared. Her scalp cleared. Her hair began to grow again.
It wasn’t until almost a year later, after a chance encounter with a stranger at the late Congressman John Lewis’s funeral, that Courtney realized that she might have created something special. She remembers encountering a woman at the service who was visibly struggling with a flaky scalp.
“After the service was over, I went up to her and shared the jar of product I’d brought for myself, and I didn’t think anything of it. Then, months later, I get a call from that same woman, asking me if I’d sell her more. She ended up driving down to Birmingham and writing me a check for more ingredients. And that was the beginning of Always Love Your Scalp, when I realized that I really do have something that can help other people!”
Courtney quickly realized that her passion for helping others far outshone her increasingly unfulfilling legal career. After being accepted into Future Founders’ Startup Bootcamp, she made the decision to leave law behind and focus on Always Love Your Scalp full-time. And with the direction and support of the Future Founders team, she hasn’t looked back.
“The number one takeaway I had from Future Founders was guidance. Before [Startup Bootcamp], I was dealing with things as they came up. There was so much I just didn’t know.”
In addition to exposing her to platforms and tools she could use to improve her business, Courtney notes that her experience with Future Founders—and the priceless community she built there—taught her an invaluable lesson: how to tell the story of her product. Before Bootcamp, she’d applied to multiple pitch competitions seeking funding for her company, but had never progressed beyond the application. Several months into the program, however, Courtney won her first pitch competition. Shortly thereafter, she was selected as a recipient of a non-dilutive cash grant from the Passion Collective. Since launch, Courtney’s products have been carried in multiple beauty supply stores, salons, and pop-up events across the country. Most recently, Courtney received $3,000 in Future Founders’ Seed Grant pitch competition to purchase cutting-edge filling machinery, allowing her to produce and fulfill orders even more efficiently. With the entrepreneurial skills and confidence she has developed in Startup Bootcamp, Courtney feels more capable than ever of making her dream a reality.
“The story starts with how I lost confidence in myself, and how I got it back. I want to help other people who have lost their confidence build it back up.”
Indeed, it is this impulse toward empowerment that first inspired the name of Courtney’s company. Recently, while doing some much-needed de-cluttering of her workspace, she came across one of the first jars of product she’d ever packed. It was for her aunt, she said, who struggled so much with flakes and hair loss that she wouldn’t even get braids, for fear of revealing the severity of her dermatitis. Fresh off her personal success with the product she’d created, Courtney had sent this jar to her aunt’s house with a note reading, “Love your scalp, Courtney.”
Always Love Your Scalp is a rallying cry, says Courtney. It is a ritual of self-love that speaks itself into existence, a daily reminder of each individual’s capacity to embrace themselves in the body they have. For Courtney, and for so many of her customers, that imperative has become truer and truer by the day.
Click here to learn more about and apply for Future Founders’ Startup Bootcamp.
Click here to learn more about Always Love Your Scalp.
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