Jesseca Harris-Dupart Talks ‘Curl Math’ Launch And Keeping Ownership Of Multi-Million-Dollar Brand
Kaleidoscope Hair Products, the award-winning haircare brand known for bold storytelling, is putting focus on the curl conversation, with purpose. After a three-year gap in launches, the brand has introduced Curl Math, a thoughtfully crafted collection designed to simplify textured hair routines.
Timed to debut on founder and CEO Jesseca Harris-Dupart’s birthday earlier this year, the launch feels both personal and strategic, marking a full-circle moment for the entrepreneur who turned viral moments into a multi-million-dollar empire. Her products are sold in big-box retailers, including Walmart and Target, as well as mainstay drugstores like CVS.
More than two years in the making, Curl Math reflects Kaleidoscope’s evolution: modern, elevated, and deeply rooted in catering to the needs of its consumers.
Behind the brand is a story of resilience and reinvention. Harris-Dupart began as a teen mom and licensed cosmetologist, opened her first salon in 2006, rebuilt after a devastating fire, and relaunched stronger in 2014 with Kaleidoscope Hair Products, going all-in on the haircare business while growing a loyal, global customer base.
We caught up with Harris-Dupart to talk about the latest launch, overcoming retail market challenges, and retaining ownership of her multi-million-dollar brand.
Her Agenda: You’ve launched Curl Math, a line that caters to various curly textures. Tell me how the idea came about, and what’s behind the concept of the name?
Jesseca Harris-Dupart: In terms of the concept, you know how the ‘girl math’ thing is. A lot of people think that their natural hair is super complicated. Wash day, it’s like a thing. So, we’ve simplified what that is. We have some snazzy names for each of the products, but the right formula will always come out with perfect curls.
So, I try to tap into the curly world, from 4c to wavy. Depending on the combination that you use, it can go from the two [textures] all the way to the four [textures].
Her Agenda: You’ve added products that are about maintenance and styling vs the growth focus of the original Kaleidoscope products that launched your success. Why this specific focus?
Harris-Dupart: We’ve been working on this for a very long time in the background. …It was something that I had been looking into for a while. It’s just, you know, bringing stuff to the market at the right time, we can make sure to have the proper support and give our other collections time and room to be able to grow in the market.
For me, growth is something that’s not only supportive with scalp care, but it’s also with how often you’re combing your hair and [whether] you’re maintaining it right.
Supporting growth [also means] properly styling your hair, because if you have too much manipulation, you either have breakage or you lose your curls.
Her Agenda: What’s been your biggest challenge in expanding and launching multiple product lines throughout the years? What’s one major misstep that you’ve either experienced or witnessed that you’d warn a newbie about?
Harris-Dupart: My most difficult launch was this one, and not because it’s a hard product to describe, but this was the first launch where I kind of handed it over outside of me when it came to the marketing. I think the approach that was taken was so far left from what my people were used to seeing from us. So then it’s like, ‘OK, no. Let’s stick to what we know.”
Her Agenda: You revolutionized social media marketing that helped grow your brand in the beginning years with vibrant branding, viral videos, and celebrity collabs. What changed in your strategy or approach?
Harris-Dupart: We went heavy on educational, not the TikTok, relatable type stuff. It was just education, education, education. And, yes, we want to give our consumers education, but our consumers like to be entertained, too. We call that edutainment, which is education and entertainment.
So this one was complicated, along with the fact that the retail landscape has changed so much.
[Retailers] took multicultural and general market and merged them together … And when that happened, a lot of the Black brands were affected. You lose shelf space.
They didn’t make the space bigger. They smashed us all together. And of course, the Black brands were the ones that got sliced the most. And when an item is pulled out of the store, you have to pay for that inventory.
Her Agenda: Speaking of challenges, you’ve been in business for more than a decade. With several beauty and haircare brands either getting lucrative deals to sell to larger companies or phasing out, what do you think has led to your longevity? Why is it important to you to keep ownership of Kaleidoscope?
Harris-Dupart: I see it two ways: One side that I see, in growing the brand and scaling the brand—and looking at all of the hurdles, the hiccups, the problems, the things that can happen— I can understand people trying to have a partner help them scale. So, I’m not going to speak ill against anybody who’s done anything like that. But as far as me, I’ve been thugging it out. I feel like, you know, as a person who started this thing from the ground up with very little money, I trust that I have my best interest. I trust [the company] with me.
I’m not scared of going down to zero because I’ve had to do that quite a few times while building the company— while scaling—and I’m not scared of building it back up.
I haven’t had a hiccup or a hurdle so large that I couldn’t get myself out of it. And what I mean by that is, we had a challenging year, and I made some very personal sacrifices—to make sure that we were straight and to make sure my employees were straight—and it wasn’t me going to sell a part of the business off.
I think on this journey, though, I’ve learned that you are only as strong as your team. I don’t care how much you know. I don’t care how much experience you have. You are only as strong as your team, and you are only as strong as you empower your team to be.
