Jane Carter of Jane Carter Solution Interview: The Beginnings

In part 2 of the Hair2Toe Beauty interview with Jane Carter, she discusses the beginnings of her product line, the motivation, and challenges of providing a quality product among common beauty market competitors.

For Part 1, click here.

Jane Carter: A lot of products in the health food market and in the natural products market are not performance oriented. I made this one product after I took an essential oil and formed the Hair Nourishing Serum. It’s an essential oil and vitamin product. I used it specifically on a client whose hair I watch on a daily basis. She had super, super coarse hair that nothing could penetrate it. She used it on a daily basis and said, “This is not my hair anymore. I don’t know whose hair this is.”

The thing about essential oils is that they have this tiny molecule and the ability to penetrate. We got great results and clients were asking if they could buy this. And this is how this unfolded.

 As a colorist, I had all kinds of clients. From blondes to reggae artist with waist length locs. So I had to find a product line that addressed the needs of all my clients. It was a pet peeve of mine because we needed a line that, in certain combinations, any consumer could use.

When I did approach three chemists. they asked who is my market and I said everyone. They said in the beauty business products are segmented so they needed to know specifically so they can do a product formulation for that specific population. [The product market] is broken into general and ethnic. They sent me products from the ethnic formulary and from the general market, everyone non-ethnic.

All of the samples from all three chemists had the same ingredients of products that were in the market: dimethicone, petroleum, mineral oil, and alcohol. I thought, what do I want to deal with you for? That’s when I decided to do two semesters of formulations and do one product at a time.

I am an end user. Typically, people that make products are a lot of times men with no hair. They don’t have a  relationship with the end user. Nor have they spent anytime in the salon and I think that is one of our strengths. 

Our price point is a little bit higher because we use quality ingredients that really work.  How do you compromise on that? (Jane Carter refused to “cheapen” her line for profit’s sake in order to produce a quality, performance oriented product that truly benefits her clients and consumers.)



Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Jane Carter interview :-)

Posted in: Feature,Natural Hair