Three years in, and I’ve learned a lot more than haircare

Countless orders. A ridiculous number of browser tabs. More lessons than I could possibly count. And probably far too much coffee.

When I took over Haircare Superstore in 2023, I thought I knew what I wanted the business to be.

I wanted something I genuinely cared about. Something I could build around my family and my health. Something that gave me the flexibility to volunteer at my kids' school, turn up for their events and step away when my health wasn't playing nicely.

And I wanted to help people.

Haircare made sense because I've been the person standing there wondering what on earth I'm supposed to put on my head.

I'm a curly girl who spent years not understanding my own hair. I've spent too much time, money and energy trying products that weren't right for me.

So I thought I understood the problem.

Three years later, I understand it on a completely different level. I also understand that running an e-commerce business by yourself is a HUGE beast.

There are orders, accounts, emails, customer service, blogs, social media, marketing, stock, suppliers, postage, website updates and approximately 4,872 other jobs that magically appear when you're the person responsible for all of it.

I also inherited industry relationships that needed far more rebuilding than I ever expected. I've worked incredibly hard over the last three years to rebuild trust and strengthen those relationships.

It hasn't always been easy. But it has taught me a lot.

So, for our third birthday, I wanted to share some of the biggest things I've learned.

You don't need more choice. You need better choices.

This might be the biggest lesson of all. Haircare is overwhelming.

You can walk into a shop or open a website and be confronted with shampoo for moisture, volume, repair, curls, colour, blonde hair, sensitive scalps, oily scalps, dry scalps…

Then there are conditioners, treatments, masks, oils, leave-ins, serums and styling products.

Holy moly.

More products don't necessarily make choosing easier. Sometimes they make it harder.

That's why bundles have become such an important part of what we're building at Haircare Superstore.

I don't want you scrolling through 100 products wondering, Which one am I supposed to buy?

I want to make the decision easier.

Our ready-made bundles are exactly that. Find the solution that suits you, click one button and you're done.

Our Mix & Match bundles take that idea further because one of the most important things I've learned — and one of the biggest pieces of hair education I want to share — is this:

Your scalp and your ends don't necessarily need the same thing.

We've been marketed matching shampoo and conditioner sets forever.

There's the shampoo. There's its matching conditioner. Obviously you buy both, right?

Not necessarily.

Your shampoo primarily needs to work for your scalp. Your conditioner needs to work for your lengths and ends.

You might have an oily scalp and dry ends. A sensitive scalp and damaged lengths. Colour-treated hair with completely different needs again.

That's why sometimes the better choice isn't the matching set.

And then there are our BYO Bundles. Two shampoos and a conditioner? Go for it. Three conditioners because that's what you actually use? Also fine.

Your bundle. Your rules.

Because the goal isn't to sell you products you don't need.

It's to make it easier — and better value — to buy the products you actually do.

Haircare is so much more than hair

I've always understood that hair affects how we feel.

But after three years of helping people with their hair problems, I believe it even more strongly.

Hair can be frustrating.

It can affect how you feel when you look in the mirror. How you feel getting ready in the morning. Whether you feel put together. Whether you feel like yourself.

And a great hair day? For me, that doesn't necessarily mean every curl has fallen perfectly into place. It means I know my hair is healthy. I've invested some time and money into looking after myself.

And that's important, because women are particularly good at putting ourselves at the bottom of the priority list.

Kids first. Family first. Work first. Groceries. Appointments. School things. Everyone else's things.

Then maybe us, if there's five minutes left. Haircare can be one tiny way of saying, I'm worth looking after too. And yes, professional haircare costs more.

I've always joked that I'd buy my kids store-brand bread before I'd buy grocery-store hair products. 😂

Not because every supermarket shampoo is terrible. It isn't.

It's because I understand the value of using the right product for what your hair actually needs.

Think about it like aftercare.

If you have surgery, your doctor doesn't send you home and say, "Righto, good luck!"

You're given instructions. Take this medication. Keep this clean. Don't do this. Make sure you do that.

You follow the instructions because you've invested in your health and you want the best outcome.

Your salon aftercare matters too.

If you've just spent $400 having your hair coloured, then go home and use something that strips that colour faster, you've reduced the value of the time and money you've just invested.

The right professional products are part of protecting that investment. That's also why I'm so particular about the information we put on our product pages. I want you to know what you're buying.

I'm particularly passionate about making Curly Girl Method information clear and easy to understand because I know firsthand how confusing that journey can be.

These products aren't cheap.

If you're investing your money in them, you deserve honest information about whether they're actually right for your hair, your needs and your values.

Not hype.

Not an unrealistic photo of a 20-year-old model with perfect hair when so many of the women I'm actually speaking to are in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

Real information for real hair and real life.

You can care deeply about people and still run a business

One of the reasons I wanted my own business was flexibility.

And Haircare Superstore does give me that.

I can volunteer at school. I can be there for my kids' events. If my health isn't great, I have more ability to work around it. I'm incredibly grateful for that. But flexibility and ease are definitely not the same thing.

The business takes up an enormous amount of my mental space. Because when you're a small business, an order isn't just an order number on a screen.

I see the name. There's a person behind it.

Someone has trusted me with their money. They're waiting for their products. And I want to look after them.

Sometimes I want an order out faster than I'm physically able to make it happen. Sometimes life happens. Sometimes I'm trying to be a mum, look after myself, run a business and somehow do "all the things" at exactly the same time.

I've questioned whether I'm capable of doing all of it more times than I can count.

For a long time, I'd come home and open my computer again. I'd work late because there was always one more thing that needed doing.

I don't do that anymore. That's a boundary I've had to learn.

Because what's the point of building a business around family and health if the business eventually takes both away from you?

Our values around family, mental health, community and self-care aren't things I want to stick on a website because they sound nice.

They're things I'm trying to actually live. Sometimes imperfectly. But genuinely.

The same goes for volunteering, donations and supporting our community. To me, that's part of the backbone of being a small business.

We're part of something bigger than the parcels we send out every day.

And then a review comes in…

There are days when I wonder if I'm doing enough. And then someone sends an email or leaves a review.

Someone tells me I helped them choose the right product. Someone mentions the handwritten note in their parcel. Someone tells me the service felt personal.

One customer, Lily, came to me for help with her fine, frizzy hair. She found products that worked, her family started using them too, and she finished her review with:

"My bad hair days are a thing of the past!"

That's it.

That's the reason.

Because my original thought when I bought Haircare Superstore was never simply, I want to sell hair products.

I wanted to help people. Now I think about it even more specifically.

I want to solve problems.

I want someone to stop wasting money trying random products. I want her to understand her hair a little better. I want to make buying what she needs easier.

And if great hair gives her a little more confidence, makes getting ready easier or helps her feel more like herself again?

That's what makes this worth doing.

Running a small business in this economy is scary

I don't think I can write honestly about the last three years without talking about this.

It's tough out there. Customers are spending less because everything costs more.

Groceries cost more. Electricity costs more. Mortgages and rent cost more. Postage costs more. And the exact same thing is happening behind the scenes of a small business.

Our products cost more. Shipping costs more. Running the business costs more. We've had to change our shipping pricing because what we were doing simply wasn't sustainable anymore.

And that's hard.

I know our customers are looking carefully at where every dollar goes because I'm doing exactly the same thing. At the same time, we're competing with very large retailers that have purchasing power, staffing and resources a tiny family business simply doesn't have.

I can't always do what the big guys do. And trying to find the balance between giving our customers the best possible value and keeping the business financially sustainable is something I think about constantly.

It's another reason bundles matter so much to me. They're not just a marketing promotion.

They're a way for us to create genuine value.

You save money, but you also get a more useful purchasing experience — particularly when you're able to choose products around what your hair actually needs.

I had imagined that by this stage I might have employees helping me.

That hasn't happened yet. The economy and other challenges have meant I'm still doing this largely on my own.

For now.

There have absolutely been moments when I've wondered what the future looks like. But if there's one thing owning a small business has taught me, it's never to take an order for granted.

When you choose a small business, it matters.

I promise you, there's a real person on the other side who notices.

You don't have to have everything figured out before you start

Three years ago, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted Haircare Superstore to become.

I had ideas. Plans. A vision. Some of it was right. Some of it changed. Some things took much longer than I expected.

Some things haven't happened at all.

And some of the best parts of the business today developed because I listened, experimented and changed direction.

That's probably one of the greatest lessons these three years have taught me.

You don't need every answer before you begin.

You need to start. Then listen. Learn. Change. Try again. Running a business has a funny way of making you painfully aware of all the things you don't know.

But I've also realised I don't have to know everything. I just have to keep caring enough to learn.

Three years later, we're still listening

There is still so much I want to do with Haircare Superstore. I want to expand our bundles across more brands and ranges.

I want to continue growing the brands we can offer, including bringing ELEVEN into the mix.

I want to create more education that makes understanding your hair simpler. I want to make it easier to work out what your scalp needs, what your ends need and what products fit your life. And most importantly, I want to keep listening to you.

Because after three years, I'm more certain than ever that you don't need another haircare store shouting about the newest miracle product.

You need somewhere that helps you make a better choice. You need honest information. You need value. You need an easy shopping experience.

And sometimes you just need to be able to ask a human, What the heck should I actually use?

We're here for that.

So, happy third birthday to us 🎂

Three years hasn't looked exactly how I imagined it would.

It's been harder. More consuming. More uncertain.

And much more personal.

But it's also given me the chance to help people every single day. It's allowed me to build something around my family. It's taught me when I need to close the laptop.

It's connected me with customers, suppliers and other people in this industry who I genuinely value. And it's reminded me that hair is never just hair.

It's confidence.

Identity.

Self-expression.

Self-care.

Sometimes it's simply five minutes in the shower when nobody is asking you where their shoes are.

And behind every Haircare Superstore order is a person trusting me to help them care for a small but important part of themselves.

I never want to forget that. So thank you.

Thank you for every order. Every email. Every question. Every review. Every recommendation to a friend.

Every time you've chosen our little business when you could have gone somewhere much bigger.

I genuinely notice.

And I genuinely appreciate it.

Three years later, I'm still learning. Still changing things. Still trying to make Haircare Superstore better.

And still listening.

So tell me — what would you like to see from us next?

Your Hair, Our Passion. ❤️