By Francesca Hill
Miko Branch is no stranger to building a business from the ground up, two times over. She is also no stranger to filling in the gap within the hair-care industry and creating revolutionary products for women with underrepresented hair textures, all from home.
After receiving her Bachelor’s Degree from FIT, Miko and her sister Titi opened up a small salon in Brooklyn. The salon proved to be extremely successful within the first few years and led Miko and Titi to open up a larger salon, not knowing that they were spreading themselves too thin. Shortly after opening they were forced to close the second salon which left Miko and her sister scrambling to make ends meet.
Miko had just enough money saved up to purchase a small brownstone in Bushwick, Brooklyn and open up a small salon in her basement. This worked out well for Miko as she could conduct business in the salon, while also watching over her son. As a single, working mother, Miko was responsible for solely taking care of her son and wanted to provide as much for him as possible.
After school, Miko would come up from her salon for bath time, where her son would frequently splash around, ultimately ruin her perfectly straightened hair. Frustrated by the fact that there was no way to quickly re-straighten her hair after every bath time, Miko tried finding products that would effectively tend to her naturally textured hair, with no luck.
Realizing that there was a big gap within the hair-care market, Miko and Titi started using kitchen ingredients, as well as natural ingredients to create high-performance hair-care products geared towards consumers looking to embrace their natural curls. The first product to ever be created is Miss Jessie’s Curly Pudding. A now world-famous pudding designed to enhance natural curls by banishing frizz, while also enabling the curls to remain soft and shiny.
Miko and Titi named Miss Jessie’s after their paternal grandmother, Miss Jessie who was a powerful force in their lives growing up. Their grandmother who had a big hand in raising them as children taught them how to embrace and treat their naturally textured hair. Miss Jessie encouraged Miko and Titi to become strong, independent women who can do whatever they set their mind to. Miko credits her tough and resilient attitude to her grandmother.
Miss Jessie’s now sells in all 1600 Targets along with drug stores nationwide including CVS, Duane Reade and Walgreens.
