June 22nd 2023.
In 2018, Miona Short made history as the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics. Now, 5 years later, she is taking on the beauty industry with the launch of her company, Shukrah. Her flagship product, the Carefree Comb, is a patent-pending wide-tooth comb that holds hair product in the spine and distributes it along the base of the comb. This allows consumers with coarse, thick, or Afro-textured tresses to cut down on their haircare time, consolidate steps in the haircare process, and bring the bulk of their routines outside the shower.
Miona first invented the comb in November 2016 while grieving the death of her grandfather from bile duct cancer. “I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to go to class or take midterms that week, and I definitely didn’t want to do my hair,” she recalls. She started looking for tools that would allow her to detangle her hair quickly while applying her products, but didn’t find anything available. So, she taught herself computer-aided design and spent the next 7 years creating different prototypes of her comb invention. Through her self-education, she also picked up business principles from watching popular television shows like Shark Tank and listening to business-related podcasts.
The Carefree Comb concept would go on to win business competitions, including a grant from rapper-turned-investor, Chamilloinaire. In 2019, Miona took a job in tech to save money for her first production round and to learn what it was like to scale a business from the inside. However, after being impacted by the mass layoffs of 2022, she decided to focus on building out her company.
“I didn’t have the money to completely flesh out product development as a bigger company would. I could barely afford rent, much less afford multiple rounds of testing [contract manufacturer] prototypes with trial and error. That gets expensive real quick. I really only had one shot at making this work,” she clarifies. “I had to take a leap of faith. So here I am, hoping Shukrah has wings.”
The Carefree Comb has since gone viral on TikTok with a demonstration garnering a half-million views, and the rising CEO is finding that the product taps into a deep need within the beauty market. Miona is expecting to have preorders for the Carefree Comb shipped out around Christmas 2023. To learn more about this launch and journey, visit the official website at Shukrah.com or follow the brand @helloshukrah on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
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