“I don’t love the phrase beauty secret,” says Miko Branch, the co-founder and owner of Miss Jessie’s. “I believe haircare knowledge is something that empowers and connects us. Why should that be a secret?”

To open up the world of great hair, Miko and her sister Titi created Miss Jessie’s, a brand named for their grandmother and devoted to showing women—especially Black women—how to care for their tresses no matter their length or texture.

Together with Amazon, we learned how Miko is using the power of Miss Jessie’s to connect and empower her community right now, and what hair trends she’s seeing from her home base in Brooklyn.

Miss Jessie’s is more than a collection of products—it’s a community. How did you build your social networks and your salon to become such a supportive place?
Because from the beginning, the Miss Jessie’s community has been a place of love and also a place of help. From the early days when Titi and I were sitting at our kitchen table mixing Curly Pudding, we found ourselves coming out of that salon environment and wanting to share information with other women. Back when we started, it was hard to find that info! Even as a kid.

Why?
As a child, I was looking at my mom with her long, straight, Japanese-American hair. I wanted to look like her! I spent more time being frustrated with my hair than learning how to care for it. But once we made products for our own hair textures, I felt like being helpful to other women who wanted to know about their hair was the key to our brand, and our purpose.

What do you think was Miss Jessie’s “big break?”
The internet really launched us. We did before-and-after shots of natural hair with our product in it, and some people didn’t even believe it was a real head of hair! They thought it was maybe a weave. It was “too pretty.” And we said, “No, don’t you get it? Your hair is ‘too pretty!’” And that message really spread.

What do you wish you’d known before you started your own brand?
That failure is one of the best things that can happen to you. There are so many lessons that are personal, unique, and custom to your business. They’re closely connected to you and your decision making, how you work, how you tick. Looking at the failure, it gives you key evidence and tools for next time… Failure is not bad! It’s just schooling!

This has been a tough year for everyone. In your opinion, is it a good time for a hair overhaul, like a major haircut?
Oh, yes… Some of us believe that our hair holds a lot of energy—old, weird, heavy, weighty energy… It’s a good time to say, “I want to know what I’m made of. Let me start over, at least with my hair.”

You have a flagship salon in Brooklyn but you also have a shop on Amazon. What’s that like for a locally-based business like Miss Jessie’s?
Okay, first of all, I’m an Amazon customer. I love their picks—if they know you’re looking for something, they’ll give you a variety and give you combinations. That’s so useful to me! So I already have an affinity for it. Then when we put Miss Jessie’s on Amazon, it opened us up to all the other Mikos of the world! If you’re looking for us but can’t find us in a store, or you don’t know about us but see us and want to learn more, we get that discovery from all the people on Amazon. It’s been wonderful.

Do you have any advice for women whose edges and hairlines are getting a little bit more breakage than normal because of stress, or even because of a face mask?
Yeah, right?! These masks are messing with our ears and our hairline. You’ve gotta lubricate. A little bit of Miss Jessie’s Baby Buttercreme will help you out. Go ahead and extend it even a little lower than your edges, so your mask is not rubbing up against dry skin. You can spray Gloss So Good along your hairline too to protect it. The wonderful thing is the ingredients are not harmful, so we use them all over the place. I even put Baby Buttercreme on dry skin!

Miss Jessie’s is now 20 years old. When you look back on how you started, what makes you most proud?
We’re women-owned! We’re a small business, and we’re 100% women-owned still. We’re Black-owned still! And we’re privately owned, which is huge. My sister Titi started this brand alongside me, and even though she’s no longer with us, she would be so proud of me on the business side—I was always on the salon side, but I’ve learned how to be a business executive because of her. And she would also be proud of what I’m proud of: We have a whole community of women, and we all know what to do with our hair!*

*This is a sponsored post.