If you’ve ever had to choose between keeping that new hairstyle poppin’ and going to the gym, you’re not alone sis.
While our dynamic hair is one of our best traits, it can also be one of our biggest (most expensive) obstacles.
No matter how we rock our tresses, our hair is often an investment— it takes time and money for those u-part sew-ins or custom wigs, silk presses, etc.
Because of this, some women, including beauty expert Danielle Gray admits to adjusting their workouts to accommodate their hairstyles and haircare. “I plan my workouts to fall when my hair isn’t ‘done,’ and then I’ll take a 2-3 day workout break after my hair appointment,” Gray explains.
Of course, protective styling can be a way to go, and “workout wigs” are even a thing – yes, some of us unapologetically have wigs just for working out. But even then, that protective style and workout wig have to be maintained and its style can be ruined from a sweaty gym sesh.
In his goal of empowering women to pursue their health and fitness goals without compromising their hairstyle, Larry Summerville of Tight & Right Hair Revolution Inc. has used patented technology to invent the Fitness Cap.
Some of the benefits of Larry’s breakthrough hair and fitness technology include:
- Gives women the ability to work out without having to sacrifice their hairstyle
- Keeps hair feeling and smelling fresh
- Lightweight, Durable & Easy to use
- Makes you feel cool and refreshed
- Saves money and time
- Low maintenance requirements and costs
The system for this product is currently the only patented system in the world that allows women to work out without compromising their hairstyles. #mogulgoals
“Our invention is the Hair Cooling and Dehumidification Apparatus. We call it the Tight and Right Fitness Cap. In short, it was designed to keep women’s hair free from sweat and vapor while working out,” Larry shared.
Larry, an engineer by trade and education turned project manager started working on Tight & Right Hair Revolution Inc. in 2016 with his wife. After launching a successful Kickstarter campaign, Larry, his wife, and their team are now preparing to “officially” launch their product, grow their team, and disrupt the hair tech industry.
Recently, we were able to catch up with Larry and learned more about his entrepreneurship journey and how he runs his day. Check it out below!
What does your typical day look like?
During the week, I wake up typically around 4:45 in the morning, make a little bit of time for prayer, and then read the Bible a little bit.
I’m on the road at about 5:30 in the morning. I still have a 9 to 5, so I worked that 9 to 5 as a project manager. Currently, I’m a project management professional for multi-million-dollar projects for the United States Government. I’ve been this doing for a little over ten years.
After I do that, I go to the gym and workout for about an hour. I go home, try to spend some time with my family, eat, spend time with my wife and kids. After spending time with my family, I’m meeting various partners inside and outside the company like consultants and university researchers, and also legal counsel, and potential investors. I take time to do some engineering design work, intellectual property, maybe work on some new prototype research and development. As it gets later, you know, we have some connections overseas with some suppliers and factories that we work with, so I take care of my meetings with overseas people because they’re generally up at that time. I will get back to a little bit of prayer before bed, and I’m normally in bed between 11 pm and 1 am.
How do you find time managing both your full-time job and your business?
I make sure that I do a good job at my 9-5 job and have to stay disciplined as it pertains to the business to ensure that I set proper goals and proper milestones so that I could be productive as possible.
What are some of the challenges you dealt with in the early stages of your business?
Overall, just figuring things out, you know, just trying to understand how to get certain things done that I didn’t know how to do early on. You know, I thank God for the people who I’ve been at liberty to be around who had been successful, maybe already millionaires and business owners. I’ve been able to lean on them and learn from them. One of the biggest challenges, in the beginning, was raising money. You know, come up with a great idea, start putting things into motion to bring it to pass, and then you find out that it takes money.
Money and manpower were challenges.
How did you overcome those challenges?
As far as overcoming those challenges, we had to learn to do a lot of things on our own. It’s like either learn or the business fails. Either figure it out or you’ll run out of steam.
For some of the things you typically people pay somebody to do, we had to learn how to do it ourselves. They were the team members that we had around us with skill sets that we can leverage. And so, we have other engineers, science professionals, and other professionals and using those skill sets that we had available.
So, what was the process like obtaining a Patent for your product?
It was a time consuming and expensive process.
We started the process alone. We had to do a lot of research to understand the process. We ran into some issues in the second phase of the filing process, where the first phase was straightforward.
Some of our filing information got sent back that’s when we decided we need it a Patent Attorney. Patent Attorneys can run you $450 per hour – or at least our Patent Attorney costs us that much.
We took one prototype that was working and presentable, and then we incorporated the company, and then from there, we went to family and friends. We set up presentations to raise money, and we use that money to pay for the patent.
What successes are you extremely proud of?
I would say one thing would be continuing the journey long enough in different seasons to have something to give something back.
What I mean by that I’m glad I stayed in school long enough even in the midst of challenges to help others. So, I’m grateful that I continued the process long enough so that I can give back to those who, you know, maybe, try to do some of the same things that I’ve done.
What are some business goals you like to achieve in the near future?
First, we have a lot of orders and things that came through the Kickstarter campaign that we want to take care of. A few other things I want to do is finish this prototype that we are working on, raise money, and fill some of the positions that we have as a company with qualified people.
I think that will give us the ability to accelerate some things as prepare to go into next year.
Where can people find you online?
TightandRighthair.com
@TightandRightHair on Instagram and Facebook
