Aisha Ceballos-Crump: Latina and Proud
Honey Baby Naturals is the first Latina-owned hair & skincare line for naturals in major retailers. We sat down with founder and CEO Aisha Ceballos-Crump to get her perspective on the effect her Latin roots have had on the success of Honey Baby Naturals, as well as the importance of greater representation for the Latina community.
She begins by talking about how the support of the Latina community and Honey Baby Naturals’ expanding consumer base has never ceased to instill a sense of pride and amazement in her.
“It’s amazing how much support I get from the Latina community as far as just supporting the brand and spreading the word and it’s beautiful,” Aisha says. “I have so many people reach out to me and just thank me for inspiring them to be entrepreneurs. They’re very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in such a short period of time.”
Honey Baby Naturals emphasizes embracing healthy curls, which according to Aisha, hasn’t always been the case within the Latina community.
“If you go back in history, women were so focused on straightening their hair, it (curly hair) wasn’t embraced, especially in Latin countries: there was like a stigma with having kinky hair or not straight hair, they called it ‘pelo malo’ and it was a negative thing,” Aisha says. “Now it’s seen in such a positive light and it’s beautiful, especially as a mom with daughters with two varying hair textures.”
Aisha explains that the Latina community is steadily increasing in size and buying power. Now more than ever moms are looking for healthier ingredients in labels - making it all the more important to provide integrated, quality products that cater to a variety of hair types. To do that, greater representation needs to be achieved in the market.
“To buy a product created by someone who looks like me, that comes from the same background as me, is powerful,” Aisha says. “If you go into a retail store now, there is no section really for us. We hope to create a more diverse portfolio of products and integrate retailers so that we have luxury products readily available.”
Overall Aisha is excited at the prospect of greater attention being given to the Latina consumer that tends to be underrepresented.
“[Companies] try to market the same product but they’re not customized for us. It is important to understand the consumer: what she’s looking for, what she likes in products, what are her needs, what is her hair. Latina women have such different types of hair you know,” Aisha exclaims. “I’m excited to see this shift in a lot of big companies towards Latina consumers. We’ve been underserved as a consumer for so long.”
