After spending hours searching for products to style her son's natural hair, only to be left with limited options, Cora Miller, along with her husband, Stefan Miller, decided to launch their own curated collection to fill the void they noticed within the natural hair care market.
Young King Hair Care is a plant-based natural hair care line that the Millers created for multicultural boys.
"Our goal is to redefine male grooming for the next generation by encouraging boys to show up with full confidence and take pride in their self-care," Cora told "Good Morning America."
Stefan added, "Our guiding mission has always been to redefine male grooming by encouraging boys with textured hair to celebrate and love their crowns. Based on the consumer research we completed, one of the biggest pain points for parents was not knowing what to do nor how to style their son's hair and finding little options with clean, premium quality ingredients."
Young King Hair Care currently offers a shampoo, conditioner, leave-in conditioner, curling cream and essential oils.
Additionally, there's a three-step styling package, The Royal Treatment, which includes the curling cream, leave-in conditioner and essential oils. These products work well together to adhere to the Liquid Oil Cream Method, also known as the L.O.C. method, which Stefan said is a proven technique for layering products to moisturize and strengthen textured hair.
The Atlanta-based company also recently launched a shampoo and conditioner, The Crown Wash Set, that works to help cleanse, refresh and enhance natural curls.
Each product has been crafted with natural ingredients and is free from sulfates, parabens, mineral oils or other harmful ingredients, which makes them safe for babies and adults.
Cora, a retired vice president of external affairs for UnitedHealth Group, and Stefan, a marketing professional, spent over a year conducting research, facilitating consumer focus groups, going through multiple iterations of brand design, identifying the right manufacturing company and testing products with parents of young boys to ensure that their product formulation aligned with their vision.
"We wanted our brand and our products to be as unique and dynamic as our target audience," Stefan told "GMA." "From the ingredients to the scent to the packaging design, we wanted to be thoughtful on formulating, sourcing and finalizing our initial product offerings in order to uniquely meet the needs of boys with textured hair."
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"We generally use all three styling products daily to provide constant moisture and curl definition since his hair is on the coarser and dryer side," said Cora.
Cora and Stefan's 2-step wash day routine for Kade:
Step 1: Start with leave-in conditioner and massage it in thoroughly from root to tip.
Step 2: Follow with a quarter size application of the essential oil and curling cream throughout the entire head.
"Kade has gotten so accustomed to getting his hair done now and he loves when mommy or daddy can make his curls 'pop,'" said Cora. "In fact, he even made up a song and dance where he talks about how poppin' his curls are."
"We are uplifted and shining a light on an underrepresented community within the market," said Cora. "We firmly believe that representation is critically important for boys of color, especially given today's current climate."
"We all know the problems facing the Black community and particularly Black boys and men," she continued. Sadly, more often than not, Black males are seen as a threat and are prejudged before they even open their mouths. As founders of Young King Hair Care and more importantly, as parents of a growing Black boy, we want to change the narrative of how the world sees Black boys. We know our young kings are royally crafted, they are our future change-makers and they will help make this world a better place."
In less than a year, Young King Hair Care has received lots of positive feedback from parents. One mother, Dinah M., shared on Instagram, "These products work amazing together! My son's hair is usually dry, but he has been using this combo and his curls are staying moist and defined. Plus he loves having his own personal products."
Another mother, Jenny, raved about how hydrated and healthy her son's curls were after using the products, and said they made him feel good about himself.
Young King Hair Care has been selected as one of the top 10, out of over 450 brands, to participate in Target's accelerator program for emerging beauty brands. Additionally, the brand has secured multiple retail partnerships which will allow it to be sold in more stores soon, the Millers said.
