Check Out Tanesha Lloyd’s Story

Natural hair products are notoriously expensive, so I started looking at the ingredients of products to see if they justified the price tag and discovered that a lot of high-dollar items were not what they seemed to be. Every time I considered a hair oil for daily use, I’d read the labels and be left disappointed as I researched the ingredients.

My goal with Avant Garde was to ensure that when I said “natural” products, the ingredients would prove it. When you research the ingredients for yourself, you’ll find that everything in it has its own unique, highly beneficial properties. If you check a bit further to see if the products are worth the price, you’ll find that I’ve established a fitting price point while remaining committed to optimum quality for the oils, herbs, and butters I use.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
One of the biggest challenges I faced is being shy. It can be nerve- wrecking starting something new and introducing it to the world. Social media can make us feel like success is a popularity contest instead of a measure of work ethic and quality. On the other hand, we have access to see so many people doing something similar or with a larger following and feel there’s no room for us.

We’ll see someone with fancier marketing or labeling and think ours has to be absolutely perfect before we deserve to begin. Before launching my website, I decided not to compare myself to others as long as I remain committed to producing quality products and making sure everything about my brand remains true to myself and continues to evolve.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Avant Garde~ Au Naturel formulates and handcrafts products for natural hair and more.

What sets me apart is my commitment to educating, not just selling. My product listings include information on ingredients’ benefits. I talk about proper hair care practices, not just product use. My site even has an “Essentials” category where items such as Satin Bonnets, and Water Misters are available to aid in best hair care practices. You can get information and tips by following Avant Garde on Facebook and Instagram and by joining the newsletter on our website. We’re also on Tiktok with natural hair and small business infotainment.

Prior to ever having the idea to make my own products, people would send messages to me on social media asking questions about my hair and how to care for their and their daughters’ hair. I can think of so many people who embraced returning to their natural hair starting with me answering their questions, giving them advice, and encouraging them to take the leap! I wasn’t intentionally documenting my natural hair journey, but people were noticing it from my pictures.

Even being newly natural when I was out and about, people would compliment my signature afro puff and ask about my natural hair journey, my hair care routine, or products used– but even then I feel like I was really in a stage of trial and error with products and practices and experimenting with styles.

Over the course of a few years, I’d “big chop” my hair into a low cut, then grow it back, maybe relax it, and repeat. I never had the patience to transition back to my natural hair which is gradually cutting an inch or so from your ends over a period of time while continuing to grow your hair. It wasn’t until my daughter was born that I began researching how to treat such a sensitive scalp and still yield growth results. Once I saw our own results, I decided to sell NourishMint Hair Oil Drops by just listing them in a Facebook post. It sold out in one day! I made another batch and it sold out again.

A couple of orders had to be shipped to other states even to people I never met, so I began considering offering NourishMint Hair Oil Drops on a broader scale. That’s when Avant Garde as we know it came into existence offering an array of different products and items to guide your path to your healthiest natural crown.

In addition to formulating my own products based on careful research, I’m proud of having designed my own logo, website, business cards, etc.- not only physically executing the designs but coming up with the styles, color schemes, product names, and descriptions from my own ideas.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
A lot of people don’t know I didn’t always have healthy hair. I didn’t grow up in a time when natural hair was the norm. Little girls’ hair would be chemically processed at small ages like first grade. Black people in this country have been historically oppressed even down to our hair and as a result, we didn’t know how to care for it in its natural form. We were conditioned to believe our curls were inferior to and less attractive than the straight strands of our white counterparts and found ways to straighten our hair using heat and chemicals.

From childhood through college, I went through relaxed hair, then over-relaxed hair when I thought I was mature enough to relax it myself. I experienced broken hair from sleeping on wool blankets and cotton pillowcases. I had over-processed hair from bleaching it at home, not liking my results, and immediately bleaching it again. I recall a college classmate telling me, “You have such a nice grade of hair.” What she didn’t see was that whenever I ran a comb through my hair, I’d have so many strands fall to the floor. My hair was so thin from the shedding and it was time to do something about it. I went to a salon for my first “big chop” and cried so badly. I listened to “I am not My Hair” by India Arie on repeat until I believed every lyric!

I didn’t believe my haircut looked nice until I garnered compliments e v e r y w h e r e  I went. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I can cut my hair and be the most beautiful woman in the room. Still, having a daughter made me want to let my hair thrive and reach its full potential to also know how to care for and style her hair as she gets older and wants more mature styles.

My hair was back length when I began selling NourishMint Hair Oil Drops and I still decided one last big chop was the way to go… Most times as consumers in the health/ beauty industry we prefer testimonials. However, especially with celebrities, we see that once people realize there’s a growing interest in their healthy hair, clear skin, fitness or weight loss, etc., instead of sharing what worked for them, they begin selling something. People don’t want what you just started selling, they want what you’ve actually been using to get results!

With my final big chop after beginning to sell NourishMint Hair Oil Drops, I felt this was my opportunity to actually show what results you can gain no matter where you’re starting in your healthy hair care journey.

• Website: www.avantessentials.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/avantgardeaunaturel
• Facebook: Facebook.com/avantgardeaunaturel
• Other: TikTok.com/@avantessentials.com