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Before Julissa Prado founded Rizos Curls and went viral on curly-girl TikTok, she was just a teenager with a passion for hair. When she was growing up in Los Angeles surrounded by her “huge Mexican family,” her strong work ethic and love for beauty were engrained in her DNA.
“You see a lot of people at a young age develop a little side hustle in LA,” Prado tells Glamour. “I was the hair girl.” Of course, she wasn't alone: This was a family affair, as things often are for the Prado clan. “I also had a cousin who did eyebrows, another that did lashes, and another that did makeup,” she says.
Founded in 2017, Rizos Curls has become the go-to for Latina women looking to care for and enhance their natural hair texture, attracting both TikTok curly girls and celebrities alike (Becky G is a fan). In the beginning Prado ran her business out of her cousin Nathaly's garage, while orders were fulfilled by other cousins. “I'm completely self-funded,” she says. “I've never had investors. But something money can't buy is 100 first cousins in LA.”
Rizos Curls was the answer to Prado's own problem: She couldn't find clean hair care products that worked for her natural hair texture. “I wanted to learn how to do my own hair to help my clients, and I remember going to the store when clean beauty was not a thing and neither was textured haircare,” she says. “I saw a frizz oil and cream that were full of silicones, so I was like, ‘No, I'm going to have to make my own.’”
Fast-forward to today and Prado runs a clean curly hair care empire that embodies everything about her Mexican and Latina heritage. “Being Mexican, it’s embedded into everything that I am, from the formulas to the ingredients that I choose,” she says. “Even the idea of clean beauty and natural ingredients—people think clean beauty is a new, Western trend. And I'm like, you do realize that my Mexican grandma has been doing that! We just didn't call it that.”
Prado's love for her community even extends to her partnerships: She is an ambassador for Colgate to promote their sponsorship of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation's Haz La U Grant Initiative, which awards educational grants totaling $100,000 to Latino students in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“Working with companies and organizations where I'm able to help the Latino community, however it’s needed, is so important to me,” she says. “Because I know how much those grants in similar situations helped me. Whether it's through my brand or through other brands that I connect and partner with, I'm always making sure our vision is aligned in pushing the culture forward.”
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Ahead, Julissa Prado talks to Glamour about building her own beauty brand, Latina representation in beauty and business, the secrets to embracing natural hair texture, and more.
Glamour: What inspired you to create Rizos Curls?
Julissa Prado: I started making my own hair care concoctions and then finally I made something I liked. I remember going to school for the first day wearing my hair curly, and it changed my life. From that point forward, I became “the curl whisperer.” Mind you, I'm a teenager—15 years old at this point. I met all these “undercover curlies,” which are people who had naturally wavy curly hair but you wouldn't know because they straightened it so much. They would be like, “I actually have curly hair. Can you help me?”
I never actually pursued a cosmetology degree. I went through a lot of phases of what I wanted to do—law, politics, and then business. I went to school for business eventually, but I was always doing curly hair, little classes, meeting people in elevators and doing their hair. It followed me.
How did you get your business off the ground?
I went to UCLA for undergrad, then I got my master's in business at Wake Forest and worked corporate at Nestlé. But I was always had this side passion project where I was helping people with their hair. It wasn't until 2013 that I decided to start making the formulas professionally. I used my life savings to fund making the actual formulas. I had zero marketing dollars. I have a huge Mexican family, so my cousin Vanessa drew the drawing on my bottle and we scanned it and uploaded it to make the design. The models are my cousins and I; the photographer was my brother. I made the website.
My headquarters was at my cousin Nathaly's house, literally her backyard with my other cousin Yohan's garage. It was a huge family effort. When I finally did launch in 2017, all of those people that I had been helping with their hair over the years became our first customers. That first week we received hundreds of orders with so many testimonials like, “I don't know if you remember me, but at the UC student conference, I met you in the elevator and you did my hair during the break and I've been wearing my hair curly ever since.”
That’s amazing. One of my questions was actually how your big family and the community impacted the journey, and so clearly they were such an important part.
Yeah, I'm completely self-funded. I've never had investors. But something money can't buy is 100 first cousins in LA. To this day, if I were to need 40 people to come and help me with orders or something, it would just be a group chat text and they would be there.
Obviously there’s your family, but how else would you say that your Latina and Mexican identity shaped the brand and your approach to business overall?
My Mexican heritage is embedded into everything that I am, from the formulas to the ingredients that I choose. The idea of clean beauty and natural ingredients—people think clean beauty is a new, Western trend. And I'm like, you do realize that my Mexican grandma has been doing that! We just didn't call it that.
The brand in general is a celebration of Latino culture, everything Latinidad. Anything that's pushing the Latino community forward. Like being an ambassador for Colgate was really aligned, because they have partnered with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and are awarding educational grants of $100,000 to 31 students and it's called Haz La U. I know how much those grants in similar situations helped me.
Latinas make up a huge percentage of beauty consumers in the US, representing nearly 20% of the beauty industry’s revenue and spending $35 to $50 more than non-Hispanic buyers a year on personal care items. But a lot of the beauty industry isn’t geared toward Latinos specifically, while Latin-founded and -owned companies report it harder to find investors. What advice do you have for aspiring Latinas in the beauty community?
Sometimes we get discouraged to pursue something new because you're like, “How could I compete with these companies that have millions of dollars for these marketing campaigns?” But I will say that a lot of these companies that are trying to understand Latino beauty—the complexions and the hair and all of that—it's something they have to learn. They don't innately already have that knowledge. Whereas somebody who has experienced it can authentically create, whether it's products, content, or education, in a way that makes them feel seen.
I know it sounds clichéd, but don't get discouraged to start small because you can use it to your advantage. When you're a small business, you are able to be more versatile and implement change. You are able to stay on trends, you're able to communicate and directly innovate with your customer. They can be your product development advice squad. They are the ones that almost can be used as a resource directly.
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You mentioned the feeling of being “discouraged.” Did you have to overcome a lot of obstacles while building Rizos Curls?
The biggest obstacles were not having the network, not having the type of funding, and having to be really smart and scrappy. You have to be really smart about your cashflow and finances, because one wrong move, that's bankruptcy. One wrong move, you can't pay your employees. One wrong move is the end of your business. So for us, it's definitely been that.
Early on, it was really interesting seeing some pushback from certain retailers when we talked about what the Latina consumer wants and needs. I walked out of meetings where they said things like, “You should make your products cheaper without all these natural ingredients. Latinas don't care about natural; they care about coupons.” And I remember being like, “You don't even know us!”
When I'm going to work with a brand, I have to know you're putting your money where your mouth is. Let me see some of your teams. Do you have anybody in your team that looks like me or comes from a similar background? What are you doing that is for the Latino community?
And what was the moment you realized you really “made it”?
This journey, even though it's going to be almost six years, it has gone by so fast. I'm just working hard with my head down, and once in a while I'll look up and I'm just shocked. The business is way more than anything my little brain could have imagined. Just the fact that it's going to be year six and I'm still here is incredible to me.
In the beginning my mom thought we were selling out of our trunks. She thought I was an Avon lady. She would make announcements at our church like, “We're going to be selling outside.” It wasn't until we launched in retail and she saw it physically at a store was that she was like, “Oh my God, this is a real business.”
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Obviously, we have to discuss beauty. What are the beauty and hair products you can’t live without?
I've been really into Rizos Curls Beach Wave Spray. I have the travel version of it right now. I always thought salt sprays were for straight- or wavy-hair people. But ever since I started using it, it makes me look like I have so much hair. It has benefits for all textures. For straight and wavy hair, it makes it more defined and it creates texture. For people that have curly or coily hair, it makes it look really full and extra voluminous.
Then, for my teeth, I love the Colgate Optic White ComfortFit LED Teeth Whitening Kit. I'm always on the go and if I have two minutes, I'll do it in the car quickly. I can legitimately plug it into my phone and put it in my mouth, and then it beeps when you're done.
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For skin, I've been really into the Live Tinted Sunblock Stick. Again, on-the-go girlie. I've never seen a sunblock stick, and it's just so easy and little and I rub it on and throw it in my purse. I really like that.
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On my lips, I have the Becky G Tresluce Beauty lipstick in Dark Cafecito. It's a really good brown that matches with everything.
My sister and I have pretty textured hair, but over the years we’ve damaged it with styling and now it’s hard to wear it naturally. What advice do you have for people who are trying to embrace their naturally textured hair?
I love this question because the majority of our customers are actually people that are doing exactly what you just explained. They're trying out their natural hair for the first time, which just blows my mind. You have to fix these things and then slowly, as you're getting fixed, everything's going to look better and better. There are two parts. One is the repair part, and there are two parts of that. We have a vitamin C hair repair mask, so whether it's with ours or whatever reparative mask, it's really important to decondition. If you have a lot of damage, I would recommend deep conditioning once a week.
Sophia Richie did this in a tutorial—she has that sleek bun that she does with the middle part. She said during COVID, she was using a hair mask all over and then did the bun and it repaired her hair. That's something I literally did because my hair was really damaged from bleaching it.
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The second one is buildup on your scalp and hair. In order for your hair to grow really healthy, faster, thicker, stronger, you have to have a clean slate. We have an apple cider vinegar scalp and hair rinse and apple cider vinegar rinse, which is a pH balancer. If you have oily scalp, it balances it to a normal scalp. If you have dry scalp, it balances it. The ACV rinse also has black tea kombucha, green tea extract, rice extract, niacinamide. It has a lot of these really amazing moisturizing ingredients as well that are going to make your hair just look shinier.
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When you use products, use things that are bringing out the texture. If your hair is wavy, I would recommend a mousse or a curl cream, but then you have to hold the texture that you just created. So either adding hairspray or gel is really important, and we have a light hold gel for people that don't like that crunch.
Once you add those definition products, you can literally finger-coil your hair, and it works like a curling iron. We have a lot of tutorials about this on our social media, but you can manipulate the curl once you have that product in there. You can go like this and then you put your hair out and then it creates a coil, like a ringlet, then you can spray your hair with hairspray or gel and then it stays like that.
What’s the biggest hair care mistake that curly girls tend to make with their hair?
Two things. One of them is not shampooing. The amount of people that we get that tell us, “I have so much buildup, the products not working.” I'm like, “When was the last time you shampooed?” And they'll say, “It's been three years.” And then I'm like, “Can you send me a picture of your scalp or your hair?” Their scalp has so much buildup, and they are using oils that are making their scalp very oily and their hair weighed down. Shampooing and cleaning your scalp is so important. That's one big hair care mistake.
Another one? A lot of time when people say, “My hair doesn't last.” That's because you need some hold. I know people hate the crunchy feeling of hair spray, but if you just add a little bit, it holds the curl in place and allows for it not to separate and not get frizzy.
Finally, what’s your astrological sign?
I'm a Pisces. My big three: Pisces Sun, Libra Moon, and Virgo Rising.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Danielle Sinay is the associate beauty editor at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @daniellesinay.
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