Executive Suite: Ouidad builds business on good hair days

NEW YORK -- Some people manage to become such a bigger-than-life presence in their field that they become generally recognized simply by their first name. Emeril in food. Oprah on the talk-show circuit. Valentino in fashion.

And in the world of caring for curly hair: Ouidad.

A loyal following of ringlet-adorned women around the globe are intimately familiar with the Ouidad (WEE-dod) line of specialized hair care products and Ouidad's frizz-reducing hair-cutting technique known — and trademarked — as Carving and Slicing.

In Ouidad Wise, these women have an ally — as well as compatriot with personal experience — in battling distressing tresses. Lebanon-born Ouidad, 50, describes the long, thick, curly hair of her youth as a "mop head."

Even after moving to the USA with her family at age 16 and getting a job at a Rhode Island hair salon, Ouidad had a tough time taming her mane. In learning to care for her own hair, she began developing a professional specialty for conquering curls.

By her early 20s, Ouidad says, she established a reputation as a go-to hair stylist for curls and worked for Broadway shows, advertising-agency photo shoots and fashion magazine spreads.

A difficult leap of faith

At 26, she opened a salon dedicated solely to the care of wavy, kinky or curly hair.

But that entrepreneurial leap proved difficult.

Beauty editors warned her there was no market for her concept. "They said, 'You might as well throw your money away,' " says Ouidad.

And bankers scoffed when she tried to get financing. Raising money "was very difficult," she says. "I had to borrow from friends and family — a thousand here and a thousand there — to build the business."

She ultimately also was able to obtain a loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration and, in 1984, she and husband Peter Wise opened a 1,200-square-foot Ouidad Salon in New York City.

A little more than two decades later, Ouidad has built curls into a multimillion-dollar hair business that also includes hair products and professional training. Among her roles:

•Lead stylist. In 2004, she moved from that first salon to a sleek, 5,000-square-foot space in Midtown Manhattan. The operation has 15 full-time employees and a clientele that includes women who travel from as far as Italy, Argentina and Israel for the services of Ouidad and her staff. And it includes about 20% men.