Invest in Coils to Locs
Highly Textured Wigs for Medical Hair Loss: Doing Well By Doing Good in the $2 Billion+ Wig Space
Highlights
Our Team
Here's a Secret... The Medical Hair Loss Industry Has a HUGE Blind Spot That is Costing Them Millions if Not Billions...
Our hospital vendors have told us that the U.S. wig distributors serving the hospital and medical hair loss industry are not selling highly textured wigs, yet patients are demanding culturally sensitive wig choices in medical hair loss spaces.
This missed opportunity to meet the needs of an untapped market of Black women who are driving 85% of the sales in North America alone in the wigs and hair extension market works to our advantage.
Our highly textured wigs are an uncontested market product in medical hair loss spaces!
That puts Coils to Locs and our investors in a position to address the needs of an untapped market in medical hair loss spaces, take our share of a $2+ billion dollar industry AND address a health equity issue while creating value for our target market of beautiful Black women across the U.S., Canada and eventually globally!
Shhh! This secret is between us and our savvy investors!
I'm Dianne Austin, CEO and co-founder of Coils to Locs, a national distributor of beautiful, premium fiber, tightly coiled and curly wigs.
This business was started because of my lived experience as a cancer patient who was losing all of my hair because of chemotherapy.
My cancer journey opened my eyes to a vast medical hair loss industry set up to support women interested in wigs for medical hair loss.
But much to my sheer surprise and frustration, none of the hospital spaces that I visited while looking for a wig for medical hair loss, (called a cranial prosthesis or hair prosthesis), sold wigs that looked like the tightly coiled hair that I was losing.
These medical spaces that are set up to support patients with resources only sold straight haired wigs...
I soon learned after some research that this is a systemic issue across the country, in Canada, and other parts of the globe.
Did you know that many private insurers will cover the cost of a wig for medical hair loss?
And although you don't need health insurance coverage to purchase a wig for medical reasons, my health insurer covered the cost for up to $350 dollars as long as I submitted a prescription from my doctor along with a formal invoice.
But I was denied the opportunity to take advantage of my health insurance because I couldn't find a wig in medical spaces that spoke to my desire to look as much like myself as possible during my cancer journey.
Let's look at the facts
Cancer is not the only reason for hair loss among Black women. Hair loss comes in many forms.
Contributors to hair loss include:
- Traction alopecia, which is caused by hair styles that pull at the root of the hair
- Medication taken for chronic illnesses
- Autoimmune diseases, such as thyroid imbalances, and lupus
- Aging
Our line of premium fiber, highly textured wigs!
I couldn't find the textured, coily wigs that so deeply represent who I am within the healthcare system, so we decided to do something about this disparity. This is when Coils to Locs was born.
Both myself, and my co-founder and sister, Pamela are integrally involved in the black hair culture as bloggers and influencers. PS - you can read and learn more here.
Between our hair culture background, entrepreneurial experience, and my understanding of the healthcare space having worked in the industry for over 20 years, we knew we were well suited to both provide a product that women would love to wear, and be able to get that product into medical spaces across America.
We've made progress on both fronts...
Coils to Locs Wigs has partnered with 27 medical hair loss spaces across the country (and growing)
We have proof of concept: Hospitals, their patients, and women who purchase online love our wigs...
We love feedback!
It's what keeps us going...
- You can check out our exclusive hospital catalog of wigs here.
- Click here to view our direct to consumer online store where we sell different wig styles to our customers who are experiencing all forms of hair loss and for women who just love wearing wigs!
Market Opportunity
Addressing healthcare disparities can drive both social change and financial returns
Forward looking projections cannot be guaranteed.
The national media has recognized our innovation in bringing inclusivity into medical hair loss spaces!
Forbes: Coils to Locs: Cancer And A Life Pivot Creates A Startup
Boston Globe: "Black Female Founders Sell the Medical Wigs That Other Companies Won't"
People: "This Mom & Cancer Survivor, Couldn't Find Curly Textured Wigs After Chemo, So She Created Her Own"
With the media highlighting Coils to Locs, and the unfortunately high number of women who truly need this product, we immediately started receiving messages like:
"Hello, I have lost all of my hair due to years of dealing with diabetes And dialysis ... Please tell me how I can become one of your customers!!"
And
"I am not a cancer patient, but a Lupus survivor. I started to lose my hair in college before being diagnosed with Lupus. Your hair units are exactly what I love. More ethnic. More me. We need beautiful and affordable hair too. Thank you for your vision and best of luck!"
The response was telling us that the market was there
We have proven many times over that there is proof of concept both B2B and DTC.
We are now laser focused on expanding beyond the 26 hospitals that we currently partner with and scaling Coils to Locs into a multimillion dollar enterprise. We will be the leader in bringing culturally sensitive wigs to medical hair loss spaces, while bringing profits to our early investors.
Our strategy for becoming a leader in the medical (and non-medical) wig industry
The facts show that there is strong proof of concept that can be scaled with sufficient capital
Competitive Landscape
There are no players in the highly textured wig sector with significant control on the wigs for medical hair loss industry. In fact, there are NO players in the medical hair salon and cancer center space AT ALL that we can find and based on hospital feedback. This means that for women of color who experience hair loss and need a wig that can be purchased in medical hair loss spaces with or without health insurance, there are limited options.
Those wigs in the market that are highly textured can sometimes be found at select beauty supply stores, and they are notoriously of lesser quality.
Coils to Locs is filling a void that the major wig distributors have neglected to fill in the healthcare space
But we are also building a brand that reaches beyond cancer centers. Hair loss can be the result of many factors both medical and non-medical.
And we know that Black women embrace wigs not just because of hair loss, but as a form of protective styling and self expression. We are poised to meet the needs of both markets.
Introducing Pamela, my co-founder, sister, and my partner in building Coils to Locs
Affected by traction alopecia, Pamela said starting this family business with me was a no brainer! We're both dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion, helping Black women and other women of color feel more like themselves during hair loss due to medical or non-medical reasons. We're passionate about sharing Coils to Locs' mission in a way that ensures Black women in particular feel seen and heard.
Our super power within this market opportunity is that we are our market.
It gives us a unique advantage over the current major wig distributors!
We understand this market through our lived experience as Black women immersed in the culture and history of Black women's hair and hair styling preferences from the days that we sat on a stool between our mother's legs to get our hair "done"!
Both Pamela and I have lived with hair loss both medical and non-medical and Pamela is an avid wig wearer, not just because of hair loss but to change up her look when she's bored with a particular hair style, or just because...
Our Team
Cheryl McCloud, our talented "sister-cousin" has been with us since the beginning, and she will continue to be an integral team member during this raise and beyond. Cheryl has deep bench knowledge in communications, PR marketing and community engagement with an emphasis on health equity engagement. Her focus is helping to build on our hospital relationships across the B2B space. Cheryl is a cancer thriver who experienced losing all of her hair to chemotherapy.
Nadja Vanterpool is our in-house expert on everything wigs. Nadja has deep bench experience in wig making, wig quality and wig care. She's a licensed cosmetologist who works with all clients and she has a deep understanding of the trends in Black hair care through her work with clients who sit in her chair. Whether she is educating her peers on how to work with natural hair, to leading a Coils to Locs webinar, we rely on Nadja for all things wigs.
Our business advisors round out our team's expertise
What's in store for 2025 and beyond?
We've shared our market strategy but here's what that looks like in practical terms:
Growing our B2B partnerships continue to be a priority. We've hired a consultant who specializes in business development strategy execution specific to consumer brands.
He's worked with major brands like Proctor and Gamble, and is the recipient of P&G's Triple Crown Award. He's not only training our team on best practices related to sales and building relationships but he is in the trenches; using his network and experience to cultivate partnerships that create revenue and provide value to the consumer. He has deep expertise in beauty brands, and multicultural marketing, and we are excited about our brand growth and expansion over the next several months!
We will continue to actively pursue partnerships with the 50+ confirmed cancer centers & 150+ medical hair salons that specialize in working with customers experiencing hair loss, as well as the additional 200+ "unlisted" medical hair salons across the nation.
We will hyper focus on building partnerships with the major health insurance carriers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tricare, United Health, and Kaiser Permanente in order to partner as an additional cancer resource for members of their healthcare plans.
We're International! Global expansion opportunities
Black women are driving sales of wigs and extensions in the international market, a $6 billion according to market data.
There continues to be opportunity outside of the U.S. market and our goal is to tap into the global market in the next 12 to 24 months, with adequate capital.
Look Good Feel Better in Canada early partnership
The visionary team at Look Good Feel Better in Canada has been engaging Coils to Locs based on their interest in raising awareness and access to our culturally sensitive wig line within the Canadian medical hair loss system!
We continue to engage in conversations within the Canadian system to support our ability to provide access to our culturally sensitive wigs across the provinces.
We also launched a direct to consumer ecommerce site for the Canadian market!
We're doing the work to better understand how to expand into global markets with expert guidance from the Massachusetts Export Center
We are continuing our relationship with Massachusetts Export Center MSBDC Network, who has been helping us to understand the complexities of the international market through market analysis and general guidance. This will support our next steps into business expansion globally over the next several years.
Top markets identified include: Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom, Brazil, France, among many others!
Forward looking projections cannot be guaranteed.
We raised over $78k from friends and family during our last raise in 2023!
Help Us Reach Our Goal of $250K By May, 2025!
Our projected growth curve
- Establish educational partnerships with hospital social workers, patient navigators, oncologists and nurses who provide resources to patients beginning their cancer treatment.
- Create brand presence at cultural touchpoints where our target customers authentically gather, including Black churches, HBCU alumni gatherings, Divine Nine sorority events, natural hair expos, and community wellness events
- Optimize sales within the existing direct-to-consumer e-commerce site & push the brand to all US and Canadian markets
- Focus on one to two international business expansion opportunities outside of Canada
- Acquire a partnership with the major healthcare insurance providers
- Increase our revenue streams to offer wigs for men and children as well as white label wig products
- Coils to Locs is offered at the majority of the Cancer Centers and medical hair salons across the country
Forward looking projections cannot be guaranteed.
This business is about more than just wigs
It's about closing the healthcare disparity that wig distributors have overlooked for generations. It's about creating a brand of wigs that Black women feel confident & beautiful in.
We've ALL been touched by a friend, relative, or coworker who has experienced chemotherapy and other forms of medical and non-medical hair loss. Join us on this journey to ensure that every woman has access to a wig that resembles the hair that she lost.
