Curls of the World, Right in Stone Mountain

Most curly haired gals think it's a curse to have their hair. They're constantly battling it with irons and blow dryers to straighten it. And when they occasionally leave it curly, harmful products are used to try to tame the frizz.

It's a never-winning struggle. Well, unless you visit Curls of the World.

Curls of the World, which just opened Saturday in the Cranky Princess' old spot on Main Street, helps embrace the curl with all-natural products made from safe ingredients. Owned by Rhian and Chris Sharp, Curls of the World started when Rhian's product line by the same name started its success. On most days, Chris Sharp and his kids can be found in the shop while Rhian Sharp works her day job as the HR director for the Department of Behavioral Health. 

Curls of the World specializes in curly hair, but it also carries products for other hair types, from straight hair to even dreads. Rhian's main focus is to promote a healthy lifestyle, free of harmful sulfates, alcohol, and other damaging hair ingredients. 

In this week's Meet the Owner, Patch speaks with Rhian Sharp about opening up shop, how the bubbly stuff in shampoo harms hair, and how her 4- and 6-year-old kids, Reagan and Christian, inspired her line.  

Patch: On your website, you said that your kids originally inspired you to do this. It seems very epiphany-like. 

Rhian Sharp: It was very much so. When they were little, they were playing and I had my extensions. It felt like it was important for me as they were growing up to understand that it's fine who they are because when you look at them, they're comfortable playing. They're not caring about, "Oh my hair is sticking out," or "It's different." They're just happy being themselves. I think that's important for people to maintain that awareness of self and love of self. And the only way for your kids to feel that way is to set an example. I didn't want my daughter to think, "Oh, you have to have your hair really chemically straight in order to be pretty." 

Patch: What made you decide to open a shop in the Village?

Rhian Sharp: Well, we run here all the time. We used to live in Stone Mountain. We used to come out to the Village and have coffee and stuff. We always just thought it was a cute place. We were going to lease a place in Stockbridge, but on my run coming back, we saw that this space was available. It's just a cute little house. 

Patch: You made your own line of hair products before opening the shop. When did that all come about? 

Rhian Sharp: Well, ours is a bit more granola that most people. I've always been into running and health, and we're all vegetarian. 

Reagan Sharp (Rhian's daughter): Mommy and Daddy used to be meat eaters!

Rhian Sharp: (laugh) We used to be. They've never had meat. We just wanted stuff that would be healthy for them. 

I had long extensions forever, almost for 15 years. I took them out, and I wanted something that I could use to help take care of my hair without a lot of chemicals in it. It was a challenge to find. I used a lot of products that are in the store, on myself and for the kids. I'm from Trinidad, so I used oils and stuff. I used them to mix together.

It seems that a lot of the resources for natural health are in California. But all of the resources and chemists, they're there to tell you what you need to use for natural preservatives. But the manufacturing is more on the East Coast. 

We went online in December, January as a permanent LLC. We get a lot of folks in Georgia that say, "If I want to buy some product, where would I buy some?" and I didn't want to pay shipping, so I would drive around delivering stuff. 

Patch: How did you come up with the formula for your products?

Rhian Sharp: Oh my gosh, I've done so much. First of all, I've just always had a knowledge [of hair] by growing up in Trinidad. When I was little, we always used ratchet, which the most similar thing to ratchet here is aloe vera. We would wash our hair with it so it wouldn't be so dry and it wouldn't get so tangled. We've always used just a lot of natural product. 

And then there's so much research online about not using certain things in your body, what's good for highly textured hair. Shea butter, lavender oil, olive oil, it helps your scalp. Just learning about them and just integrating them with knowledge [I already had]. It's a lot of mixing and "Does this work? Or does this work?"

Patch: And you don't use anything toxic or harmful to your hair?

Rhian Sharp: No alcohol, no silicons, no parabens, no petra chemicals, no sulfates. You actually don't need that stuff. [Sulfates are] just for bubbly stuff. The research that I did, the conditioners  and shampoos became popular with the French around the 1800s, and what people like is the bubbly effect, and the sulfates actually do a lot of that. but it also strips your hair and makes it really dry.

Patch: What are the main ingredients in your products?

Rhian Sharp: In the flax seed gel, it's the flax seeds. All it does is that it gels up. And then we add Irish moss. In Trinidad, it's called sea moss. But the main ingredient is the flax seed, and flax seed is an antioxidant. It's really good for your skin. 

Then in the Caribbean Carnival [product], the main ingredient is the mango butter, shea butter, avocado butters, so it's really a shea butter base. 

Tahitian Bay, which is the leave-in detangler, the main ingredient there would be the lavender, olive oils, water. Of course, the moisture is very important, and then the five minerals oil. 

Patch: Do you have a stylist that comes in to the shop?

Rhian Sharp: I do have a stylist that only works with natural products. We're going to do little events here, about education and we'll be doing demonstrations. Just education about stuff that you put in your hair. I didn't know until very recently that even when you put stuff on the ends of your hair, [and] even though your hair is dead, it can still go in your system. So you have to be really aware. 

Patch: What is one tip you have for curly hair?

Rhian Sharp: I think the main thing is to be really gentle with your hair, you know, because you say "Oh, my hair is curly, I have to be really tough." And really, the more curl your hair has, the more fragile it is. So the more curly your hair is, the more gentle you have to be with it. 

Curls of the World is located at 988 Main Street, Stone Mountain.