They say, if you can make it in New York City, then you can make it anywhere.
This is especially true for Lisa Price, founder and owner of popular hair, skin and body care product line Carol’s Daughter. The line was birthed in 1993 in her kitchen in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
The line is an ode to Price's mother, who she said raised her to be the woman she is today. Price began selling her products at local flea markets and pop-up shops before she opened her first store in 1999 on South Elliott Place and the corner of DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene.
More recently, Lisa Price has brought Carol's Daughter back to its roots with a new line called Lisa's Kitchen. The line is an ode to the reclamation of the company after selling it to L'Oréal in 2017. It blends botanicals like soursop and lavender into hair products that nourish the scalp and edges.
Over the years, Price has had a front-row seat to building a business "born in Brooklyn, made with love," as the tagline goes. Here's her take on what makes running a business in Brooklyn especially beautiful.
The following interview has been edited for clarity:
What’s one memory of growing up in Brooklyn that still shapes how you see Brooklyn today?
I have to admit that it's getting a little bit harder to see this part of Brooklyn, but it still exists. My earliest memory is shopping with my mom. We went to places like DeKalb Avenue, and there were merchants there who sold clothing and things like that. We didn't go there all the time, but the reason that you would go there is you could get basic items—white undershirts, cotton, nothing fancy, socks. We would buy them to get ready for the school year and get them in bulk to share with other family members if they were unable to pick them up.
That community that looks out for one another is still visible in Brooklyn, and that's something that I remember. It’s a little harder to see it because there's so much big business. But in the realm of small business, you do see other small businesses helping one another, promoting one another, looking out for one another. Tompkins Avenue is a great example of that.
How much of your Brooklyn upbringing is baked into the brand’s identity?
A lot of Brooklyn is baked into the brand's identity, it just may not always be visible. When we first went on Home Shopping Network years ago, there used to be a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. Did anybody at home necessarily see that on their television screen? Probably not. But it was there for me and for the brand, for confidence, and for the vibe.
To me, Brooklyn represents the place where my grandparents came, when they immigrated here from Trinidad, where they found a community of other West Indian people, Trinidadian, Bajan, Guyanese, et cetera. And they worshipped at church together. They raised their families, they assimilated into this culture, but still held on to their traditions.
To me, there are just certain things you can find with ease in Brooklyn that you don't find elsewhere.
What lesson to navigate business did you learn that can be attributed to your time in Brooklyn?
When our city was hit with 9/11 there were people, many people, who left lower Manhattan because they had to, because where they once lived, they couldn't live.
Several people came to Brooklyn, and before that, Manhattan was the only borough anyone was ever interested in talking about in New York City. All of a sudden, Brooklyn is cool. It became the new Manhattan. All of a sudden, because somebody else decided that it was cool, it got this upgrade, this facelift, if you will.
In the course of building Carol's Daughter, there was a time when mainstream people did not necessarily understand the natural hair movement and its impact. We compared it to Brooklyn—if you were native to Brooklyn, you always appreciated Brooklyn, you understood the beauty of its tree-lined streets, you knew the brownstones existed, you knew the value of the property, but other people didn't know about it. Other people chose to look their nose up at it, but you knew how magical it was, and that is where you were from. Because when you're from there, you're woven into that community.
With people who were choosing to wear their hair natural and not relax anymore. Yes, it took a little bit more work. Yes, it was a bit inconvenient, but it was beautiful. It was worth the work. It gave you a certain type of freedom. There was something magical about it. Something was empowering about it. And so, I began to make that analogy within decks to help people understand that movement.
Is that a business weapon? Maybe so, because storytelling is a part of business.
If someone visiting Brooklyn for the first time asked you where to go to “get” the borough, where would you send them?
That's such a hard question to answer, because I think it depends on the age of the person, the types of food that they like, the ethnicity of the person. Brooklyn Heights is a vibe. Park Slope is a vibe. Bedford-Stuyvesant is a vibe. Coney Island is a vibe. But they're all very different vibes. My husband and I have taken guests everywhere. Domino Park now, where the carousel is. The carousel is exquisite. Whether you ride it or not, it's a great day, just walking around, outdoors, and taking photos.
Our biggest thing in Downtown Brooklyn is the Alamo Drafthouse. That's our movie theater. We love film, and that's an activity that we love to do together and the food court in the basement is incredible and gives you a very good sampling of the tastes of the city.
There are just so many places I could choose from.
What do you hope people from Brooklyn feel when they pick up a Carol’s Daughter product?
I want everybody that picks up Carol's Daughter products, whether they're from Brooklyn or from Berlin. I want you to feel love. I want you to feel seen. I want you to feel like something's coming to your life to make it a little bit sweeter, a little bit easier, a little bit more wonderful. But if you're from Brooklyn, maybe you appreciate the phrase, Born in Brooklyn… Made with Love, written on the package, because maybe you feel that way too. If Brooklyn is special to you, then you feel like I see you, and I honor that in you, and you know that Brooklyn is special to me.
