I've had gray hair since I was nineteen. One here. Two or three there. Since I turned thirty, those two or three have multiplied and now are visible along my temples, my widow's peak, and sprinkled throughout the crown of my head. There was a time when I was coloring my hair with box color every six weeks to make sure I covered the gray so that I didn't look "old."
When I turned thirty-two, I decided to give up my beloved jet black hair dye to embrace my grays since premature graying is something that has been passed down for generations on my mom's side of the family. She calls it "the Spencer gene" and seeing the gray hair makes me feel like I'm carrying the generation of women before me every day.
I'd always joked about just dying my entire head gray and just getting it over with, so when I saw hair paint wax floating around on Instagram, I was intrigued. Changing the color of my hair hasn't been what's stopped me from taking to plunge, but since my hair is dark and coily, going lighter usually means a lot of maintenance and the possibility of damage. Been there, done that, and have the #tbt pictures to show it.
Been there, done that, and have the #tbt pictures to prove it.
After watching a few YouTube tutorials and taking an IG deep-dive to see how other ladies hair turned out, I went over to Amazon and bought "silver" MOFAJANG wax. To be honest, I was a little nervous. My mind raced (I overthink everything) with questions like, "Will my hair still be on my head after I rinse this off? What is in it?" The Amazon description reads "made from natural ingredients, no scalp irritation, environmentally friendly and no harm to your health."
I guess I'll have to take their word for it.
Bianca Lambert/xoNecole
The product arrived on Sunday. I was going to wait until the weekend to use it just in case I got called in for an audition, but I woke up at 4 am Monday morning and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I decided it was time to give this hair paint a try. The directions say that your hair should be dry, but I re-wet my hair with my spray bottle and did my hair the same way I'd do my usual wash and go — part my hair in six sections, spray with water, smooth gel on my hair (with prayer hands), then I added the wax on top, and dried it with my diffuser.
It took me an extra few minutes to make sure the hair paint was disputed evenly throughout my hair and the impact on how much time it took me to do my hair was minimal, but it was messy.
I had hair paint on my face, under my arm (No clue how it got there.), on my water bottle, but it all washed right off with water. No scrubbing needed.
Bianca Lambert/xoNecole
Once my hair dried, I loved it. My curls felt the same way it would if I hadn't added the wax to my hair. I wore a black turtleneck that day to see if it would flake off on my clothes, which it did, but it wasn't enough to bother me. It would only flake off when I'd fluff my hair, but other than that there was no transfer. Once it's on, it's on.
The next day, I tried a puff to see how the hair paint would fair beyond day one. Since I needed to spray my hair with water to be able to get it up into a puff, I lost a little of the color at the base of my head in the process, but the color on the ends of my hair stayed intact until I washed it two days later.
Bianca Lambert/xoNecole
I had a lot of fun using this product. It gave me a new look without much effort and without the damage (and cost) of coloring my hair permanently — and it washed right out on wash day.
If you're a natural girl that wants to try something new, I'd highly recommend this. Since it's wax, I'm not sure how it would do on straight hair, but I still think it might be worth a try!
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"When I graduated high school, I moved back to America, Georgia, and I ended up making, like, the oil, the Rose Galore oil, which is like the staple product of my brand. I don't know what made me make it, but I did, and it literally cleared my face up," she tells xoNecole in an exclusive interview.
"I end up selling it as a body oil first because, obviously, I'm 17, [and] don't have any background as an esthetician or anything like that. I just made a product that worked for me, but people bought it and was using it, and I reformulated it, and then it just stuck like with me."
While MoonXCosmetics is known for its facial products, it wants to expand to body care and home. It just released its new product, Moon-Gel body wash, and it's only up from there. As Mariee continues to grow the brand, it's more than likely that she will see more history-making moments. And so far she has.
Photo courtesy
When asked if she feels pressure to obtain more of those milestones, she says yes and no. "I did $1.8 [million] again, and then I did $2 million but I feel like now, currently, I don't look at that as one of my goals anymore because [of] the headache and just everything that came with it, but I was thankful and blessed to have that milestone, but now I'm looking for more," she says.
"I want to say more reach than more like fast-paced sales. I do want that. Obviously, every girl wants that, but I do want to have a better overall reach for my brand because I did take two years off so I was able to learn, [and] study a lot of different things. See how things have changed from 2020 to now."
"I did $1.8 [million] again, and then I did $2 million but I feel like now, currently, I don't look at that as one of my goals anymore because [of] the headache and just everything that came with it, but I was thankful and blessed to have that milestone, but now I'm looking for more."
Another part of expanding for any company is hiring people. Finding the right person to help you can be a hassle, especially for business owners who are used to doing all the work themselves. Mariee can relate to this, and she touched on this topic in her documentaryThe Million Dollar Story. She recommends having someone be your "right-hand man" who you trust to handle the ins and outs of the company.
"I could say, definitely get, like a right-hand man to help you within the process because that really was what helped me. I never had a job. I literally was 18 now, being like, you know, the boss of over 30+ employees at one point in time, and I didn't know anything. I didn't know anything about no W-2s, no taxes, no clock in, clock out because all I [have] ever known was my brand," she explains.
"So I definitely partner with people who are very skewed and versed in those areas, and they helped me get through it. Even to this day, I still have my same person helping me with hiring, firing, [and] doing everything that I can right now because I'm still learning. But obviously people get jobs young, so they have way more experience than me, but still learning."
And though she is still learning, one thing she makes sure to stay on top of is being consistent. Consistency is what trips many people up when it comes to achieving goals, but Mariee says it's all about scheduling. Whether it's when to post on social media or email marketing, scheduling it out can make a world of difference. That same practice also works when planning out her future goals for the company.
"Right now, future goals would be to drop at least five more products before the end of the year. We always do outreach, where we do drives and all that, but definitely do way more this year, she says. "Then really dive into body [care], and then hopefully open up MoonXBody underneath MoonXCosmetics to let that branch out and be open and definitely get back consistent."
For more information, visit moonxco.com.
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