Chelle Neff of Urban Betty: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry
An Interview With Jilea Hemmings
Clean beauty is the way of the future. Because I struggled with migraines and infertility, I created products that are allergen and scent-free. Urban Betty Haircare is free of phthalates and sulfates, silicones, parabens, dyes, pore-clogging oils, and formaldehyde/formaldehyde releasers. It is gluten-free and soy-free and is not tested on animals.
As a part of our series about “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chelle Neff.
Chelle Neff has been a leader in the U.S. salon industry since founding Urban Betty in 2005 and has more than 20 years of experience creating innovative practices in the salon and beauty worlds. Neff has successfully grown Urban Betty’s revenue year after year and today has two salon companies that house more than 70 employees. For four years consecutively, Inc. 5000 named Urban Betty as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I began my journey as an entrepreneur by first being an employee in the salon industry. I knew from a young age that I wanted to do hair. At the age of sixteen, I enrolled in Cosmetology school at my high school. During my junior and senior years of high school (1993–1995), I attended half days of regular classes and half days of Cosmetology school.
When I received my license in 1995, I started working behind the chair at Supercuts, and I slowly worked my way up the ladder to higher-end salons. I got a small suite at the Gallery of Salons and was an independent contractor five years later. That was my initial stepping stone to running my own business. In 2005 I opened Urban Betty Salon, and 17 years later, we have three locations, a product line, and almost 80 employees.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The most interesting thing that has happened to me is having to keep my business afloat during a pandemic. In 2020 the pandemic affected the salon industry significantly. Urban Betty had to close for two months, while many salons had to close permanently. I refer to those two months as the “necessary evil” that opened my eyes to the reality of what needed to change in my business financially and strategically. During our closure, I had plenty of time to stare at my computer and take a long, hard look at where there was a leak in my budget and fault lines in our systems. Even though we were closed at the time, I was busy every day learning how not only to survive but to thrive. I can now say that it was a blessing in disguise, and we came out stronger than ever!
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
For me, my health was the tipping point. I also had an inner knowing; I dreaded coming in to do hair. My HAPPINESS became more important. I would encourage everyone to listen to that ping, which will only get louder. Ignoring that feeling is what affected my health. I slowly started taking more administrative days. At the beginning of my career, I was doing hair six days a week, by 2016, I was only doing hair for 8 hours per week, and the rest of the week, I focused on managing/expanding my salon company. It took me 11 years to get to that point. Taking all of these steps above in the essence of balance helped me become a better parent and have time and energy for my family.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I wouldn’t be where I am today without my life coach/therapist, Rebecca Hamm. I met with her once a week for the first five years after opening my business, and I am down to every other week now. When you are an entrepreneur, you frequently need someone in your corner who can call you on your B.S. gently. She does that for me. She has helped me overcome my ego and become a better leader.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The global beauty industry today has grown to more than a half a trillion dollar business. Can you tell us about the innovations that you are bringing to the industry? How do you think that will help people?
My goal is to innovate and bring sustainable, clean haircare that addresses ongoing hormonal/infertility issues that women face daily through our Urban Betty product line.
Under an FDA labeling loophole, companies may list “fragrance” without disclosing what chemicals are actually in “fragrance.” This loophole helps protect trademark secrets and blends, and it allows thousands (3,163 to be exact) of chemicals to hide in everyday beauty and cleaning products. We are here to challenge and change that. We created a haircare line free of sulfates, silicones, phthalates, parabens, dyes, pore-clogging oils, formaldehyde/ formaldehyde releasers, or formaldehyde releasers. Free of compromise.
Chemicals like phthalates, BHT, oxynols, and parabens may throw off the body’s delicate hormone balance. These chemicals are especially problematic for those trying to conceive or who are currently pregnant.
After seven years of trying to get pregnant and struggling with migraines since I was seventeen, I hired a nutrition coach to focus on what I needed to change in my diet. She recommended that I cut out everything scented. Essential oils, laundry detergent, candles, (and sadly) flowers trigger a hormonal response that can cause migraines and infertility. You don’t realize how many scented products are in your home until you go through and start to eliminate them. Products as simple as hand soap and flushable wipes all have scents! During this process, I started ordering and trying every unscented shampoo and conditioner on the market, and I could only find ONE that I liked. We didn’t carry anything like that inside our salon company, so I decided to create my own. I was already in the process of creating a clean beauty line, so I thought, why not make an unscented version? If making the switch to clean beauty makes a positive difference in your health, it’s 100% worth it!
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the modern beauty industry?
The three things that excite me in the modern beauty industry are sustainability, cleaner products, and consumers that care about where their products come from. In 2019 our salon company became a Green Circle Salon. Green Circle provides the world’s first sustainable salon solution to recover and repurpose beauty waste. We collect, recycle, and repurpose our hair clippings, used foils, color-tubes, excess hair color, papers, plastics, and glass. We have separate bins for each item in our break room and color dispensary, and we send them back to Green Circle every month. So far, Green Circle has diverted over six million pounds of waste from landfills and waterways. We are so excited to be a part of that revolution.
Cleaner beauty products are exciting because they are better for your health and the environment. Your skin absorbs sixty percent of everything you apply to it into your body, where it eventually enters the bloodstream and may put your health at risk if it’s not a clean product. Parabens and other synthetic ingredients have been linked to everything from hormonal disruptions to cancer. I’m excited because more companies are taking note of this and have decided to develop product lines that are safe for us and easy to find online and in the store. This, in turn, creates a consumer who cares where their products come from and can choose to purchase from a brand that reflects that.
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to improve the industry, what would you suggest?
The first thing I am concerned with is magical products that claim to fix things fast. Anything that seems too good to be true usually is. I follow a doctor on TikTok that does a great job explaining and debunking beauty myths about overpriced moisturizers and eye creams. Most of the best products are minimal ingredients and under $50.
The second thing that concerns me about the beauty industry is toxic chemicals. So many things are added as preservatives in our products that are not good to put on your skin. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health looked into the skin’s absorption rates of chemicals found in products. Studies found the face to be several times more permeable than broad body surfaces at an absorption rate of 100 percent. And another peer-reviewed study showed 100% absorption for fragrance ingredients.3
What we use on our skin ends up in our bodies. If the products you use contain harsh, toxic chemicals, colors, and fragrances, those ingredients make their way into your body, blood, and lymphatic system. Most mainstream body care products contain a cocktail of carcinogenic chemicals, allergens, and irritants. My goal is to help educate the consumer to be more aware of that and implement changes to be more healthy.
And last but not least, I am concerned about all of the online beauty filters that make people’s faces look unreal. It’s setting an expectation (especially in the younger generation) of an unattainable look. I know that many times guests at our salon company bring in photos of hair that have been over-filtered and are impossible to attain in real life. I hope that the younger generation learns how to accept worthiness around how they look naturally without filters.
The three things that I would implement to improve the beauty industry would be 1 — setting higher standards by the FDA around carcinogenic chemicals inside products. 2. Free accessible mental health programs to improve people’s confidence in themselves and in their worthiness (it ALWAYS starts with the inside first). 3. More sustainable options/requirements for all beauty product packaging, including less plastic.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share a few ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?
First and foremost, treat yourself! Schedule a recharge day (not your usual Saturday or Sunday). I incorporated this into my life last year. Too often, we run around all week and never take time off for ourselves. Every 4th Friday of the month is a “recharge day.” I cannot put anything on my calendar that isn’t self-care (massages, facials, nails, etc.). Give yourself a day that is all about you. What makes you feel beautiful? Please do whatever you want; make sure it gives you ease, recharges you, and makes you feel beautiful.
Surround yourself with people who appreciate you. You are worthy of kindness and love. I’m not going to give the old spill about hair and makeup. You’ve got that. What you need now is good, clean, positive energy around you that will help you radiate beauty. I ordered a weird facial mask and had it lying out on the counter one time. My husband left me a post-it saying, “You don’t need this. You’re already gorgeous.” It was something so powerful yet so simple. You know what? I threw that mask away, and I kept that post-it. It’s now in the drawer with all my beauty creams, and I often take time to look at that note. That’s what helps me feel beautiful.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, Can you please share “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”. Please share a story or an example, for each.
1. Quality Requires Patience. When I started creating my hair care line, it took four years before I had a product in hand and could launch it to the public. I began with one lab to help me create it, and after several rounds of formulating and a (pandemic…ugh), I decided that they weren’t the best fit for my vision. I cried lots of tears and was sad about wasting three years. I quickly reached out to some of my contacts the next day and had a new lab to help me within the week. And guess what? They were even better and had the same vision that I did to create a clean, sustainable shampoo and conditioner. Within one year, we finally had Urban Betty haircare!
2. Social media engagement is going to be your best tool. Our most successful social media campaign was our “Love Your Selfie” campaign. We installed #urbanbetty decals on all of the mirrors in the salon. We offered our guests a complimentary travel-size product when they posted their salon mirror selfies with our hashtag on Instagram. We increased our social media engagement we also introduced our guests to new products. By giving out the travel-sized products, our retail sales increased by 10% over our usual average monthly increase over the next two months. We created powerful imagery advertising the campaign and posted it throughout the salon to promote it.
3. E-commerce is king. We launched a Shopify page where guests and online customers can easily purchase products and have them delivered to their homes. These days consumers are all about the ease of shopping from their home; if they can’t buy a beauty product with their phone or computer, they will move on to the next thing.
4. Keep Innovating. Our goal is to expand our line to more allergen and scent-free products. We know that consumers constantly want to try the latest beauty regimen. I am one of those people! When I went on the hunt for scent-free products, it was lots of work. I ordered one set, used it a few times, and then moved on to something else if it wasn’t great. When I found a line I liked, I kept up with that brand to keep trying anything new that they put out. My goal with the Urban Betty product line is to keep innovating, improving, and launching new products that people want to try.
5. Clean beauty is the way of the future. Because I struggled with migraines and infertility, I created products that are allergen and scent-free. Urban Betty Haircare is free of phthalates and sulfates, silicones, parabens, dyes, pore-clogging oils, and formaldehyde/formaldehyde releasers. It is gluten-free and soy-free and is not tested on animals.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I would love to inspire a movement of supporting other people’s successes. The world is not one pie for everyone, and we each have our own pie! When one person is successful, they never take anything away from you. Your worth and all that you have are based on your emotional well-being and your beliefs. You draw that same energy onto yourself whenever you celebrate another person’s success. I would love for everyone out there to want others to succeed and be happy for them!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite quote is, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I heard this quote right after opening my salon company, and I was utterly overwhelmed with everything that I needed to do. I believe that all movement is forward movement. Even the most minor thing like having coffee with another business owner — asking them one question may help you get to where you want to go.
How can our readers follow you online?
https://www.facebook.com/urbanbettysalon
@urbanbettysalon on Instagram
@urbanbettysalon on Twitter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/urbanbetty/
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
About the Interviewer: Jilea Hemmings is a staunch believer in the power of entrepreneurship. A successful career revamping Fortune 500 companies was not enough for her entrepreneurial spirit, so Jilea began focusing her passion in startups. She has successfully built 6 startups to date. Her passion for entrepreneurship continues to flourish with the development of Stretchy Hair Care, focusing on relieving the pain associated with detangling and styling natural black hair. For far too long, people with tender heads have suffered in pain. Until now.
