Haircare startup NaturAll Club is getting ‘a blank canvas’ in Bok building

Haircare startup and 2019 realLIST company NaturAll Club is about to trade up its space.

In early October, the 20-person (and growing) company will move its team to Bok, the South Philly school-turned-makerspace from 1776’s Rittenhouse coworking space.

“We’re going from a space in 1776 with no windows to a blank canvas that we can turn into anything we want,” said Lee Locklear, NaturAll’s project manager.

The upgrade comes in part thanks to $5 million in funding from the New Voices Fund for women of color entrepreneurs, created by Shea Moisture cofounder Richelieu Dennis.

The company, founded by Muhga Eltigani while she was a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, produces natural hair products using ingredients like avocado, sap from an acacia tree and shea nut butter.

It’s why the company eventually adopted the motto, “hair products so natural, you have to refrigerate them.”

But it’s now one of the challenges the team is working on. Because the products have to be kept cold, the company is experimenting with different shipping methods for orders outside of the United States, Locklear said. Currently, products can only be shipped domestically.

NaturAll Club has recently made appearances at the Essence Festival in New Orleans and Curlfest in New York City.

The space in Bok will allow the team to host events and have a designated area for production of content related to its product, Locklear said.

“It’s a very creative space, and we’ll be working among creative people,” he added. Other makers and organizations in the Bok space include Print Liberation, Streets Dept and the Garces Foundation.

Locklear didn’t share specifics about revenue, but said 2019 is shaping up to be the company’s best year yet.

And founder Eltigani made a point to say big things are coming in 2020.

“We are taking the steps to become the next big name in beauty,” she said. “This means new products, new events, new office, new content and new technology.”