Creating a green career out of thin air? That’s bananas! Literally. Ciara Imani May is the CEO of the company Rebundle, a hair extensions brand made out of the fiber found in banana trees. What started as a quest to live a zero waste lifestyle and find a career through which Imani May could live her values, has led to a consumer product that solves an environmental problem — and a health issue too. In this episode of Degrees Season 6: How to Green Your Job, join us as we take a trip down memory lane with Ciara Imani May to understand how she came up with her plant-based idea and transformed it into a product that’s positively impacting people and the planet. And while entrepreneurship might not be the path for everyone, her story shows that being values-driven and persistent can help you be the green change you want to see.
Ciara Imani May is the founder of Rebundle, the first U.S.-made, plant-based hair extensions brand on a mission to provide more comfort and less waste through eco-friendly and non-toxic hair extensions. The idea for Rebundle sparked in 2019 when Ciara suffered from one too many itchy scalps from wearing braids made from plastic synthetic hair. In researching alternatives, Ciara came to understand that banana fibers could provide a sustainable option. That breakthrough led to Rebundle’s first product, braidbetter.
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Who makes Degrees?
Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host. Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Ayo Oti researched and produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Production manager Andrew Parrella edited this episode. Editing assistance on this episode from executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.
YESH PAVLIK SLENK:
Maybe you can relate to this scenario… You have a good job. It’s interesting, it pays the bills, you’re good at it. But it’s not a green job… And you care deeply about the environment. Every day, it matters more and more to you to do what you can to fight climate change. So you keep an eye on your carbon footprint. You don’t own a car… you recycle…or so you thought.
CIARA IMANI MAY:
I would take my recyclables to campus because they didn't have recycle bins and the student housing where I was living. And one day after I'd done this, I don't know, for several months at this point, one of the janitorial staff saw me, like, separating and asked me why I was doing that because she was gonna put it all in the trash anyway.
PAVLIK SLENK:
That’s Ciara Imani May. At the time, she was 24 years old. She was working as a program coordinator for a small university in North Carolina. And this offhand comment from the university janitor threw Ciara for a loop! Looking back on that day now - it actually changed the course of her life. She had thought she was shrinking her environmental impact. But in that moment, she realized just how broken the system is. If she was actually going to live the zero-waste lifestyle that she cared about so much, she was going to have to change the system - and green her career.
PAVLIK SLENK:
I’m Yesh Pavlik Slenk and This is Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers from Environmental Defense Fund. On this season of Degrees - we hear your climate anxiety - we know you want to do something about it - and we know how hard it is to figure out how to green your job! So we’re sharing stories of people who’ve made big changes in their own careers, how they did it, and how you can too.
THEME MUSIC
Change is coming, oh yeah
Ain’t no holding it back
Ain't no running
Change is coming, oh yeah!
PAVLIK SLENK:
On the day of the chance encounter with the janitor, Ciara Imani May wasn’t looking for a green job. She was just doing what she could to be a good steward of the planet.
MAY:
So I was just like, well, I don't feel comfortable like putting water bottles and jars and whatever else in the trash I have to figure out, you know, what does not having trash look like?
PAVLIK SLENK:
She hadn’t just been hauling her recycling to campus for months, she’d been doing it on foot. She didn’t have a car. Learning that her efforts were pointless, Ciara was devastated.
So, after the janitor’s revelation, she began re-examining her own routines. What changes could she make? She ditched single-use plastics, she swapped plastic cutlery for bamboo, she bought reusable make-up wipes. She started using environmentally friendly detergent. She even got a biodegradable phone case! But there was one lifestyle issue that she simply couldn’t solve…What could she do about her hair?
MAY:
I was using a lot of products in plastic bottles and jars at the time because I was growing my hair out from a fade and was wearing it natural and then wearing braids a lot. So my hair was going in the trash after I took it down. And so like how was I gonna wear braids? Which I felt like, how do I wanna say this? Not like I had every right to, but like as a Black woman, it's important, it was important to me to be able to choose my hairstyles and um, however I wanted to wear them. So I can't wear braids because they're not sustainable. I just felt, like, not right.
PAVLIK SLENK:
There had to be a way to meet her own needs — and the planet’s. So she set about trying to find a healthy, sustainable hair extension product…and that search would lead her to a whole new life – as an entrepreneur.
MUSIC
Ciara wasn’t consciously trying to become a company founder — she was simply trying to solve her own problem. But she also wasn’t interested in business as usual. She’d pursued a graduate degree in social entrepreneurship because she cared deeply about people and the environment and she wanted those values reflected in her work.
MAY:
And so as I started to look into, well, what is this hair made out of anyways? How do I recycle it? Why does it irritate the scalp? Where does it come from? How does it break down over time?
PAVLIK SLENK:
The most popular hair extensions on the market are made from synthetic materials. Not only are they not recyclable, but Ciara suffered what millions of other women also put up with: they can irritate the scalp - causing itching, flaking and scabbing. Ciara started researching alternatives to synthetic hair extensions. And the solution came from a surprising source… BANANA TREES!
MAY:
The most accurate way to describe that discovery was when I got online to see what else hair extensions could be made out of. I found some individuals who were doing some really interesting stuff in different parts of the world and using things like banana fiber, not the peel. And so then it was like, well, how do I get that stuff?
PAVLIK SLENK:
And around that time, that question became not, “how do I get that stuff for myself,” but “how could everyone who’s spending good money buying toxic, unsustainable hair extensions get this stuff?”
MUSIC
PAVLIK SLENK:
With her training in social entrepreneurship, and her considerable drive, could Ciara start a company to meet this need? That idea set her off on a quest to answer a lot more questions.
MAY:
How do I get my hands on this material and that material? How do I test them out? How do I transform them into a usable product? Because I'm not a scientist, I didn't have the technical know-how. I just had a vision of what I would like to see. And so the question became, well, how could I, how could I wear this? What would I need to do? Or what would need, what would need to happen to this fiber for it to be a solution to my problem?
PAVLIK SLENK:
Ciara knew that she couldn’t answer these questions on her own. She would need to find the right partners to help make her vision a reality. To find those people, however, she needed to ask for guidance…
MAY:
I'm pretty shameless. I'll ask anyone for anything. And so if, you know, even just not being afraid to tell people what I was working on. So, I was like, Hey, this is what I think, this is what I know, this is what I need. Can you help? And so I did that repeatedly and had to work my way through a ton of people until I, you know, started making progress.
But you really have to have like no shame and no fear to fail or to get told no or to be led astray and like someone saying they can, you know, point you in the right direction. But then that leading to a dead end, it just doesn't deter me. Even when I do get like frustrated or burned out, I'll just like step away for a little bit and then try something different.
MUSIC
PAVLIK SLENK:
Ciara is not easily deterred. But even she might have been discouraged by what happened next. She would encounter a problem a lot of new entrepreneurs worry about: how to hang on to intellectual property.
Remember, the whole time she was developing her new product, Ciara was working full time – that program coordinator job we mentioned. So, looking for both information and validation, she shared her idea with a professor she admired. And she got the validation – in a way she definitely didn’t want.
MAY:
She told me it was a good idea and, you know, something that she hadn't thought about. And she was a professor of chemistry or biology or something, and she basically said like, the university could take this or I could take this. And I was just like, What do you mean ?
PAVLIK SLENK:
Ciara wasn’t naive. But this was her first real encounter with someone who might take her good idea away from her – an idea that could be a win-win-win, for the planet, for the health of millions of consumers, and for Ciara as a budding entrepreneur.
What was she to do?
We’ll find out, after a break.
PAVLIK SLENK:
Back to the story of green entrepreneur Ciara Imani May. She had a bachelor’s degree in business management. She’d studied social entrepreneurship. But she’s not a scientist, so seeking help on the science wasn’t just a nice to have, it was essential.
And risky.
By this point Ciara knew she was on to something. She wanted to start a business that would bring her new product to life. So when she realized that someone else at the university might take her idea, she had a decision to make.
MAY:
I think I was just asking for her help, like, you know, what do I do next? And so when I was met with that response, I was just like, weird, I'm outta here. So I left that job.
PAVLIK SLENK:
You might jump to the conclusion that you shouldn’t talk to people about your new idea. But that wouldn’t be right – and it wouldn’t be what Ciara would do. She wasn’t just looking for advice — she realized she actually needed a partner, someone with scientific knowledge.
MAY:
I was sort of opening up to a new world of like how, how things are made. I had no idea how products get made and what I was suggesting was unheard of by a lot of people. And so I was asking like, if I wanted to do this, like where do I go?
PAVLIK SLENK:
And these are the foundational questions. I mean, you did the research, you found the material, you wanted to use – banana fibers, you reached out to others shamelessly to talk about what you're doing and ask for help. And then you left your job when you were concerned about I-P. I think it sounds like at every step of the way you were doing your research, you were trusting yourself and you were following your gut.
MUSIC
PAVLIK SLENK:
So Ciara kept on shamelessly asking questions, asking for what she needed. And eventually, she found the right partner to make her banana fiber hair extensions a reality. Her name is Phylicia Patton. She’s a chemist with a master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences – with a particular emphasis on cosmetic science. She’s even done very specific research on hair. So Ciara reached out to her on Linkedin.
MAY:
I was just really drawn to her, her genius, like she just, she got it and she was into it and she, she sounded confident and I'm like, you got the job.
PAVLIK SLENK:
So now Ciara had the perfect thought partner. Great! But still standing between this idea and the marketplace was a TEENY… TINY step–securing funding.
That’s ACTUALLY a HUGE step that makes most new founders nervous. But Ciara says – not her! She drew on her own life experience, and a whole lot of patience, for this big next move.
MAY:
I put myself through undergrad and partially through grad school on scholarships. So I knew the grant writing process, I knew how organizations with money set aside resources for, uh, students in need. And so then I was like, like, well, there are business grants. And I started, you know, researching grants that were available for startups. Again, I was already immersed in this world, so I had at least five to 10 contacts that I could say, “Hey, I'm working on this thing. Where, where should I start looking for funding?” And they're like, “oh, try this website, try this accelerator,” whatever. And so I had at least somewhere to start and it took a long time for me to actually secure one of those grants.
But what I was doing was building up stamina and what I saved on my computer as an answer bank of how to answer the questions that are mostly more or less the same, how to craft the narrative, how to tell a compelling story, how to articulate a problem, a solution, a market opportunity. And again, I already had some level of experience with storytelling on paper and was able to leverage that skill to write grants and then eventually learned to pitch as well.
PAVLIK SLENK:
Learning how to pitch in clubs and classrooms is one thing. Reality? That’s another.
MAY:
I'd never really pitched anything of my own. And so had to learn how to do that, how to get better at that. I mean, it's just a bunch of trial and error.
PAVLIK SLENK:
Trial and error and bravery. I mean, and, and it's emotional 'cause it's, to your point, your thing. This is your idea. You've dedicated a lot of your own time to this. You've made sacrifices by leaving your job to try to pursue this idea.
MAY:
Yeah, and that was a big learning curve because it wasn't as obvious to everyone or, and I had to learn my audience. If I was talking to a group of Black women who had braids in or, wore braids, then I didn't have to go too much into detail about the experience of wearing and buying, disposing the hair because we knew that really well. In the cases where I was talking to people who were less familiar, I had to learn how to be as specific as possible and, and articulating the problem from the viewpoint of, this hasn't happened to you before, but it's happened to X number of people.
PAVLIK SLENK:
She kept practicing… telling her story, studying the beauty product landscape, networking with potential investors… and eventually, Ciara says she was able to raise over a hundred thousand dollars in grant money and fellowships. That allowed her to pay for some product development, consultants, materials, and shipping.
PAVLIK SLENK:
In 2019 she gave her company a name: Rebundle. And by January of 2021, the company launched its e-commerce page and began selling its first product, braidBetter - direct-to-consumer, for $45 dollars.
They couldn’t keep it in stock.
And Ciara would become a very public presence.
[TikTokVideo]
MAY:
If you wear braids like these, or you care about the environment, stop scrolling. I promise it's worth it.
PAVLIK SLENK:
That’s Rebundle CEO Ciara Imani May on tiktok.
[TikTokVideo continued]
MAY:
We're here to take accountability for the 30 million pounds of plastic synthetic hair that ends up in US landfills each year. Yeah, I know it's a big hairy problem.
PAVLIK SLENK:
Ciara has continued to fundraise - up to 2 million dollars in capital at this point. And she’s starting to develop a loyal fan base. But she still has some serious obstacles to overcome. $45 for a plant-based bundle is a lot more than what those itchy, plastic hair extensions cost.
Now - Ciara can make a good argument for the cost of her product: BraidBetter is high quality, reusable, biodegradable, and made domestically in St. Louis, Missouri. But like many eco-friendly products, they cost more to source and manufacture.
Ciara faces other obstacles too…
PAVLIK SLENK:
Where are you with your business now? What, what are your goals and what are your obstacles as you grow?
MAY:
Start with the obstacles because, um, that's what I think about
PAVLIK SLENK:
Keeps you up at night.
MAY:
Yeah it keeps me up at night. Um, we are trying to find more ways to meet new customers, to get in front of new audiences and to serve more people. There was a time when we couldn't keep product in stock and we worked through that and that's no longer an issue. Uh, now what we're trying to work through is to keep more product on the shelf and make it to available to more people in more places. I.e., outside of direct to consumer.
And so making that switch is difficult because there's, it's more than just saying, Hey, now you can buy our products at this location. It's like the pricing strategy for that, the logistics, the marketing, the production capacity. Like do we have the production capacity to serve more than just our direct to consumer, uh, customer base. So that's something that is, um, in constant discussion here these days is how do we grow, how do we scale, what do we need to change and, leverage and how much funding will we need to grow?
PAVLIK SLENK:
These challenges will be familiar to any entrepreneur, and anyone working in retail or consumer goods. But what I wanted to know is, How is Ciara feeling about her zero waste lifestyle now - that promise that drove her to create Rebundle in the first place.
You were certainly feeling devastated by the reality that you couldn't live this zero waste lifestyle, but excited that there were opportunities. It's a mix of emotions and I think a lot of our listeners decide that they want green careers because they have been feeling similar anxiety, whether it's about their zero waste lifestyle or maybe it's about more general climate anxiety. I mean, I definitely have climate anxiety. That's part of why I work on climate because it helps, um, you know, feel excited about what the possibility for the future is instead of doom. Do you feel like you have climate anxiety?
MAY:
I think I had climate anxiety pretty heavily when I first started working on rebundle and the idea of what this company could become because I was engrossed in data and research or lack thereof, and in a sense drinking from a fire hose about just how bad it was. And I was just like, oh my gosh, there's so many problems and all seem so dire and urgent. And just listening to you describe like your own experience with climate change and anxieties around it. I actually don't think that I give myself the opportunity to think about how devastating it all could be or to be anxious about everything that's going wrong because I wake up every day and work on something that could go right and could do some good in the world.
MUSIC
PAVLIK SLENK:
And she IS doing good in the world - she’s affecting real people’s lives in meaningful ways.
MAY:
Can I read you an email that we got the other day?
PAVLIK SLENK:
I would love that.
MAY:
Okay. This is from Miss Gloria and the subject is, this is a game changer and it says
PAVLIK SLENK:
I mean, I wanna cry. That's a beautiful testimonial.
MAY:
It is. That is what helps me keep going,
PAVLIK SLENK:
So, Ciara made good on her promise to create a healthy and sustainable product that people like Miss Gloria can get behind. And there’s something else that also matters: Ciara pursued credibility through government backing… braidBetter is the first hair extension brand to earn a bio-based product label from the USDA. That’s a label that, before Rebundle came along, had primarily gone to shampoos and conditioners.
Also, do you remember how this journey started with Ciara wishing she didn’t have to throw her synthetic extensions in the trash? Well, anyone can send in those used extensions to Rebundle to be recycled into new products. To date, they’ve collected more than 400 pounds of hair. Ciara says it’s not going to waste: that hair is turned into outdoor furniture, decking and other products. So that’s plastic being kept out of landfills, and away from drinking water supplies and oceans.
After talking with Ciara, I’ll be honest, I got really excited about this product, not just for other consumers, but myself as I try to pursue a zero-waste lifestyle and stay up on trends.
So maybe one day you’ll see me with pink braids walking down the street.
MUSIC
PAVLIK SLENK:
That's it for this episode of Degrees.
If you liked this story, you'll love my conversation with B.J. Johnson, who was inspired to become an entrepreneur when he became passionate about solving the childhood asthma crisis. That's Season 3, Episode 2.
Share this podcast with a friend so you can both learn how you can help fight climate change. And learn where the jobs are and how you can make a difference.
Don’t forget, check out our Green Jobs Hub to find all the resources to jumpstart your green job career search. Visit our show notes for that link, plus a link to the Rebundle website and other resources mentioned in this episode.
Degrees is presented by Environmental Defense Fund. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Ayo Oti produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Editing assistance on this episode from executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant.
Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Lake Street Dive. And I’m your host, Yesh Pavlik Slenk. Stay fired up y’all.
THEME MUSIC
Change is coming, oh yeah
Ain’t no holding it back
Ain't no running
Change is coming, oh yeah!