Miranda May was born and raised in Detroit and still resides in her hometown. Living in Detroit, she was able to get a front-row seat to all things beauty and the importance of how it made her feel about herself. After her “big chop” in 2013, she started Moy Hair Essentials to provide natural hair care products to Black women that would help them embrace and appreciate their natural locks. Since then, she has been able to witness scores of Black women embrace their hair texture by using her products.
When you got your big chop, what were your initial thoughts?
It wasn’t until later on in life that I kind of started discovering my own journey and what hair actually meant to me. After doing some research, I eventually big chopped all my hair off. I used to relax, perm, and color my hair. It was fried, dyed and laid to the side, and everything in between. And that was OK, but for me, I kind of wanted to explore my natural hair texture, and I stumbled upon it by mistake. I was having a lazy summer and I wasn’t doing anything to my hair, and I started noticing this curl pattern coming in [at] my roots. So I was like, “what’s this?” because I didn’t know that my hair could ever do that. So after transitioning for a couple of months, I ended up big chopping all of my hair off and then eventually started my journey to entrepreneurship.
Talk about the different products you have.
I started these products a little bit later after my big chop in 2018. I started with my natural hair oil, just kind of being in the kitchen researching and figuring out what oils and things like that work for my hair, and the intent was never to sell it. I was just using it personally.
I’ve done so many big chops, including on my mom. So after a while, people would ask me how did I get my hair to grow out. That’s when the idea came to me that I should start a natural hair care line to help those around me. That was in 2018, and today in 2022 I have a full line. I have a shampoo and a conditioner set, and then I have my hydrating leave-in conditioner. Then we have our soothing hydro deep conditioner. This is a very slept on step that a lot of people miss, but it’s very, very important to our hair. Then I have my mango curl cream which is really good for twisting, braiding, and moisturizing your hair.
