BTS with the Brand Empowering the Next Generation to Fall in Love with Their Curls
Main image – Only Curls
Does anyone remember the scene from The Princess Diaries where Anne Hathaway’s wavy, frizzy hair requires a makeover and is ‘transformed’ into a sleek, straight ‘do? Did anyone actually wonder why, instead of changing her whole hair texture, they didn’t simply ‘makeover’ and embrace her natural curls?
A young, curly-haired Lizzie Carter did. This scene stuck with her growing up, as well as her childhood nickname, Frizzy Lizzie. And it was this nickname, combined with not being able to find enough products on the market for her hair type, that inspired her to set up Only Curls, a now-hugely successful hair brand dedicated to those wanting to make the most of their natural curly hair type.
We chatted to Carter about her decision to set up a curls-only hair brand in 2016, what the market for curly haired girls was like back then and how she wants to empower and inspire those with curly hair, including kids and their parents, to truly love their curls.
How Only Curls began
Having originally worked in fashion, Carter learnt how to be trend-savvy and find gaps in the market. “I was adamant that one day I wanted to start my own business but I wasn’t sure what it was and I always thought it was going to be in fashion,” she explains. “But that is so hard because you have to redesign a collection every season.”
A young Lizzie and her natural curls. Image – Lizzie Carter
Then the daily struggle with her hair became a new inspiration. “I struggled with my hair my whole life, I just didn’t know what to do with it,” she says. And then she thought, “’imagine the difference in starting a business with one product’. I just needed to come up with one product.” And so, after someone had told her that using a special hair towel on curly hair would make it less frizzy, she came up with the Only Curls Microfibre Towel.
“As soon as we started selling that I was then researching so much more into the curly hair space,” she says. After doing her research, Carter then evolved the brand even further, based on what she’d learnt, which is pretty impressive given that she only started out with £500.
“I started the business with my boyfriend at the time – now my husband – which has actually been really fun and nice for our family – we’ve had two babies since,” she says. “It was just a bit of an experiment, so we weren’t going to put absolutely loads of funds into it.” Even so, it certainly seems to have paid off!
The curly hair market back then
Only Curls was launched in 2016 which was a completely different beauty space to what it is now. “A lot of our customers have a story about feeling they had to straighten their hair for work and in the media, there were very few curlyhaired celebrities that would embrace their curls,” Carter says.
“It became an underserved market. Curls were just an afterthought for other brands that focused on straight hair, and I just felt like there wasn’t a brand that was offering great products. And there was definitely a gap in the market for a lighter weight hair product that hydrated curls without weighing the hair down.”
This inspired her to help parents of kids with curly hair too. “We have a kids range so getting the parents to be able to do their kids’ hair from a young age so the kids grow up with a different relationship [with their hair] is important to me,” she says.
Getting the message out
It’s one thing coming up with a business idea, it’s quite another to then market it out properly. “I remember getting the website up and running and it was always in my head we were going to market it through social media, but I didn’t really have any marketing experience,” she explains. “We’ve learned so much along the way but having not had the prior experience in some ways has always gone in our favour because we’ve been able to be quite forward thinking and have embraced new things.”
Image – Only Curls
One of her marketing plans was surprisingly simple. “We put a post on Reddit about how to use the towel for curly hair and about an hour later we had our first order,” she adds. Clever. And she used her train journey wisely too. “My commute was overground so I just sat on Instagram in that couple of hours a day and just we just built it that way,” she explains.
So how long did it take for it to take off? “It must have been early the following year (2017) where I sorted out a contract manufacturer, sold them on our idea and started working with them and they’ve been fantastic.”
And took one weekend to make a huge difference for the brand. “We had this totally viral weekend and that was a real pivotal moment in the story because then we had the cash to invest in more performance marketing and social media advertising as opposed to just an organic approach.”
The juggle is real
Despite all the success, Carter still couldn’t leave her 9-5 job until a while later thanks to the cost of living in London and extra expenses like nursery fees. “We started Only Curls in August 2016 and it was almost 2 years before I could leave my job,” she explains.
“I don’t think a lot of people realise quite how much it takes to carry on your job and be creating this as well. When we’d have [sale] fluctuations and I had a baby, my friends would come over and look after Ettie while I packed the boxes and, looking back, it was chaos!”
Image – Lizzie Carter
And anyone who has children will know that even without setting up your own brand, your house is an ever-growing heap of plastic toys and piles of washing. “I wish I’d taken more photos of our original set up,” Carter says.
“We were in a really tiny flat and we had the baby stuff everywhere while we were fulfilling orders and it was chaos. Obviously when you’re first starting a business you want it to look bigger than it is but now people want to see that behind-the-scenes stuff.” Note to self – take more pictures of the chaos, you might need it someday!
Evolving with the brand
As Only Curls has grown, Carter’s role has had to grow with it. But are any of her original visions still in place? “Being customer-focused is something I’ve always protected and will continue to,” she says.
“From day one, the purpose of the business has been to help people feel great about their hair and more confident with their curls. We strive to offer the best customer service in the industry, and a big part of that has been building a team that truly understands our community. In fact, many of our curl support team members started as customers themselves, and they now spend their days helping others on their curl journey.”
Lizzie now. Image – Only Curls
Are there any visions she’s had to let go of? “I haven’t truly let go of areas of the business, but I have learned to delegate,” Carter explains. “In the early days, I wore many hats – covering marketing, product, operations, and customer service, even when I wasn’t an expert in those areas. Now, it’s brilliant to be able to bring in people who are more experienced than me in their fields. That shift has allowed the brand to grow in ways I couldn’t have achieved alone.”
And what about looking ahead? Are there any problems within the industry or for her customers that she wants Only Curls to solve next? “I see a big opportunity to better support kids and parents,” she says. “If children love and understand their curls from the start, it sets them up for a positive relationship with their hair for life. In 2026, I want to dedicate more time to growing our kids’ brand, Little Curls – creating more resources and products that help families with easier routines.”
What’s next for Only Curls?
After launching into Boots this year, Carter says it has completely transformed how they run their business. “Moving from solely e-commerce into retail has required us to rethink everything: from operations and logistics to marketing and finance,” she says. And as for 2026, “it will be all about building the foundations to support this growth. That means growing our team, putting the right structures and systems in place, and ensuring we can scale sustainably. Once we have that solid foundation, we’ll be ready to expand further – with more retail partnerships and, eventually, international growth.”
The takeaway
Things have come a long way for curly hair since 2016. With so many wavers, curling irons and curl products on the market now, as well as many more celebrities and influencers skipping the dead straight finish and rocking their natural waves, it’s certainly a shift that all curly haired girls will be thankful for, and inspired by.
Only Curls was and still is a big part of this shift. And it’s thanks to co-founders like Lizzie Carter that the next generation of curly haired girls are starting to feel proud of their locks. Instead of hiding behind straightening balms and flat irons, they can now ditch the heat, let their curls down and be their authentic selves.
Get Glowing!
