Back in April, Cardi B officially entered the beauty business with the launch of her first-ever haircare line, Grow-Good Beauty. But, going from Grammy Award-winning rapper to brand owner didn’t just work overnight (even though her hair masks do!)

“I was tired of having chopped up hair,” she told The Naked Beauty podcast’s Brooke DeVard just hours before her debut ESSENCE Festival performance. 

Growing up in the Bronx, she says she used to get a blowout at the Dominican salon, sometimes twice a week. “I had an obsession with keeping my hair straight,” she says. But her hair would still frizz up. So, at eight years old, she begged her mother to perm her hair. Then, eight months later, her hair started to break off and fall out. “The struggles I had when I was a kid, I didn’t want my kids going through,” Cardi B says. “When I was younger, people didn’t know how to manage my hair.” 

Grow-Good isn’t just developed with her in mind. The star says all of her kids have different textures. Her 7-year-old daughter, Kulture, has curly, breakage-prone hair; her 4-year-old son, Wave, has thick, tangly hair that’s prone to dryness; 1-year-old, Blossom, has soft, fine hair; and her newborn son is still growing into his hair texture. “I had to make sure I make a product that works for everybody,” she says, exclusively using Grow-Good on all of her children. 

Whipping up ingredients in her kitchen, like sugar, garlic, and avocado, she grew up with old school Dominican recipes left to marinate in her grocery bag-covered hair. Then, in 2020, her homemade hair mask—made with mayonnaise, eggs, honey, castor oil, and olive oil—went viral. But selling a hair mask straight from ingredients in her fridge wasn’t enough for Grow-Good. So, she headed to the lab. 

“I’m Cardi B. If I say buy this, people are going to buy it,” she said. “But, if they don’t like it, they’re not going to buy it again.” Luckily, once her hair mask, enriched with Fiberlace™ technology, officially launched, it sold out in 10 minutes four times. She used to hate wash day, but now, when she uses her hair mask, it’s an opportunity to slow down. “Your hair is like fine china,” she says. “You should treat it like a piece of jewelry.”

With all of her products priced under $20, items continue to sell out. Although she says she got rich at 24 years old, “I used to go to the beauty supply store and only had $40 dollars,” she recalled. That experience inspired the price point and accessibility of her now thriving brand. “I put myself in my old shoes.”