Florida native India Anderson is a self-taught hair braider, DIY enthusiast, and content creator who launched a business in college after following her passion. Her Indy Bindy Braids allow people to either book an appointment, learn how to braid hair from tutorial videos, or purchase her latest hair comb creation.
Even though Anderson is still going through the patent process, her precision ruler comb is expected to be the next big thing in the hair industry. The hair tool can measure the part of each braid leading to neater braids.
Anderson opened up about using social media to take her brand to the next level, her latest invention, and her thoughts for Women’s History Month.
How is social media beneficial to your brand?
Social media marketing has taken my braiding business to a different level; like tenfold. So not only was I able to reach out to clientele specifically in my area, because those are the people that will be booking the appointments, but I was also able to push out my content to the rest of the world so that I can eventually get paid to do that as well. So, it’s created not only exposure for my business but another literal stream of income, which in return grows the business as well. It’s been life-changing, and I would say COVID-19 has a lot of credit to give because everybody was in the house, everybody was on the internet, so everybody was trying to figure out how we can use social media to our advantage to grow our businesses.
What can people expect from your new invention?
I’m so excited. I came up with this idea not too long ago actually. I probably should have done a little bit more testing before I was just, ‘you know what, here world,’ but … a lot of people tell me that my parting is very neat and [ask me]how do I get my part[s]all the same size. Some people struggle just trying to advance to that next level and I was wondering why isn’t there a tool for this. It has to be a little bit easier than eyeballing it. So, I decided to put my idea into a prototype. I was messaging manufacturers to see if we can print a ruler on a comb and it wasn’t a thing yet. So, I just decided to put it into play and people love it. I’m glad it’s helping people because I even kind of use it even though I’m kind of seasoned, but just holding up a ruler to make sure that your eyes aren’t deceiving you is helpful.
What message would you like to share for Women’s History Month?
Knowledge is power. I think that in today’s day and age even though there is equality and all that stuff, I do feel like sometimes women are overlooked. I don’t know if it’s based on our looks, our appearance, our body types, or whatever but knowledge is power. If you sit down to put in the work to [gain]knowledge, nobody can take that from you.
