Ellena Affah is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Natural Hair Rockss! which is a brand built to offer a completely personalized service to the hair and beauty needs of women across the globe.Ellena believes that every woman’s sense of identity should be secure in her love and understanding of her herself and she continues to use Natural Hair Rockss as a vehicle to affirm women’s inviolable strength and courage.

My name is Ellena Affah and I’m an Entrepreneur/ Author , We are a protective styling company that curates Afrocentric units for the contemporary African woman , I started my business cause there was little or no access to the natural hair salons and also as naturalistas it was a struggle getting units that blended seamlessly with our natural hair , though It has been an amazing journey , I’m doing something I really love and helping women look and feel good about themselves , Well I’d say sourcing for raw materials was a challenge initially ; , it was a huge struggle

What is your advice to newbies in your line of business?

Don’t get into this cause you feel people are making tons of money off it . If you aren’t ready to do the work then don’t even bother cause trust me a whole lot goes on behind closed doors

Who are you outside your business?

When I’m not making women feel beautiful I am helping small business owners get it right with influencer marketing

How has Covid 19 affected your business?

If I’m going to be very honest I feel covid has helped us , cause a lot of people purchase our units even more ( fear of going to the salons )

What nurtured this passion ?

My love for natural hair and styling

Could you tell us about the importance of skills and networking in your field of business ?

You certainly need certain skills to stand out not only as a brand but as an individual especially in my kind of industry it’s extremely important as you’re not the only one doing it and it’s that which you possess that makes you stand out from the crowd . Same thing with networking you know that saying , your network is your net worth !! Network with like minded people , I’d really help

If you were to be an advocate for SMEs in Nigeria, what are some of the conversations you would be drinking with respective authorities in regards laying developmental structures?

I’d say a lot but this would certainly come first and I’d be making the entrepreneurial journey some what easy at the early stage for we millennials . When I started my brand I was in my early 20’s and it was a struggle for me cause I knew absolutely nothing about running or sustaining a brand . For every course , seminar I attended I realized I was always the youngest there was no event at that time for entrepreneurs my age so let’s just say I had to figure this on my own . There are a lot of people with bright dreams and ideas who are 18/19/20 let them do something about these people so they don’t have to find out on their own and make costly mistakes.

They say being an entrepreneur is one of the Big risk to take, what are some of the life lessons you have had to learn?

I’ve learnt a lot but one that stood out for me is there’s no shortcut to success . Slow and steady!!

If you were to nominate people for the 25 categories of the 25 under 25 award what are their full names and category based on your own list if you had your chance?

I’d certainly nominate myself first

Ellena Affah Beauty

Tochi Tms Beauty