Piersten Gaines

Growing up, Piersten Gaines struggled to find a salon that could straighten her natural hair without damaging it.

Twice, licensed stylists left her completely bald.

When she got to Harvard Business School, she realized the real problem: the beauty industry wasn’t built for women with textured hair.

Even today, most cosmetology schools don’t teach how to care for highly textured hair.

Traditional salons often don’t have the right products, tools, or techniques to keep textured hair healthy.

Piersten set out to change that.

In 2018, she launched Pressed Roots, the first luxury silk blowout bar designed exclusively for women with textured hair.

She started with pop-ups in major cities, and the demand was overwhelming.

Investors didn’t get it.

“I was pitching to people who didn’t have textured hair. Or even hair at all,” she joked.

But Piersten didn’t back down.

She bootstrapped, hustled, and built proof of concept.

In 2020, she finally opened her first flagship salon in Dallas.

By 2023, she had three locations, $3.5M in annual revenue, and $3.1M in funding from Naomi Osaka, Howard Schultz, and Meg Whitman.

Her mission? To make high-quality haircare accessible to all women with curls, coils, and kinks.

Piersten is expanding beyond Texas in 2025.

Because this isn’t just about hair. It’s about representation and respect.