Shaina Rainford built Bask & Lather Co. from kitchen experiments into the fastest-growing textured hair care brand in the nation. The board-certified nurse practitioner turned entrepreneur recently made headlines as the official sponsor of Biggie’s Crowns and Glory Experience in partnership with the Universal Hip Hop Museum. Her nine-figure, debt-free company represents more than commercial success. It embodies a mission rooted in family crisis, cultural authenticity and community empowerment.
You’ve built Bask & Lather from your kitchen into a nine-figure Black-owned brand. Can you take us back to the beginning? What inspired you to start the company?
A few years ago, my younger sister Leah lost all of her hair. She had a really bad ringworm that spread all over her scalp. By the time she got a proper diagnosis, her hair was falling out from the root. My mom took her to all different types of specialists. Initially, she was diagnosed with dandruff because that’s what it looked like. By the time she got a proper diagnosis from a Black dermatologist, it was a severe fungal infection with ringworm.
When she got the antifungal topical and oral treatment, it killed off the rest of the infection and she had no hair left at all. She was going to school with a cap. My mom was really devastated. She took her to specialists who did scalp analyses and different tests. They said they didn’t see any activity at the follicles and they weren’t sure if her hair would ever grow back.
My mom became desperate to regrow her hair. She did research about natural and efficacious ingredients shown to foster hair growth and whipped up a concoction in the kitchen, which is now our scalp stimulator oil. Leah’s hair started to grow back in, but it was growing in fine and thin. My mom did more research, learned about the magic of Jamaican black castor oil, and her hair not only grew in faster, it was growing in nice and thick. Today, Leah’s hair is all the way down to her bottom.
Fast forward to the pandemic in 2020. I’m working as a board-certified nurse practitioner. I acquired COVID and became really sick, literally to the point that I was begging God to let me live to raise my children. Weeks later, my hair started shedding and breaking. I didn’t know at that time that COVID hair was a thing. I tried all different types of protein and moisture treatments. Nothing was helping. I said to my mom, please make me a batch of the oil you used for Leah. Within a matter of weeks, my hair reverted back to normal. It was thick, thriving and healthy. That was the first time in my life that I went without a relaxer.
How old was your sister when she was going through this?
First grade.
You’ve been recognized with multiple honors, including the Culture Shifter Award at Bronner Brothers Beauty Icon. What does recognition like that mean to you?
Up until this year, I’ve really just been in the back, behind the scenes, building the brand. It wasn’t until this year that I really got pushed out by my team and my family. They said you have such a great story to tell. This brand is so much bigger than me. I was a team mom, then I went on to become a nurse practitioner, then to build this super successful brand.
This year, I realized that yes, I get to have a great product and help millions of people. But God’s intention for me is also to show people that anything is possible. You can do anything as long as you have faith the size of a mustard seed. I’m a girl from the Bronx. I built all of this with no magic playbook, no real advisors. If I can do it, you can do it too.
The Biggie’s Crowns and Glory activation felt like a full circle cultural statement. What did it mean for you to see Biggie’s crown at the centerpiece of your brand’s activation?
It was absolutely amazing when it was presented to us. It made so much sense. It was in perfect alignment with the brand because we’re all about honoring your crown. Your hair is the crown that you never take off. I was about five years old when Biggie transitioned. This is such an honor. One of our goals is to be a legacy brand. To bring our new culturally relevant brand and align that with something so rooted in legacy and what the Hip Hop Museum’s vision is, to preserve hip hop legacy, it was an absolute perfect alignment.
Why was it important to include interactive elements? What story did you want to tell about Black hair and hip hop culture?
Our hair, as Black people, men and women in general, is such a statement. When you see those frames, you’ll see the slanted fro with the line through it. Our hair has always been an important part of who we are as a culture. Even today, the braids, it’s an authentic way of tying together the newness with legacy. It was really important for us to have multiple touchpoints throughout the event and make sure people had something they could leave with after coming into that experience.
What did it feel like to see icons like Slick Rick, Jermaine Dupri and Jim Jones engaging with your brand?
It was like being in the Twilight Zone. It was amazing. Slick Rick came in with his wife to our activation. My mom was talking to Nas because his table was pretty close to ours. He said, oh, I’ve seen Bask & Lather. I was like, whoa, he’s seen Bask & Lather. We’re a digital-first brand. We haven’t even really touched mass retail yet. We’re really just getting started. To see the icons that didn’t know us come up, see the activation and be intrigued to know more and really have respect for what we’re doing was heartfelt and warming.
Your brand is deeply rooted in authenticity. How do you maintain that real connection while scaling at the level you are now?
We just keep it real. The thing that has made us really stand out and be successful is that we never try to mimic what competitors do. One thing we take pride in is being a debt-free and investor-free company. We can have as much of an impact on our audience by showing our customers’ testimonials and before-and-afters than other brands can have doing $500,000 video campaigns.
Always customers first. Lots of brands invest in influencers and we work with a few, but the rest of our influencer community is our customers. We have over 250,000 people who use our products on TikTok. Most people trust your friend or someone you actually care about telling you, I love this product, versus us paying an influencer. We have some of our affiliates who’ve been able to replace their regular income with the commission they earn from promoting our products.
What’s next for the brand in terms of innovation and community influence?
Next weekend, I’ll be at a school speaking to students who are up-and-coming cosmetic chemists at Spelman in Atlanta. We have a huge holiday drive that we’re participating in. Every year we do annual back-to-school drives. This year we paid for well over 100 kids to get their hair braided for back to school. We gave away hundreds of book bags and hair products. Always looking for a way to not only show up for the community but to really truly be a part of it and be an anchor of support. We’re expanding globally. Lots of great things in store.
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