Vicktesha Cunningham is a social entrepreneur based in East London and her aim is to help women who are struggling with postpartum alopecia, as she once faced postpartum hair loss after giving birth. 

She recently launched a support group called the 360 Women to offer support to women in the local community.  Vicktesha launched her first ‘Real Beauty Campaign’ a few weeks ago, to help raise awareness on healthy self-esteem, self-love, body and beauty to all women and girls across the world.

Not only that but she’s doing humanitarian work within her local community such as feeding the homeless and supporting small youth clubs around the London area.

Vicktesha owns the brand Vtessia Cosmetics. The vegan beauty brand uses sustainable plant-based hair care products to help women combat postpartum symptoms such as hair loss; she’s created healthy hair products that you can trust and know are good for your hair!

Lawrencia Nelson from Lena Media in conversation with Vicktesha…

Can you tell us a little bit about your career journey and how you came about settling on a career in beauty?

It is a bittersweet story, VTESSIA was launched last year, after I experienced postpartum alopecia in 2019.

I was mortified by this and what made it worse, I was unable to find a solution to repair my hair.  So, out of frustration, I created my own infusion, which worked. That is when the idea was conceptualized for to me to start my own haircare brand.

Have you always wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Yes, since early childhood I have had a desire to start my own business. But I did not get the courage to start until I experienced postpartum alopecia after I had my child. 

What would you say are the key elements for starting and running a successful business?

Passion to serve others, persistence, patience, determination, and hard work. To me, I believe they are the most important ingredients required for success.

Can you tell me a bit about the products and what distinguishes you from other skincare and haircare products now?

We provide luxury handcrafted natural products for women with dry, thinning, and damaged hair. We are 100% recyclable, vegan and cruelty-free. We also have a low carbon footprint and a strong passion to help women embrace their natural beauty with confidence.

Explain the process of how you source your ingredients and what does clean beauty mean to you?

At Vtessia Cosmetics, we love nature and all its goodness, that is why all our ingredients are plant-based. We also only use ethically sourced suppliers from the UK. Clean is not just a statement to us, it is our fuel. That is why we avoid at all cost nasty chemicals in all our ranges.

The beauty industry is becoming more inclusive; however, it has a long way to go. What are your thoughts on the progression?

You are right and movements like Black Pound day in the UK and Black Lives Matters movement has been helping a great deal.  I also believe that soon there will be more businesses at the forefront from ethnic minority groups. It is my aim to be one of them.

Tell us more about what else you do?

I recently launched a support group called the 360 Women to offer support to women in the local community and also launched the real beauty campaign. The aim is to help raise awareness on healthy self-esteem, self-love, body & beauty to all women and girls across the world.

You can follow Vicktesha’s journey on: https://www.instagram.com/vtessia.cosmetics/