Siblings can be some of the most influential people in our lives. Our bond with them can alter our approach and how we show up for life. Dominican-born sisters Cory Varona Corniel and Nicol Varona Cancelmo‘s bond was the foundation for their curly haircare line OCOA Beauty. Varona Corniel and Varona Cancelmo understood how truly transformative sisterhood can be, and they wanted to share that philosophy and principle with the world.

Despite having established a company with a focus on curly hair, the Varona hermanas didn’t always feel a kinship for their natural hair

Growing up in Santo Domingo, the sisters experienced a culture that deeply connected their hair to their identity.

They tell Latinidad Collective, “Hair is part of our identity and has always been an important part of our culture. Even though we grew up hating our curly hair, going to the salon with our mom was part of our upbringing.”

“Most of our Saturdays were devoted to our hair. We would go to the salon in Santo Domingo with our mom and watch her get her hair done, get our hair washed, get a roller set, and finally followed by the famous Dominican blowout. It was all we knew,” they asserted.

“OCOA wants you to embrace who you are #BorntoBe. For many of us, we actually don’t even know our curl pattern or have discovered our true hair potential.”

The Varona Sisters

Talk about hair was a dominating topic among the women in their family. Discussions about “DIY hair masks and recipes” they could use for ultimate hair protection were always part of their girl chats with their tías and primas. 

However, their move to the United States shifted their approach to haircare in the opposite direction. They discovered the flat iron and began straightening their hair “every day.” The List cites how prolonged flat iron use can affect the texture of your hair — especially curly hair.

With age comes wisdom, and the Varona sisters slowly began transforming the way they approached life and their hair

The sisters tell Latinidad Collective that they began a health pivot in their mid-20s, which Varona Cancelmo ushered in. 

“In our mid-20s, we started to go through a wellness transformation. Nicol, la hermana menor, decided to move out of our parent’s home unmarried. A huge decision that was not well taken by our family,” they explained.

The Dominican entrepreneurs continued, “Re-discovering herself, she found herself trying new things and watching DIY YouTube videos, which led her to [find] influencers who introduced her to curly haircuts and products exclusively for curly hair. She was hooked and started to learn all things curly.”

“We want [everyone] to feel the confidence to wear their hair curly every day, to work, to events, and anywhere in between.”

The Varona Sisters

It didn’t take too long until Varona Cancelmo brought her older sister into the fold. Thanks to motherhood, Varona Corniel had been in a position where she needed a quick haircare routine that didn’t skimp on the health and beauty. She wanted something that wouldn’t keep her outside her house “for half a day” for a simple blowout.

So, when her little sister suggested her new curly hair routine, she “instantaneously accepted” it. Venturing on this road together also meant they could support each other through the process and commentary from their family.

“This was especially important because having each other as support helped us with self-confidence and with comments we heard from family members who would say, ‘Y cuando te vas a peinar, mija.’ The transition stage was hard; it was almost like undergoing a detox,” they shared.

The sisters continued, “When you cut off the damaged hair, you don’t feel beautiful, and your hair is not quite curly and not quite straight.”

“Hair is part of our identity and has always been an important part of our culture.”

The Varona Sisters

Understanding the difficulty in transitioning your hair, they wanted to build a brand where anyone going through the process would feel seen

“OCOA wants you to embrace who you are #BorntoBe. For many of us, we actually don’t even know our curl pattern or have discovered our true hair potential. We grew up hearing, ‘Hay pero que pajon,’ ‘Que pelo tan malo,’ or ‘Tu tienes como cinco cabezas con todo ese pelo,’ when we either had to wash, detangle, or straighten our hair,” they revealed.

The sisters wanted to remove the trauma that many develop when they hear negative comments about their curly hair. OCOA Beauty wants to help women and femmes everywhere embrace their beauty and feel proud of how they look.

Las dominicanas posited, “Many of us didn’t grow up knowing how to care for our natural texture. How can you love something when you don’t know how to care for it and use the best quality ingredients to make it look its best?”

The Varona sisters want women and femmes everywhere to feel empowered when embracing their curly hair. They want to share the joy of wearing curly hair with confidence.

“That’s exactly what we want other Latinas to experience. Products that are co-designed by curly Latinas for curly Latinas, made with clean and quality ingredients that actually work, and lastly, made to represent you and our Latinidad,” they assert.

“We want them to feel the confidence to wear their hair curly every day, to work, to events, and anywhere in between,” they concluded.