Meet the Multicultural Haircare Maestro

Strength of Nature Global President Mario de la Guardia has experienced tremendous success in the haircare market. As President of Strength of Nature, he oversees 10 brands in the marketplace, all produced in Savannah, Georgia. And with the recent acquisition of three brands from Unilever, de la Guardia spoke with Beauty Store Business Magazine about the future of the industry and how he plans to provide world-class haircare products to African-American women and Latinas in the future. It all started when de la Guardia’s father came to America from Cuba, and invented the Dark & Lovely No-Lye Relaxer in 1978. After moving from one product company to the next, the de la Guardia’s founded their own family business, Strength of Nature, in 2000. The company was founded on developing better consumer products, a principle de la Guardia has never strayed away from. He states that his desire to create innovative products is much more powerful than his desire to be an entrepreneur. It’s this type of innovation that leads to better products for customers. The Strength of Nature family of brands has the distinct advantage of moving these new products to market quickly. This is due to the careful attention paid to customers’ feedback. Mr. de la Guardia prides his company on creating brands that truly listen to their audiences. And one of the most prominent responses when asking consumers what they’d like to see more in haircare is the availability of more natural maintenance products. Mr. de la Guardia goes on to explain how this latest trend of natural haircare isn’t going anywhere. This is partly why Strength of Nature is introducing the Reversible Straightening Texture Manageability System, which allows women to naturally straighten their curly hair, without harmful heat or chemicals, and change it back to their natural hair texture whenever they want. This is only one of many product innovations that Strength of Nature plans on unveiling in the very near future.