Bomba Curls Becomes The First Female-Owned Dominican Haircare Brand At Target

Bomba Curls joins a brimming roster of indie beauty brands just landing at Target. Others include Byoma Beauty, Everyday Humans, Apto Skincare, MDSolarSciences, Pursoma, WLDKAT, Pure Culture Beauty, Imbue and Anihana. But Bomba’s launch comes with a historic distinction: It’s the only female-owned Dominican haircare brand the retailer has carried.

“Target was the vanguard when it came to the natural haircare space. They were the first to really open their doors to a lot of brands,” says Bomba founder and CEO Lulu Cordero. “So, I feel like we’re going to be right at home here. We’re having the chance to add to the richness of the haircare aisle and bring our own flavor, our own sazón.”

Bomba’s signature products—Forbidden Oil ($22), Forbidden Mask ($28) and Bomba Beauty Bites ($20)—are entering 348 Target doors and will be available on the chain’s website. Bomba is stocked by Nordstrom and J.C. Penney, too. At the end of 2021, the brand’s sales were up 124% over the year before. For this year, it projects that number could increase due to its retail expansion. Bomba anticipates it could close out the year with a combined 650 stores, and it plans to eventually travel beyond the United States to Latin America, Africa and Europe.

As an Afro-Latina, Cordero was raised in a culture obsessed with Eurocentric beauty ideals. “If you’ve ever heard of the Dominican blowout, then you know we love to straighten the hair,” she says. “That’s the aesthetic that we’re taught to aspire towards.” When she became a vegetarian in 2004 to adopt a cleaner, healthier lifestyle, she also stopped getting her hair relaxed and embraced her natural curls, a big move since she’d been getting it relaxed since she was 9 years old.

Her family wasn’t exactly in favor of her natural look. “Everyone told me, ‘This is terrible, you’re never going to get a job, no one is ever going to take you seriously with that hair, you need to fix that,’” recounts Cordero. “And I hate that expression because, by telling me that I need to fix that, that implies that something is broken about me.”

Cordero transitioned to her natural hair during what she describes as the stone age of the natural hair movement. On top of the lack of support from her family, she says, “Back then, there weren’t very many products or resources like how we have today.” Unsure how to properly style her curls, she often pulled them back into a tight bun and, over time, she developed traction alopecia. “I had no edges, the hairline was receding, it was rough,” she recalls. Her mom sensed that she was struggling and suggested she try using natural Dominican hair remedies.

Cordero initially began to experiment with coffee. After that experimentation, she discovered rosemary and black cumin seed oil, ingredients she says aid in hair growth, and whipped up a blend. The blended ingredients led to her hairline filling in, and Cordero started passing out mini versions of the concoction that improved her hair to her family and friends.

“Eventually I was like, ‘You know what? I think there might be something here, something that I could share with the world to help other girls and boys out there that are struggling with embracing their natural hair or struggling with getting their curls to be as popping and as bomba as possible,’” she says. Bomba’s debut product, Forbidden Oil, is grounded in Cordero’s early concoction. Forbidden Hair Mask followed it and is the brand’s bestselling product. Additional product releases are in the works for later this year.

Cordero takes pride in highlighting ingredients Dominicans have relied upon for generations that have been passed down to her. She compares her approach to that of Korean beauty. “The ingredients that they use for skincare, certain products and how things would be used were new to the American audience and the American consumer, but they’ve been using them for ages and ages,” she says. “The same goes for Bomba Curls. They are time-tested ingredients.” She develops Bomba’s formulas herself, thanks in part to her science background. She studied biomedicine at the University of Chicago, where she received her bachelor’s degree with an economics major.

Bomba defines “bomba” to mean “a state of mind or attitude that allows one to emanate confidence, fierceness and execute an effortless slay.” Cordero’s aim is to spread Bomba energy to anyone who needs it, but specifically to other Afro-Latinas. “We’re a community that, for a very long time, has been invisible. We’ve been erased, we’ve been marginalized, and we’ve been told that your hair is less than, that you are less than,” she says. “So, with Bomba, what we’re trying to do is show the world that No 1, we’re here, and No. 2 that our melanin is beautiful and our hair textures are beautiful.”