When she was a junior at Wakefield High School two years ago, Tasnim Alam says, “I loved doing DIY things to my hair.” One of those home makeovers involved experimenting with a way to curl her hair without using damaging heat. It became the blueprint for Heatless Hotness, a beauty product that Alam now sells online.
Alam dreamed up the idea for her (literally) cool hair curlers during a class on entrepreneurship. She then worked with the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) to fine-tune her prototype, and was recently named one of the top six young entrepreneurs in the country at the YEA! Scholarship Competition.
She’s now entering her freshman year at Virginia Tech, where she plans to major in marketing while continuing to promote her product. “I’m going to try keeping Heatless Hotness going as long as I can,” she says. “I’ll have a whole new market to advertise in, down in Blacksburg.” A set of 16 curlers is available for $12. Find them @heatlesshotness on Instagram and Twitter.