The Insider Who Got Outvoted One Too Many Times: How Gaia Tonanzi Built Tootilab to Finally Get Curly Hair Right
Gaia Tonanzi spent years being the only curly-haired person in the room. Working across both the manufacturing and brand sides of the haircare industry, she had a front-row seat to how the curl market actually worked, and it wasn't pretty. Brands chasing a trend rather than solving a problem. Straight-hair formulas repackaged in new bottles. Marketing built around ingredient percentages too low to do anything useful. And a community of people with wavy, curly, and coily hair, 65% of the global population by Gaia's count, left more confused than when they started.
She kept fighting for better. She kept getting outvoted. Then, on the day she returned from her honeymoon, she was made redundant. That was enough.
Gaia founded Tootilab on a straightforward bet: if brands with no real understanding of their customer could succeed, imagine what was possible when you actually cared. Before launching a single product, she started sharing everything she knew about curly hair on social media. 120,000 people followed. Then came the products - science-backed, community-tested, and built around simplicity rather than the complexity that keeps people endlessly spending. Today Tootilab has grown to over 230,000 followers across platforms, with a new strong hold gel launching in September developed in public, alongside the community that asked for it.
We spoke with Gaia about what she saw from the inside of the industry, the problem she set out to solve, and what comes next for Tootilab.
This is part of our ongoing 20 Founders On a Mission series. New editions publish regularly. To be featured or nominate a founder, write to us at hi@foundedbywomen.org
What inspired you to start?
I spent my entire career in haircare, first working for manufacturers and then on the brand side. Everyone kept talking about curly hair as a trend, but no one really understood it. I was always the only person with curly hair in the team. I watched brands trying to capitalise on the community I was a part of without really trying to solve their problems. Repurposing straight hair formulas in new bottles. Relying on lab testing rather than seeing if their products worked on actual people. Focusing their entire communication on marketing ingredients at concentrations that did nothing, rather than investing in actives that were going to make a difference. Selling complexity to a community that was already overwhelmed. I kept fighting for the right thing. I kept getting outvoted.
Then, the day I came back from my honeymoon, I was made redundant. That was the last drop. I thought, if they can be successful without understanding their customer, imagine what you could do when you actually care. And Tootilab was born.
What problem are you solving?
The curly hair industry has a dirty secret: most of it wasn't built for curly hair. It was built for a trend, and complexity is the business model. More products, more steps, more confusion keeps people spending. Meanwhile 65% of the global population has some form of texture, and most of them have never been properly taught how to work with their hair. Tootilab exists to make curly hair simple, genuinely simple, through science-backed products that actually work and education that reaches people before they spend a penny. We started sharing everything we knew on social media without a single product to sell. 120,000 people followed before we launched anything. The community came first, and it still does - we're up to over 230,000 across platforms now.
What’s next for you?
Two years in, we're doubling down. In September we're launching our first new product since the brand launched, a strong hold gel that our community has been part of developing from the beginning. We've been testing it publicly on social, and the anticipation has been something else. That's what happens when you build with your community rather than for them. We can't wait to see it drop!
This is part of our ongoing 20 Founders On a Mission series. New editions publish regularly. To be featured or nominate a founder, write to us at hi@foundedbywomen.org
