By inCity Magazine Staff | inHERit Series
After building and selling Curlkalon, she now shapes the internal architecture, clarity, and personal brand that will anchor her next chapter in civic and nonprofit leadership.
When Shavone Riggins first stood in front of her mirror, frustrated with protective styles that never reflected the beauty she saw in her mind, she wasn’t simply confronting a hair problem. She was confronting an absence. An absence of representation, of authenticity, of brands that honored the natural curl patterns Black women had been told to minimize or tame.
Curlkalon, the company she would eventually launch and later sell, did not begin as a business idea. It began as a recognition of a gap so personal and so universal that it demanded to be filled. “We deserve hair that looks and feels like us,” she told herself. That one sentence, clear and grounded, would spark a movement.
But movements rarely declare themselves in the beginning. They reveal themselves through small, intimate moments. For Shavone, one of those moments arrived when a woman tagged Curlkalon on Instagram and wrote, “I finally feel like myself.”
It wasn’t the sale that reached her. It was the restoration. “That was when I realized this wasn’t just a product. It was permission,” she says. Permission for Black women to see themselves clearly and confidently.
Growth, Pressure, and the Making of a Leader
As Curlkalon grew, Shavone found herself managing rapid demand that stretched her supply chain across continents. She was suddenly navigating overseas manufacturing, quality control, and timelines that did not care about her mission or her deadlines.
“It felt like everything I’d built could unravel overnight,” she recalls. “Fear was present, but I refused to let it lead.”
She strengthened relationships with manufacturers, secured backups, and learned the complexities of global production on the fly. What looked like momentum from the outside felt like survival on the inside. But that pressure refined her leadership, her resilience, and her ability to protect the integrity of what she created.
After the Acquisition, a Different Kind of Building Began
When Curlkalon was acquired in 2019, many assumed her creative chapter would pause. Instead, it shifted. Deepened. Evolved.
But contrary to the way founder stories are often told, Shavone is not currently in a season of launching new brands. Her work now lives at a different intersection, one that demands a broader kind of impact.
Today, she supports large scale missions at the crossroads of city government and nonprofit leadership, applying her expertise to existing initiatives that influence community outcomes, civic innovation, and public good. Her leadership extends beyond entrepreneurship into spaces where strategy, empathy, and vision shape systems rather than products.
Alongside that work, she is intentionally amplifying the brand of Shavone Riggins in a way that is aligned, purposeful, and deeply grounded. She is not building new brands from scratch. She is building the internal architecture that will guide whatever she chooses to create next.
“I am shaping the foundation, the values, the voice, and the clarity that my next chapter will stand on,” she says. It is a season of alignment, identity cultivation, and intentional positioning.
The Invisible Labor Few Ever See
Readers often celebrate the results of a founder’s work but miss the emotional and mental stamina behind it. Shavone names that openly.
“The real work was keeping the vision intact when everything around me was shifting,” she says.
Behind the visible milestones were long nights, quiet recalibrations, and decisions made from faith rather than pressure. She balanced logistics, creative direction, customer expectations, and the intangible burden of building something that carried cultural meaning.
“It takes more than strategy,” she explains. “It takes emotional stamina.”
Stillness, Alignment, and the Inner Compass
Unlike many entrepreneurs who chase trends or tactics, Shavone’s ideas come from a different place. She begins inward through stillness, reflection, and faith. Her clarity is not reactive. It is cultivated.
Mentors, books, travel, and community conversations add perspective, but her truest guidance comes from her internal alignment. She filters advice through one question: Does this align with my values, my purpose, and the people I serve?
“Not all good advice is good for you,” she says, a line that reads like a lesson earned, not borrowed.
Moments That Redefine Purpose
One moment of validation came in an unexpected place. A woman with alopecia stopped her in a store, wearing Curlkalon curls. She thanked Shavone for helping her feel beautiful again and asked to take a photo.
“That moment humbled me to my core,” she says. “It reminded me that what I created wasn’t cosmetic. It was emotional. Cultural. Restorative.”
Legacy as a Living Framework
Ask her what she wants the world to inHERit from her work and her response is simple and weighty.
“Courage,” she says. “The courage to create from authenticity.”
Her life now is not about launching quickly or scaling loudly. It is about building foundations that last, shaping ecosystems that honor identity, and designing future chapters with intention rather than urgency.
Her leadership is not just about the brands she built. It is about the architecture she is building within herself, the one that will hold her next movement, next mission, and next expression of impact.
Her story embodies the heart of the inHERit Initiative. Women shaping legacy, not through speed, but through depth. Not through trend, but through truth. Not through hustle, but through the grounded clarity of who they are becoming.
Nominate a Woman Shaping Her Next Chapter
The inHERit Initiative honors women who are building from intention, alignment, and inner clarity, not just momentum. If you know a founder, leader, or creative whose work is entering a new season of purpose and impact, we want to share her story.
We spotlight women who are:
• shaping internal architecture for their next chapter
• influencing communities through service, leadership, or innovation
• redefining identity and impact in ways that create cultural or civic shift
• building foundations that will support long term legacy
Nominate a woman whose journey deserves visibility and care.
https://inmm.group/nominate-a-woman-founder-building-her-legacy
Help us honor the women shaping the future through intention, truth, and aligned leadership.
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