JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A bond built by bearded conversations sparked the beginning of a brand tackling more than just hair and skin deficiencies for men in the Black community.
Dr. Derick McElveen Jr. and Dr. Theron Douglas are two Jacksonville natives trying to change the course of beard and hair care for men.
Both worked their way through pharmacy school, receiving the doctor title in front of their names. They tackled COVID-19 head-on as first responders and managed to build a brand ― five years in the making ― fueled by self-awareness and their passion to help others.
EveryDay Fresh Club officially launched in June as a self-care brand that not only offers natural hair and beard care products designed without harmful chemicals or preservatives, but also fills what they say is a void of hair products created by and for Black men.
The duo still work as pharmacists while managing their business.
McElveen and Douglas were excited to meet each other in 2017 while working at a military base because it was rare to see other Black pharmacists. They bonded through conversations about their college experiences — McElveen attended a historically Black university and Douglas attended a predominately white university — and exchanged grooming tips to keep up their jobs’ strict clean-shaven demands.
This era in their lives proved to not only bring a lasting friendship together but also represented the development stage for their business ― even if they didn’t know it at the time.
Mission about more than money
While working on the military base in 2017, Douglas would research natural hair and created personalized products for himself.
“I think my favorite thing about the company is the fact that the ideation never started for retail or for money,” Douglas said.
Douglas said the idea was generated from men stopping him on the street to inquire about the products he used on his beard. That’s when he started to think there may be more to his homegrown products than meets the eye.
“This was not for retail. It was to address a pain we were having and that so happened other people found value in it too,” Douglas said.
Before the inquires, the two weren’t even thinking business-minded. However, after those interactions, they started taking their business seriously.
McElveen received a ticket in 2020 to pitch their products at the TechStars Start Up Weekend competition hosted by Elevated Ventures and the University of North Florida’s Center for Entrepreneurial Growth. The now-business partners, immediately started to build their business plan.
“We spent a whole three days building the model and doing the marketing research. That’s when I realized this isn’t just a product or something that was fulfilling a need for us, this fills the needs for a lot of people and there is a really large market for people who aren’t being addressed. And that’s us,” McElveen said.
McElveen and Douglas won third place for their Beard Meringue in the competition, where they earned resources for business development, sales modeling and consulting.
The entrepreneurs worked to put the finishing touches on their brand and had a soft launch in March 2022.
“We’re always looking to pivot based on customer feedback, just to make sure that we’re covering our bases. We’re here to serve our users in a manner that can holistically support them,” Douglas said.
Different paths lead to the same destination
McElveen’s interest in pharmacy was sparked by witnessing the relationship between his grandfather and his grandfather’s pharmacist. McElveen said he watched his grandfather battle different illnesses and saw how fundamental his grandfather’s pharmacist was in helping his grandfather’s health.
His grandfather opened his own pharmacy, where McElveen interned in high school — that ignited the beginning of McElveen following in his grandfather’s footsteps.
“For me, it was a cerebral decision. I love science. I love helping people and information,” McElveen said.
McElveen attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), where he earned his doctorate.
Douglas, on the other hand, always had an interest in math and science. He originally started school at the University of Florida as an engineering major but learned that major wasn’t as fulfilling for him.
“I felt like I had a responsibility to do something with my intelligence to help people,” Douglas said. “The reason I chose to be a pharmacist was to be able to empower people to use information that’s sometimes codified and caught up in jargon in the health care industry. I wanted to help people really understand that the doctor is not responsible for your health, you are, and I take pride in being able to bridge the gaps to help people understand.”
McElveen and Douglas may have had different routes lead them to the world of pharmaceuticals, but their reasons for pursuing that career always remained the same: They aimed to help people, and that was a value that would bring them closer than they had imagined.
Discovering self-care while working in a pandemic
Working as front-line workers at the beginning of the pandemic was the biggest testament and wake-up call for the men. The idea of self-care was something that both men adapted as they grew to learn more about themselves, but it became heightened during the pandemic.
“It’s not like you can make a mistake,” said McElveen, describing the pressure of working as a pharmacist in a fast-paced environment. “It’s not like you can resend that order of fries again. There’s somebody at the other end of that and you’re moving double time throughout the day, constantly.”
Based on the demand of the job, McElveen knew he had to take a step back and check on himself.
“The only thing you can control is yourself and your reactions and what you bring into the day. That’s where self-care came in for me. I had to get in the habit of spending 15-20 minutes every morning for myself,” McElveen said.
Both McElveen and Douglas realized they had to take the necessary steps to prepare for the demands of the pandemic while nurturing what was inside of them first.
“I was terrified. I was on the front lines at a hospital while new data was coming out about how infectious it was and potential complications,” Douglas said. “It made me think about what it takes to kind of prioritize health, not only for patients but for myself, in general. You can’t really pour from an empty cup. I can’t be a good practitioner of pharmacy for my patients if I’m always running on empty.”
Their experience as front-line workers is a result of the brand’s goal: to accentuate self-care as the most essential need for their customers.
The two pharmacists recognized the importance of navigating a professional space as Black men in a world that would stereotype them for their appearance while remaining true to who they are.
“What the EveryDay Fresh Club first helped me do is to remain authentic to myself with more confidence,” Douglas said.
“We wanted to put something out there that we could feel good about and be proud of how that represents our aesthetic as well as our knowledge base,” McElveen said.
In a time when mental health and self-care conversations are reverberating throughout the Black community, Douglas said he “would love to destigmatize what it means [for men] to care for themselves.”
Often, conversations about self-care are directed toward women, so men start to believe that it doesn’t pertain to them.
Douglas also said that EveryDay Fresh Club’s products are the byproduct of what it meant for Douglas and McElveen to discover what it means to nurture themselves.
Douglas and McElveen encourage men to try to implement more self-care in their lives to enhance their well-being. McElveen talked about his self-care process and how it shifted when he first started sporting a bald head.
“When I first went bald, everything changed for me. I had to view myself differently, but I also took a different type of pride and care because my hair wasn’t there anymore,” McElveen expressed. “I felt like I needed to be pristine. I felt like the way I looked, the way I smelled had to be reflective of how I felt because I felt immaculate.”
Douglas supports the idea of acceptance as the first step for any man to start implementing self-care in their routine.
“If you want to step into the self-care field, you must sit in awareness of accepting who you are and then once that acceptance happens understanding the regimen and what it means to nurture who you are without guilt or judgment,” Douglas said.
First-time experiences make lifetime partnerships
In July, the duo attended their first event as a vendor at the Natural Beauty Festival. They described the experience as bigger than a marketing event.
“We made a lot of great connections when it comes to the self-care industry. It was amazing how we could position our brand and build partnerships, who fall in line with our values and to see that there were more than just us in this space,” Douglas said.
McElveen and Douglas recognize that other Black-owned hair care businesses exist, but for them, they don’t look at those businesses as competition.
“I’m in the mindset it’s not a competition, it’s collaboration,” Douglas said. “It’s just walking in the understanding that once you do have something of value, real networking can begin. Seeing that in real-time was really amazing.”
For McElveen, it was a full-circle moment to be a vendor at the festival. He said he attended the event in 2021 with his daughter, who was a vendor at the time selling cupcakes.
He recalled the moment when he told one of the members of the local band The Katz Downstairz that he would see McElveen at the festival next year. Fast forward to 2022, McElveen ran into the band member again and invited him to his booth.
“He was just kind of blown away because I said it. I just said it casually, and then a year later, I’m there vending with a full-blown finished product,” McElveen said.
Both men leave anyone with aspirations to start their own business with this astounding advice: “Just start.”
Douglas admitted he initially struggled with taking his own advice when they began talking about officially launching the brand because he’s a “little more cautious” versus McElveen, who is “ready to go.”
But Douglas learned he didn’t really know what to provide for customers until he took his first step.
“You can write down so much stuff. You can plan everything. You can do all the research, take all the classes and seminars you want, but if you don’t take that first step, you’re not going to go anywhere,” McElveen added.
The men did not disclose full details of what customers can expect next, but Douglas did mention that he is working on formulating a companion product for the Beard Meringue. Because it is his favorite product, he was a bit disappointed when customers expressed that they liked the Beard Wash better, so that motivated him to work harder to display the Meringue’s value.
McElveen said there could also be the addition of another EveryDay Fresh subscription box to address skin concerns like acne.
Ultimately, McElveen and Douglas hope that EveryDay Fresh Club continues to start conversations about self-care, especially for Black men, while at the same time creating products that fill a void in an overlooked market.
Learn more about EveryDay Fresh Club’s grassroots beginnings in this snippet of their interview: