Denise Francis
Shaina Rainford
By Bryan Fumagalli
As Women’s History Month in March spotlights the achievements of women in business and beyond, two Yonkers entrepreneurs are demonstrating how digital platforms can turn personal purpose into growth.
Denise Francis and Shaina Rainford are leveraging TikTok not just for visibility, but as a driving force behind brands rooted in wellness and haircare.
Denise Francis
Francis, known as the ‘Self-Love Queen’ on TikTok, uses her platform to promote self-love and mental health for women. She received a grant from TikTok which she used to launch Heal Sis, a mental wellness app focused on helping black women heal, grow and break generational cycles by making mental health care and wellness accessible, affordable and community centered.
“The goal is to bridge the gap between community care and individualized care when it comes to mental health and become a new form of mental health care for black women,” said Francis, a Brooklyn native who moved to Yonkers in 2020. “We stress the connection between self-love and mental health through our black girl healing socials, retreats and group therapist-led sessions and group guided journal sessions. Black women have always thrived in community.”
Though the app was created in 2024, Francis founded The Self Love Organization in 2017 after studying psychology at City College of New York.
“I was able to build a beautiful community on TikTok of black women who want to heal and start their healing journeys by exiting survival mode and entering thriving mode. They began following me because I have been sharing my journey – the good, bad and ugly – online.”
In addition to helping her movement get off the ground, TikTok has invited Francis to participate in multiple initiatives and creator events.
For more Information, visit @livenaturallylove on TikTok or theselfloveorganization.com.
Shaina Rainford
Rainford, founder of Bask and Lather Co., has built a natural haircare brand specifically for textured hair. Her bestsellers, Strong Hold Edge Control and Scalp Stimulator, have gone viral on TikTok Shop driving massive sell-outs and fueling significant growth through authentic content and real customer testimonials.
“We started this in 2020 after my younger sister lost her hair due to ringworm,” said Rainford, a Bronx native. “My mother grew desperate when doctors told her my sister’s hair may never grow back so she researched natural oils shown to promote hair growth and created a concoction which became our stimulating hair growth oil. When her hair grew back in it was thin, so my mom did more research that showed Jamaican black castor oil adds volume to hair and her hair grew down to her waist.”
Rainford had hair challenges of her own after acquiring life threatening COVID while working as a nurse practitioner at Scarsdale Medical Center deployed to White Plains Hospital.
“After recovering, my hair started to shed and literally break while touching it and I found myself desperate to find a solution,” she said. “With those same oils, my hair came back better than ever in a matter of weeks, and I said to my mom if I’m young and healthy and going through this there must be many people going through it. We started to share my sister and I’s before and after photos on social media and people started to buy it like crazy.”
While primarily focusing on women and children, Bask and Lather offers products for all hair types and even boasts a line of men’s products.
“TikTok is one of our big sales channels that’s been a huge top of funnel awareness platform for us,” Rainford said. “In fact, when TikTok Shop was becoming popular in the summer of 2023 we were going viral constantly resulting in organic sales, direct conversion with no ads needed. It really blew up the brand and on Black Friday/Cyber Monday we were the No. 1 personal care brand on the platform.”
For more information, visit baskandlatherco on TikTok or baskandlatherco.com.
