Issa Rebrand: The ToBNatural Blog Got a Makeover!

Allow me to reintroduce myself…
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Welcome to a new name and a fresh new look! Farewell ToBNatural… hello ToiaBarry.com!

I was trying to think of where to start when explaining why I decided on this ToBNatural blog rebrand. I guess there’s no better place to begin than… at the beginning! Lemme share how ToBNatural came to be.

How It All Began

For as long as I’ve known myself, I’ve been obsessed with hair. I had this giant doll in whose plentiful head of hair I’d create bomb hair styles and even recreate the ones I saw on my mom and my aunts. Since I was a kid, my goal was to help make women look and feel good by becoming a hair stylist when I grew up. But my junior high guidance counselor thought I was “too smart for that” so thanks to the pressure, I wound up at Brooklyn Tech High School.

I figured post high school would be my chance to do what I really wanted. But, again, the pressure to attend a college landed me in F.I.T., majoring in Interior Design. Sure, I was good at this too but it wasn’t what I loved.

Finally Following My Passion

After a few years of college and working retail, I finally made moves to attend the Learning Institute for Beauty Sciences (now Empire Beauty School) and acquired my License of Cosmetology in 2004. Yay me! But suffering from chronic back pain, standing on my feet all day doing hair wouldn’t work. How would I use my knowledge and passion for hair care now?!

Welp, around 2009, at the prodding of my husband, I decided to grow out my relaxed hair and return to my natural texture. Whoooo woulda thought this would be the catalyst for a whole career path?

I and two friends took on this journey together, doing research, swapping hair tips and ideas almost daily via email. We would go on to organize and host two natural hair events in NYC, gathering women together to network and gain hair care info from pros and some of their favorite natural hair influencers.

It wasn’t until this time (’09) that I discovered that young women were actually filming themselves styling and experimenting with their natural hair. Knowing I had something to offer, I soon began sharing on my own YouTube channel.

The Birth of ToBNatural

The way the name ToBNatural came about is a lil interesting yet so simple. I wanted to join Twitter to begin expanding my brand and needed a catchy handle. It had to somehow incorporate my name and the word “natural”. While I sat at my desk at work, my husband and I brainstormed (he was also at work LOL!) and after a few fails, we texted each other at the same time “ToBNatural”. HA! It had the components I wanted plus it was also a bit of a play on words! Perfect!

I deleted my Facebook page “Toia’s Natural Hair Affair” (where I shared my hair journey) and started my ToBNatural fan page in March 2012. I then discovered Tumblr and began sharing hair tips there every week – and thus, Hair Tip Tuesday was born! While I technically started my official blog at the same time as the Facebook page, Facebook just seemed like less pressure than writing articles on a site, wondering if people would read them. But I finally pressed “publish” on my first blog post in August of that year. And THAT’S when things really got rolling.

The Facebook page was growing rapidly and my platform was fairly well-known in the natural hair community. I was getting invites to industry events and even spoke on a panel. As the landscape of the blogging world grew and changed over the years, so did my platform. I quickly learned that I could actually make money doing this and have had the privilege of working with brands I love.

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For the past 7 years, I’ve been known around these innanets as ToBNatural (to the point where people thought my name was Tobi!). I even hosted two solo events under my brand! But since becoming pregnant with Micah and sharing more baby and family content along with just day-to-day goings on, it was clear for a while that I’m about much more than natural hair. I’d been feeling for years that I needed the name of my platform to reflect the changes in my life and played around with a few. In the words of Sam Cooke, “it’s been a long time comin!”
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So, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to my new digs, ToiaBarry.com!

You’ll notice a new theme (Lavoie by pipdig!) and a more streamlined, simple menu so you can quickly find the info you want. I LOVE IT and I hope you do too!

I’m so grateful for the people who have been rocking with me all these years and the relationships that came from ToBNatural. I guess this isn’t even a rebrand per se, but I’m merely giving my brand a name that more aligns with what I’ve been sharing for the last few years — my life. Though this has switched to more of a lifestyle blog, you can still expect to see hair content here cuz I just can’t help myself! LOL!

Please, take a look around the new ToiaBarry.com, maybe check out any posts you’ve missed over the years and stay tuned for more great content! Be sure to subscribe so you catch the new stuff and uhhh… follow me on Instagram too! Thaaaannnkss and enjoy!

Dress – SHEIN; Jacket – Gap; Purse – Target; Sneakers – ShoeDazzle; Head Wrap – Wrapper’s Delight; Watch – JORD; Earrings – ToniDaley.com; Glasses – Zenni

Photos: Lauren Layne