WS Chronicle

Beards have been growing in popularity over the past couple of years. Noticing the trend and looking for a better product for his beard, Travis Robinson decided to start a beard care business.

Bearded Kings was founded by Robinson in 2018 when he began selling t-shirts. He soon expanded to making several beard care products for men of color that include beard oil, beard butter and beard wash.

“When I started the company, I really kind of focused more on my community,” said Robinson. “The vision of it started in 2017/2018 and saw that it wasn’t the community locally but more the community outside is where most of my support came from.

“I just envisioned it just being t-shirts but eventually down the line people told me I would have to expand if I really wanted to become a full-time entrepreneur or an actual business. The beard care was something I didn’t envision when I started, to be honest.”

The beard care products that are currently on the market were just not up to the standards Robinson was looking for. Because Black men have a different texture of hair, he felt he could create a better option that would yield better results than the national brands on the market.

“Most of the guys that have these products on the shelves aren’t bearded, so there is no experience of what having a beard is like and there is no experience of what caring for a beard is like,” he said. “Not to be racial, but a lot of these guys are white, so a lot of people look at it as hair is hair.

“For a lot of Black men, a lot of us come with multi-texture hair and then the fact that our skin type is different than the average white male. So, a lot of their products and a lot of products in general, even other Black beard companies, use oil in their products. I am a water-based product kind of guy and a part of that is our bodies naturally produce oil. There are some Black people that have dry skin, but oil on top of oil is just not a good mixture. With that being said, I do have a beard oil that is oil based, but it doesn’t use the heavy oils that most companies use.”

There was a lot of trial and error for Robinson as he was trying to find the right combination of ingredients for his beard care products. It took nearly a year for him to put everything together.

“It was literally nine months, and I say nine months because for me, when I start planning, everything starts with a thought,” he said. “The thought is the beginning, but it’s more of the execution, so what I started doing was buying products and testing the consistency of the products, looking into different hair textures and what’s good for the skin.

“It was a long process of doing that. I used myself as a test model and a couple other people that believed that the product would be well worth it.”

Robinson started off by selling products out of the trunk of his car. He then created a website to reach a bigger audience. His t-shirts are still selling very well, and his beard care products have started to increase in sales.

To be a Black male entrepreneur who provides a needed product for the Black community is paramount to Robinson. He is thankful for all of the supporters of his products.

“When people take a risk and believe in my beard care products or my shirts, that means a lot to me and that is not something I take lightly,” he continued. “I tell people if they invest in me, I invest in them back.”

Robinson has received very good feedback from the customers of his products. When it comes to his t-shirts, they enjoy the feel and fit. As far as the beard care products, they have enjoyed the results and the smell.  

Robinson feels there are many people out there with great ideas, but who are apprehensive about taking the leap to start a business. He feels everyone with a good business idea should go for it and “have faith” in the idea. The path will be long and arduous, but the results will be worth it, he said.

For more information on Bearded Kings and their line of products, please visit www.bearded-king.com. You can also check out Bearded Kings on Instagram at beardedkings.clothing or on Twitter at kingsbearded.