Beachwaver Co-Founder Sarah Potempa’s Driving Force Is Creativity
Sarah Potempa has conquered the hair world, working with celebrities like Selena Gomez and Alicia Keys and co-founding the very successful Beachwaver rotating curling iron. Now, she has turned Beachwaver into a million-dollar brand with multiple voltage and pattern options for curling irons and affordable hair care options, including shampoo, conditioner and styling creams.
What's especially admirable about Sarah's career is that she started it from the ground up, playing with her sisters' and friends' hair and working in a local salon in Illinois. More than anything, she loves being creative—in fact, she calls it the driving force behind everything that she has done.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Sarah about her groundbreaking Beachwaver brand, her experience working with some of the industry's biggest stars and her inspiring passion for hair.
Name: Sarah Potempa
IG Handles: @SarahPotempa and @TheBeachwaver
Hometown: Libertyville, Illinois
1. Sarah found her passion for hair at a young age after braiding her sports teammates' hair before games.
"My history as a hairdresser started when I was a kid and loved braiding hair. I played a lot of sports and I really enjoyed braiding my teammates hair before practice or games. Then, I started styling my sister's hair, and we had a lot of fun creating photoshoots in the basement where I would style her to look like Marilyn Monroe or do really cool texture and braids on her hair.
When I needed to get a job to have money to shop at the mall, my parents said to do what I enjoyed doing which was hairdressing. I started working at a small salon in Illinois and was really inspired by Patty, the hairstylist there, as she told me about the opportunities to move to New York city, style on stage and work on a photoshoots. I took her advice and moved to New York as a teenager for a summer art program and later went to beauty school and worked at a Hair Salon in New York while I was in college at NYU. This is where my love for hairdressing really came from—being backstage photoshoots and being able to style hair for runway shows. Then, I decided to leave the hair salon and fully commit to being a freelance traveling hairdresser."
— Sarah Potempa
(via The Beachwaver Co.)
2. Sarah began working with celebrities after her passion for hair impressed her booking agent, The Wall Group.
"I started working with celebrities when I was doing more fashion photoshoots as an assistant and the Wall Group, our booking agent, thought that I would be a really good fit for that. I assisted Danilo, who was Gwen Stefani and P!nk's hairdresser, and I loved how creative he was with taking editorial hair and bringing it to the red carpet. The Wall Group thought that I would be a really good fit as I loved educating, being super creative and working with different types of people.
I started with a lot of men's grooming and a lot of musicians. I really loved getting to be backstage with them, prepping for a concert or for a press appearance.
As my career evolved, I started to do a lot of red carpet styling with actresses like Emily Blunt, Reese Witherspoon and Ali Larter. I really enjoyed creating braids and beautiful updos for the red carpet. I worked with Lea Michele, Hailee Steinfeld and Selena Gomez to create beautiful shiny straight looks, gorgeous Beachwaved styles and some epic glam moments. I really loved working with clients like Emily Blunt because she allowed me to be super creative when styling crown braids, adding accessories to braids for red carpet looks and really utilizing my love for braiding and basket weaving for red carpet styles."
— Sarah Potempa
Also read about: How Nina Liu's Kite Beauty Changes the Makeup Game for Busy Lives (and Tiny Purses)
3. Sarah created the Beachwaver to make it easier for clients to recreate her looks at home.
"I created the Beachwaver because I was working with a lot of press and video editors for about four years where they were asking me how to recreate the looks I was creating on the red carpet, and I was constantly telling them to hold the curling iron upside down and backwards and wear a glove and they found it really difficult. What I was surprised by and didn't really realize at the time is that a lot of beauty editors were not hairdressers. They were writers, so it was really difficult for them to recreate a lot of these looks on themselves. After saying the same thing, 'Hold it upside down, wrap it back, wear a glove, wrap it to the left and away from the face,' the beauty editor let me know was really confused and said she didn't want to write upside-down or backwards in the article, and she wanted to make it easier for somebody. Then, I realized that when I'm standing up behind you it's really easy for me because I'm holding it down and I'm wrapping it, but on yourself, you put your hands over your head and it starts to get really hard. So, I got off the phone with her, sketched out the idea and I thought, okay, the small clamp needs to replace your fingers. And then I thought it needs to rotate because I was always telling people to make that same pattern so I wanted the tool to create that same pattern. I was also always saying to go away from face on the left and away from the face on the right, and that's where the rotation came in with the original Beachwaver having a left, right and go button based on the side you were curling.
The inspiration really came from really wanting to help people at home recreate the looks they saw on the red carpet and also just make it easier for everybody to be able to curl their own hair, as that was always a challenge for a lot of people and especially challenging for a lot of beauty editors. I thought if I could create a product that was easier for the editors to explain to the women at home, it would definitely make everyone's life easier.
Creating the Beachwaver from the sketch to the final product took two years. We started with a prototype and worked with an electrical engineer, mechanical engineer and a CAD designer. We took my sketch and assembled our 1st prototype using a 3D printer. After two years we were able to cut the steel for the molds to create the final product and launch it after two years of research and development."
— Sarah Potempa
4. The Beachwaver isn't just special because of its self-rotating clamp. It also has a custom heater that saves your hair health.
"The Beachwaver is completely different than any other curling iron because it solves the problem that a lot of people had where it was really difficult to hold a normal curling iron. The Beachwaver just completely changed the game because it is a product designed specifically to make it easier to curl your own hair.
This product has a custom small clamp at the bottom to replace your fingers, as if you were wrapping it around like a wand. The Beachwaver rotates in both directions. Basically, if you can press a button, you can curl your hair.
It also has an internal custom heater. We were the first ones to ever create an internal custom heater, as every other curling iron on the market was using the same standard four-inch part. Our internal, extra-long heater along with the ceramic rod makes it healthier and better for your hair.
It really is just a phenomenal curling iron."
— Sarah Potempa
5. The best advice Sarah has ever received was to try, no matter what.
"The best piece of advice I was ever given was from my grandma. She told me, 'Leap and the net will appear.' It's a quote that I live by and love.
As an entrepreneur, you always have to try your best, and if you have an idea like a curling iron or anything else that you think could make people's lives easier, you need to sketch it out, go for it, create the prototype because you never know unless you do.
'Leap and the net will appear' has been such a great theme throughout our entire business because we've been able to grow and invent a product that's patented all because we went for it. You'll see that that net does appear, and the community does show up for you. It's a really great way to live your life."
— Sarah Potempa
6. There are three key factors that helped Sarah get to where she is today.
"Hard work, determination, and passion. I think that habits are an interesting concept because when you're focusing on work, I just like to set goals, create a vision and then do anything I can to get to it.
I think it's all about just putting in the hard work and doing and learning everything yourself because you can't rely on someone else or a software to figure out how to do everything you want to do in your business. You have to be the expert in literally everything.
Even with hairdressing, if you want to do it, you have to be in the right place at the right time. But you also have to also be the one to put yourself there. Move to New York and be in those places so that you can do those jobs."
— Sarah Potempa
Also read about: How Amy Hsiao's Taiwanese Heritage and Love of Food Inspired Cultural Food Kit Brand, Kitsby
7. Creating and educating are the most rewarding part of her job.
"I love creating. I love creating videos, educational tutorials, hairstyles and unique approaches to braids, updos and Beachwaves.
I also love educating. It's honestly so rewarding when somebody recreates the look that we do or uses the Beachwaver and tells us how much they love it!"
— Sarah Potempa
(via The Beachwaver Co.)
8. Sarah feels the most inspired when she works with other creatives!
"One thing that I would want everyone to know is that creativity is what drives everything. I think what makes me the happiest is doing what I love. When we were younger and teenagers, we'd do photoshoots and have so much fun with braiding and hairstyling. So, when I get to create really unique looks that honestly is the best thing.
I love music. A lot of my clients are musicians like Alanis Morissette, Alicia Keys and Lea Michele. Getting to see them perform and being super creative is so inspiring so I feel very motivated and inspired by music and other creative people."
— Sarah Potempa
To learn more about our favorite brands and the incredible women behind them, click HERE to read our interview with MOODEAUX founder Brianna Arps.