Cliff Vmir continues to build on his success as a seasoned hair stylist.
Turning His Passion For Hair Into A Brand
Vmir began showing interest in hair care at 8 years old. However, at 14, when his parents separated, he fully committed to his passion. This allowed him to financially support his mother, who had been out of work for three months due to a knee replacement.
“It wasn’t until my mom and my dad split up completely, when I was 14, that I was able to kind of go in full-throttle and understand that this isn’t something that I wanna just play around with. This is something that I can make money from,” Vmir told AFROTECH™ in an interview. “It’s crazy ’cause it’s something that I love to do… I also feel like with my mom and my dad splitting up, it was just kind of something that financially I wanted to help my mom. So not saying that I was forced into it, but I felt like it was only right for me to just use what I have to get what we need, and I was able to kind of help support my mom.”
Vmir vividly remembers facing an eviction notice and living without electricity in his home. It was during this challenging time that his entrepreneurial spirit emerged. He started styling his friends’ hair, charging $45 for sew-ins, and relied on public transportation after school to travel between clients.
“Eventually we did end up getting evicted. After that I kind of started staying with friends. [My mom] wanted me to come with her, but if I went with her I would’ve had to transfer to other schools. At the time I was going to a vocational high school for cosmetology, and I just begged my mom. I had already had to beg her to be able to even go to that school, but I had to beg her,” he recalled.
Within a month, Vmir moved back in with his mother once she was more financially stable. By then, he was secure in his purpose, spending hours honing his styling craft and learning through his vocational program. By his freshman year of high school, salons across Delaware were seeking his services.
One salon owner — who messaged him eight times on Instagram — encouraged him to increase his pricing to $85. By his sophomore year, he worked daily after school until 10 p.m., a cut-off time enforced by his mother. Within two weeks, he earned $5,600.
“I just remember I made it. I turned what I loved into like a hustle and a lifestyle, and it was no longer just like, ‘Oh I do hair.’ It was something that like I took it and I made it a brand,” Vmir mentioned.
His First $1 Million
Through social media, Vmir scaled his brand from 1,000 followers to nearly 20,000 by his senior year of high school. By then, he had a team, attended hair shows, and secured his first celebrity client, reality star Tiffany Pollard. He later worked with singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan and rapper Cardi B, after his relocation to Atlanta, GA.
At 19 years old, he earned his first $1 million — a milestone confirmed by his accountant.
“He showed me and I kind of couldn’t believe it ’cause again, where I’m from, these things do not happen. I did know I was making a lot of money, but a million dollars is a lot of money to a 19-year-old. Let alone $100,000,” he expressed.
FEMMÉ
Today, Vmir continues his journey as the founder of beauty brand FEMMÉ , launched in 2022. The line debuted with a silkening mist — a product he’d been using on clients since he was 16. While considering retirement, he decided to rebrand the company, adding five new products, including a satin leave-in conditioner, silkening chocolate shampoo, and silk balm serum.
In September 2023, after learning about TikTok Shop, Vmir decided to download the app to sell his products. He quickly gained traction, selling 1,200 orders of the silkening mist. Although it showed promise, the earnings still fell short of his expectations.
It was not until September 2024 that he decided to invest more time in sharing content on TikTok and hosting more live sessions.
“I just made a promise to myself: I’m no longer going to be accepting money from brands. I want to focus on the FEMMÉ brand, and I want to keep making it bigger and bigger,” Vmir explained.
Staying true to his word, he has now sold over 10,000 units through TikTok Shop between Sept. 6, 2024, and Oct. 29, 2024, according to information shared with AFROTECH™. These sales have amounted to nearly $100,000 in monthly revenue for Vmir.
“A lot of business owners that are not on TikTok, I feel like they should be on TikTok. That algorithm reminds you of the algorithm back in the day when Instagram first started. It’s so easy to pop on there,” Vmir said. “It’s so easy if you have a business to transfer people into buyers. I never was to think that I would ever be able to even sell like $100,000 worth of silkening mist. Or even years ago, it would take me like a year and a half to sell $100,000 worth of silkening mist. And now I’m doing that at minimum in one month.”
