Magdaline Hurtado was born and raised in New Jersey to a first-generation Dominican mother and a Dominican immigrant father. When she was 16 years old she moved to Santiago, Dominican Republic, and then moved back to the States to attend college at St. John's University in Queens. It was in college where she found her voice and started working tirelessly to amplify the Latinx community on campus while also taking on several internships within the music industry. Throughout these years, Hurtado began her journey to loving her naturally curly hair. But as her gorgeous rizos grew, she started noticing that the products she was using were actually working against versus for her hair. She also realized that the hair ties she was using at the time were just not cutting it.
"I was in DR when the idea of creating a wider silk scrunchie came to me. It was really hot out, so naturally, I wanted to get my big coily hair up and out of my face, but I ended up snapping through a few hair ties. I then questioned why a global industry didn't already offer hair ties for textured and fuller hair types," she said. "A few weeks later I was sewing up my first scrunchie in my abuela's kitchen and not knowing that single scrunchie would kick off my journey as an entrepreneur and become Hello Updo's staple product."
The scrunchie, which is available in two styles, now ships across the country and sells in a number of small shops and leading digital marketplaces, like Shop Latinx and Radical Girl Gang.
