Blo & Go, Changing the Way We Blow-Dry Our Hair – An Interview with Laurie Coleman
This morning I had just washed my hair and was staring at a white box which contained an invention publicist/co-inventor Anthony Turk sent me to try out. I decided to try it after hearing about how women’s lives have been made a little easier, at least when it comes to blow-drying their hair. Because of the heat during summer in Los Angeles, blow-drying my hair was the last thing I have wanted to do. So I have been wearing it—how should I say this—au naturel. I opened the box and stared for a minute at the contraption. It looked complicated. But I pulled the device out, followed the directions, and when I was done . . . . I emerged with salon blow-dried hair! It was so easy, and it has changed my blow-drying experience. This product is called BLO & GO and it is about to revolutionize the way I blow-dry my hair; because after using it, I simply cannot live without it.
BLO & GO has already been featured on “Good Morning America,” “The Early Show,” and the “Today Show.” Countless celebrities are already in possession of this fabulous invention, and BLO & GO is now available for purchase on HSN.
I recently interviewed Laurie Coleman, the inventor of BLO & GO.
Laurie, who all is involved in the creation of this product?
It’s funny because it’s definitely one of those ideas where you have necessity as the mother of invention. That’s really how the whole thing started. I would be getting ready to go out or go on an audition and you come out of the shower and you get your hair blown out. I would take a coat hanger and I would hook it over my door and I would put my hair dryer in it. I’d just sort of rig it up. And that way I’d have two hands because I was struggling with the brush and the hair dryer. I’d watched other women struggle with it, too. So if I could just get something that would hold my hair dryer above my head, I could replicate that fan blow-out.
My friend Anthony Turk walked in and asked, “What are you doing?”
I explained how difficult it was to hold the blow dryer and then add my round or flat brush and get my hair blown out. So he suggested we come up with something. We did a patent search and it came back that there wasn’t one for what we were trying to do. We weren’t exactly sure what it would look like. But that’s how it really started. We worked with an engineer and we came up with this. The thing that makes it so great is the suction cup allows you to put it on your mirror or window and that it’s up above your head. So when you’re sitting in the salon and they’re doing your hair, they’re up above you. And that’s really how the whole thing started, and now we sort of have a team together. We really persevered . . . and now we’ll be going on HSN.
A lot of celebrities use this product, I understand.
Yes, it really has been super positive. I think it’s because women get it immediately. When we started we were dealing with a lot of men, and they were kind of like, “Well . . . whatever. I don’t get it.” And then the second women would see it, it was just like major thumbs up.
Let’s talk about the actual invention itself. What was the process to actually come up with something that’s workable?
We worked with a couple of different people. The first time it came out, it was really complicated. The idea is that we really wanted it to be portable. So we had a couple of things we wanted. We wanted people to be able to use it up above or on a counter. I wanted it so it wouldn’t have to sit on your counter the whole time. You could just take it off and put it away, or you could leave it up. I think the trick was finally we found a very creative guy in Los Angeles who does a lot of different inventions. He just nailed it for us. He came back and showed it to us with the suction. After we got what we wanted it to look like, it had to be strong and flexible. When he put it together, had a couple of prototypes, there were a few [issues]. Sometimes the arm wasn’t quite right. It needed to be able to hold the professional weight of a hair dryer as well as just a little one you buy at a drugstore. After we finally got it [exact], we had it made in mass quantities. It took a while. And then we had to get people to want to market it. But perseverance, that was the key.
I’ve heard stories where getting a patent is very difficult. Did you guys run into any obstacle trying to get your patent?
Yeah, it comes back a lot. Right now it’s passing. It costs a lot of money. You have to get a patent attorney, and then you have to go through legal steps through the patent office in D.C. But it’s just one of those things where you have to stay at it. There were a couple of other similar products earlier, but the problem with it was it was really big and heavy like a big microphone stand and it weighed a ton. It really wasn’t very practical. But ours is different. But it’s still a very slow process.
What’s going to be your ultimate retail price on the Blo & Go, or have you not figured that out yet?
We haven’t really figured that out yet because we’re not quite ready for retail. We’re very close. We’ve a really great box, but there are a lot of steps to go through with retail. You need to have a track record of sales. HSN will be really great for that. We’ve had good response with our website as well as going into the international market, especially Hispanic. We would like to move into retail, hopefully by fall.
You said you can get it on the website. What’s the price for somebody to purchase it there?
It’s $29.99 plus shipping and handling. We also are introducing a really great product line of hair products, which are additional add-on sales, as well. You can get this at www.bloandgo.com.
Tell me about some of the other products you’re introducing.
It’s a hair serum. It decreases the drying time in your hair. We’ve worked with a hair care line to develop this for us specifically. It also has just a little bit of illumination to it. You have just a little bit of shine. It doesn’t weigh the hair down. It doesn’t make it greasy. It just gives it a nice texture and a beautiful shine. That’s the only product we have now, but we’re probably going to develop a shampoo and a conditioner. We’re not quite there yet.
That’s exciting. It’s like it’s taken a whole new turn.
It is exciting! I never thought of myself as being an inventor and running a company, but strange things happen.
Tell me a little about your background.
Well, I’m actually a trained ballet dancer. And from that I moved into commercials and did a lot of runway modeling and a couple of small parts in things. I have a performing arts background. Actually, my entire family was in the performing arts in one way or another. I am married to a United States Senator. I have two wonderful kids. My son Jacob is going off to law school; and my daughter is just graduating and is going off to Notre Dame. It’s just one of those times in your life when you’re looking for something different. This really just fell into my lap. I was just fine and just using my coat hanger. Blo & Go has really just taken off, and it’s been a fun adventure.
Let’s talk about the logistics of Blo & Go. Let’s say I take your Blo & Go and I put it on the mirror. What next?
You put it on either a mirror or a window or your vanity. These are the three surfaces that it really works best on. And then you get it to the height that you want to use it. Then you take your blow dryer, feed it through the little cradle—it has a bungee cord that holds it in so it can’t fall out—and then you start blow-drying your hair a little bit . . . and then you start replicating that salon experience. I blow-dry my hair in sections. You can pop in on our website to see the models blow drying their hair. That’s it. It’s very simple. Everybody uses it a little differently, but basically it accomplishes the same purpose. I encourage everyone to try it because they’re going to love it. Once they start, they’ll be like, “Where has this been all my life?”
To learn more about BLO & GO visit www.bloandgo.com.
Interviewed by Kaylene Peoples
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