Dec. 18, 2025
Contact: Sara Diedrich, diedrichs@missouri.edu
Ciara Imani May, BSBA ’17, is a social entrepreneur whose startup, Rebundle, measures success by impact as much as profit. It’s the kind of mission-driven venture she spent her undergraduate years searching for, scouring University of Missouri career fairs for opportunities with purpose.
As a first-generation college student at Mizzou’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, May discovered entrepreneurship courses and immersed herself in the possibilities. Just a year after graduating, the Kansas City native drew on those refined strategic and communication skills — and her own frustration with synthetic braids — to launch Rebundle, a company championing safe, sustainable braiding hair created from banana fibers and with Black women in mind.
May had the innovative vision, and Mizzou helped her make it real.
“I didn’t know anything about entrepreneurship as a career path until I came to Mizzou,” she said. “The classes I took showed me that entrepreneurship could be a way to fulfill a mission through a business. Even though members of my family had run small businesses, I knew nothing about seed funding or what it meant to build a venture from the ground up.”
Since Rebundle hit the market, May’s products have been featured in several major magazines, such as Vogue, InStyle, Essence and Allure. She also appeared on the Kelly Clarkson Show. Her Braidbetter extensions are sold online and in more than two dozen salons and beauty retailers across the country, as well as at a store in London.
A new twist
Now, May is taking Rebundle to the next level, telling the story behind the world’s first patented banana-fiber braiding hair and leading a movement for healthier alternatives to synthetic extensions.
She recently launched the documentary “Reclaimed: Behind the Braid,” an in-depth look at Rebundle’s creation. Viewers go behind the scenes in Uganda, where discarded banana stems are collected and later transformed and braided into clients’ hair in the U.S. The 29-minute film also features insights from dermatologists and data scientists on scalp irritation caused by synthetic hair extensions and why the health issue matters.
“Synthetic hair extensions contain a range of industrial materials, including acrylics, nylon and polyester — some of which are associated with carcinogenic or irritating compounds,” she said.
Unlike human hair, these fibers are produced by heating plastics and extruding them through microtubes to mimic the texture and movement of real strands. For many wearers, chemicals used in this process can trigger allergic reactions and inflammation, which may lead to more serious side effects over time, most notably hair loss.
Now based in New York City, May is on a nationwide screening tour and will soon bring her film to Kenya, where she’s growing her network of banana-fiber suppliers. She recently visited Mizzou’s Trulaske College of Business to show the film and speak with students about entrepreneurship. The film is slated to debut online for free next year.
“It was inspiring to see the story come together,” May said. “It’s become a powerful tool for education and awareness, highlighting both the research that exists and the research we still need.”
The documentary also is helping May build a community and bring together experts and hair extension users to explore solutions collectively.
“It’s a uniquely effective form of guerrilla marketing,” she said.
Lessons learned at Mizzou
May credits much of her entrepreneurial knowledge to the classes she took with Greg Bier, former director of the Entrepreneurship Alliance at Mizzou. Under his guidance, she learned how to pitch an idea, a skill that, after hours of practice, paid off when she made the Charlotte Inno list of Startups to Watch in 2021 and won the crowd favorite at the UBS Venture Catalyst Awards. Those victories fueled her confidence and helped her cobble together enough funding to continue building her business.
Since then, May has continued to grow Rebundle while staying true to its mission of providing natural alternatives to traditional hair products.
“When I started sharing the concept for Rebundle, people immediately understood its value, and that was incredibly validating,” May said.
May said funding is still tough for entrepreneurs to secure, but it’s easier to keep going when the product’s mission runs deeper than profit and resonates with the people it’s meant to help.
“That’s what makes it worth it,” she said. “It’s hard, but it’s important.”
For May, that’s what makes a mission-driven company unique.
“The mission has to be something people care about, even when times are tough or the economy is uncertain,” she said.
What’s ahead
As she moves forward, May plans to focus on building her new supply chain in Kenya, exploring fresh sales channels and discovering innovative ways to connect with customers.
May has learned far more from her entrepreneurial journey than she ever expected.
“I’ve learned how to be persistent and what grit truly looks like,” she said. “Along the way, I’ve gained a deep understanding of material science, exposure science and chemical safety, as well as the realities of product development and even hiring and firing. I’ve been able learn it all in real time thanks to the foundational skills I gained at Mizzou.”
