With her perfectly tousled curls and cinematic social media posts, Barbara Brignoni has been one of my favorite people to follow on Instagram for years. When she announced that she would be launching her curl brand, Horae of Spring, together with her equally beautifully-tressed sister, Paola, it couldn’t have made more sense.

Horae of Spring is a luxury hair care brand designed for curly, wavy and coily hair, and their first product is their Curl Enhancing Cream made with an intoxicating rose and sandalwood fragrance blend. Inspired by Greek mythology, Horae of Spring wants to bring out your inner goddess; read on to discover the brand’s ethos, curl bible, and ways these sisters complement each other in business.

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What is Horae of Spring’s unique take on curl care?

Barbara Brignoni: We’re not reinventing the wheel with our formulas but with our messaging. We want to say that Horae of Spring is rooted in self-love, and is a brand that belongs on the top shelf of your vanity next to your favorite perfume or the makeup you splurge on because of how it makes you feel: special, divine, empowered. We wanted our curly hair brand to provoke that same feeling, to make you feel like a goddess; desirable and beautiful.

A lot of curly hair brands out there work well, but they’re mostly formulated for very textured hair, so they weigh down looser, wavier curls like my sister’s or mine. I also wanted the packaging to feel elevated. When I started my curly hair journey, I’d ask for products and get redirected to the “ethnic” aisle at CVS or Walgreens, or I couldn’t find a curly hair brand at Sephora at all, just generic haircare lines pumping out curly products without really understanding the curly hair routine. You’d be left wondering, “Where does this fit in my routine? What step is this?” It was overwhelming.

I wanted Horae of Spring to be like the figure in Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus,” the Hora who helps Venus as she arrives on shore. That’s who we want to be: the one who supports our “goddess” on her journey with inspiration, support, knowledge, and information. A hand to hold through her self-love and curly hair journey.

As you mentioned, your social media has a lot of Renaissance painting references. Can you tell me more about that?

The brand was completely inspired by a Renaissance painting. Some background: I studied art history and majored in painting, so art has always been a huge part of my identity and how I express myself.

Starting my curly hair journey was, at the same time, a self-love journey: unlearning everything I’d been taught since I was a little girl, and relearning how to speak to myself. Telling myself I don’t need to straighten my hair to go out, that my hair looks fine as it is, that I don’t look “ugly” — this is simply what my hair looks like today. Around the same time, I was reading about divine femininity and became really inspired by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. I kept asking myself: how can I tap into her, how can I embody her?

Then, when I was in Florence, I saw Botticelli’s painting and became curious about the figures surrounding her, who were they, and why were they there supporting her? That’s when I discovered the story of the Horae, the goddesses of the seasons and of divine, natural timing. It resonated so strongly, because I always feel like I’m reaching for a future season, for the day my hair will look “perfect.” But what about right now? How do I enjoy where I am and trust divine timing, instead of only loving some future version of myself?

That led me to the Hora of Spring specifically, the goddess of rebirth. If I was embodying Aphrodite (or Venus, her Roman counterpart), then the Hora of Spring became the embodiment of the brand itself, its ethos. That’s how the story came together. I’ve always been a bit of a “Renaissance girl,” into literature, classical art, classical music, so I wanted that part of my personality to come through in this brand, which I see as its own kind of art: tangible, evocative, and telling a story that pushes people to think differently.

How did the name come about?

“Horae” is plural for goddesses; the Hora of Spring is the goddess of spring specifically, the goddess of rebirth and renewal. I wanted the brand to embody that idea of a new self.

Tell me about your Curl Bible.

When we were designing the unboxing experience, I thought about it through all the senses (smell, touch, sight), and I wanted that first interaction with the brand to feel intentional and meaningful. My sister and I were brainstorming how to share our values and ethos in one piece, and the idea of a curly hair “Genesis” came up: the origin story of where the negative narrative around curly hair began. From there it became: this is the beginning of the story, and the “New Testament” is ours to write.

I was raised Christian, and I’m still very much a person of faith, so I wanted to bring in a bit of that spirituality, reclaimed in our own way. Genesis became the root of the problem, the origin of the negative narrative. Exodus became leaving that narrative behind: giving up the hot tools we feel enslaved to, no longer letting rain or humidity dictate our mood because we’re afraid of frizz. It’s about allowing yourself to be liberated. And so on. The Curl Bible is meant to be something you revisit for encouragement, something you keep on your vanity alongside your curl cream.

What are your hero products?

Right now, we only have one: the Curl Enhancing Cream. When I thought about the single product every curly hair routine needs, it was this. A curl cream was always my go-to, and still is. I tried so many creams, gels, and mousses out there (jelly consistencies, thicker creams) before landing on what worked for my hair type and the look I wanted.

I didn’t want the artificial “perfect curls” look you see in a lot of curly hair content: day-one curls that don’t reflect what day two, three, or four actually look like. That perfection implies your curly hair only counts if it’s flawless, and that’s not the message I wanted to convey. I wanted to embrace natural texture, a product that enhances what’s already there rather than manufacturing something artificial. That’s the Curl Enhancing Cream.

What do you have coming out, or any plans for anything else?

My hair is basically a sponge. I don’t wash it every day, maybe twice a week, but it absorbs the smell of wherever I’ve been. The next product is a curl perfume, something beautifully designed that fits in your bag or sits on your vanity, continuing our rose-and-sandalwood scent story, and that can layer over your regular perfume. Something that snaps you back into that feeling of divine femininity.

A few brands out there have hair perfumes, and more have hair-and-body mists. Ours would function as a hair-and-body mist too, since the formula is clean and vegan, safe for skin as well as hair. We also want to build out the full ritual around curly hair care: a silk robe, a silk bonnet, a candle, small touch points that make the routine feel special across all the senses.

How is it working together as sisters?

Amazing. Paola is a Capricorn, I’m a Pisces, total yin and yang. I’m the creative one; she’s always been the business, corporate mind. It’s funny, because growing up we were so different and on totally separate paths, I never imagined we’d work together. As we got older, our relationship shifted from sisters to best friends. She finished her master’s degree and was working at Sony when she told me she wanted to do her own thing. At the same time, I was realizing that if I launched this brand, I needed someone I trusted completely who was strong in business and finance, and there’s no one I trust more than my sister. I told her, “I think I need you to be CEO, let’s do this together.” I think we were always meant to build something meaningful, not just be sisters. Having her has meant everything.

I have three sisters. My two younger sisters and I are best friends. My youngest is ten years younger and has worked as my assistant on several occasions, which is so much fun. It’s special that we’re all close and excited to build something together.

You recently had an event in New York; how did you bring your vision of the brand to the streets of Manhattan?

I’m a very sensorial person, so I wanted to layer in as many senses as possible for the brand’s introduction. Flowers were a big part of it, tying back to the spring theme. I wanted people to be able to create something of their own that they could take home and display.

In the mornings, my curly hair routine is usually the first thing I do. I wash and style my hair, and while it’s drying I have tea, water with lemon, or coffee. I’m a two-to-three-coffees-a-day person; if you look at any of my editorial shoots around Manhattan, I always have a coffee in hand.

I wanted to bring that same sense of ritual into the event, so we built the activation around a specialty latte: Earl Grey and butterfly pea foam, with ginger and turmeric (turmeric is great for inflammation, and I’m really into Ayurveda, which we’ll bring more into future products). We didn’t want to lean only on rose, since spring is more than one flower, so we introduced other florals and herbs, and the latte’s colors also tied back to the brand palette. Coffee is one of my personal rituals, alongside my hair routine, and I wanted to invite people into that, to let them create something beautiful to take home.

What’s next for Horae of Spring?

I don’t want to give too much away, but the hair perfume is definitely coming. Beyond that, it’s really about education: rewriting the narrative and encouraging more women to embrace their curly hair at every stage. A lot of women still blow-dry their hair for work because they think curly hair isn’t “professional,” or for weddings because they don’t see it as elegant enough. We want to keep pushing back on that.

I think more women are ready to listen right now. You’re seeing more women wearing their natural texture on red carpets, and more women feeling curious, even if they’re not ready to make it permanent. So we’re focused on encouraging that curiosity, not just through well-designed products but through storytelling: more art, more short films on Instagram and our website. It’s less about a rigid step-by-step routine and more about inspiration: universe-building and community-building.