Drybar cofounder shares the dark side of building her $255 million blow-drying empire

When Webb founded Drybar in 2010, she didn’t anticipate her passion for hair styling would grow into a beauty staple with over 150 storefronts nationwide. With its distinct yellow and gray logo and brightly branded products, the company capitalized on an unmet consumer need—a simple blowout, no cuts nor colors. 

“We were on such a rocket ship with Drybar, and the trajectory of the business was so fast and amazing,” Webb told me in a recent interview. She sold the company for $255 million to Helen of Troy, a major acquirer of consumer brands, in 2019. 

But there was a darker side to Webb’s story. She reveals her journey with depression and burnout in her newly released memoir, The Messy Truth. 

“I am a living, breathing example of just how high one can climb and how fast one can fall,” she writes in the book. 

As her business took off, Webb suffered a series of emotional setbacks—a failed marriage with a husband whom she worked with and her mother’s death from cancer. Seven years after launching Drybar, her eldest son began to struggle with his own mental health and went to rehab. She concealed most of this along the way and coped by hustling at work. “Drybar was all the rage, and it was intoxicating, and I loved it,” she says. 

But she wasn’t taking care of herself physically or mentally. “You’re giving so much of yourself to the cause, and you can easily lose yourself,” she says. “My life kind of imploded along the way.” 

Since then, Webb has gone to therapy and her son has received the help he needed. Webb says she’s learned to take care of herself by admitting when things aren’t as good as they seem instead of turning to work as an avoidance mechanism. She now works as a creative consultant for self-care consumer brands and continues to brainstorm new concepts, a job that suits her innovative and hands-on skillset. And she now recognizes that the high of entrepreneurial success has a steep comedown. 

“It’s a little bit of a drug…it’s like an addiction,” she says. 

Webb’s candor fits into a larger trend of founders and business leaders opening up about their mental health, from Depop founder Simon Beckerman admitting to crying episodes to the founders who shared how Silicon Valley Bank’s crash stoked deep anxiety. According to research from Deloitte, about 70% of C-suite executives say they are “seriously considering quitting for a job that better supports their well-being.” At the same time, employees yearn for “human-centered” leaders who are not afraid to prioritize their own health and show the not-so-glamorous side of success. 

Beyond chronicling Drybar’s rise, Webb hopes her story serves as a reminder to approach success more neutrally—not getting sucked into the short-term highs—while knowing when to let go and care for your mental health. “You’re not letting the great things that are happening be this crazy high, and then not allowing the bad things that happen to take you down,” she says. 

You can read my full story on Webb here.

Alexa Mikhail
Alexa.Mikhail@fortune.com
@MikhailAlexa

The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.

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