Stylish Turban Shower Caps – Shhhowercap Founder Jacquelyn De Jesu Interview

I’ve been a loyal shower cap wearer my entire life—but I can’t ignore the sheer embarrassment I feel each time I reach for my frilly pink satin cap. Jacquelyn De Jesu, founder of the now multi-million-dollar company Shhhowercap, could relate. Instead of the grin-and-bear-it approach, she decided to do something about it.

“The internet told me that frogs, rubber duckies, sequins, and bedazzling were ‘fashionable shower caps,’” De Jesu says, remembering when her quest started five years ago. “That was really my lightbulb moment. I wanted something that didn’t exist.”

Through conversations with friends, De Jesu determined that although the service shower caps offered was pretty great, most women were too dissatisfied with the options to actually use one. But that’s not to say the alternative—like tying your hair into a knot and praying it didn’t get wet—was any better. “It’s like cars existing but hating all the cars and just deciding to walk,” she jokes. “Shower caps serve a purpose, but no one wanted to use one unless they had to.”

De Jesu—who was working as an art director at the time with clients like VICE News, Google, and YouTube—recalls the excitement during the early stages of her idea. “What the category needed really aligned with the skills I had. Shower caps needed an aesthetic overhaul, a redesign, a rebrand,” she explains. “I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do this now, someone else is going to do it and I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life.’”

After two years’ worth of mad dashes to New York City’s Garment District, meticulous testing of waterproof fabrics, and engineering the perfect turban design, De Jesu launched Shhhowercap: a line of fashionable waterproof hair protection that not only works, but looks and feels astronomically cooler than anything of its kind.

Today, Shhhowercap is stocked by an impressive crop of high-end retailers, including Sephora, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale’s, and De Jesu’s company has garnered a loyal fan base. “For so long, shower caps used to be a space where women felt anything but good—and anything but themselves when they put one on,” De Jesu explains. “No one knows they need a Shhhowercap until they have one.”

Shhhowercap

Unlike beauty products that are worn to be seen, De Jesu’s goal with Shhhowercap is to create a personal, self-care moment that women can look forward to. “It’s almost like wearing matching, beautiful lingerie. It’s not about going on a date, it’s about having a little luxury in your daily routine that makes you feel better, not worse.”

“Our company motto is never settle, and that translates to the product itself and also to the origin of our story,” De Jesu adds. “I think it’s really important to recognize the value of female innovators, because our insights are so strong. No one can build or invent for us in a way that we can ourselves.”