Karisma Ray Built a Beauty Blog Into a Business, Then a Calendar for Textured Hair
The Atlanta beauty and lifestyle blogger behind karismaray.com writes for a community she calls the Karismatics, and her newest project plans hair care around your life
“I’m a Georgia girl at heart.”
Karisma Ray is the founder and editor of karismaray.com, where the Atlanta, Georgia beauty and lifestyle blogger publishes beauty, lifestyle and travel stories for a community she calls the #Karismatics. She has been blogging, off and on, since 2007, and writing since she was 12, when she was the teenager sending letters to the editor of her local paper.
Her career spans nearly 20 years across blogging, content creation, corporate marketing and public relations, and brands bring her the full range of modern creator work: sponsored resort and destination visits, ambassadorships, sponsored posts and articles, speaking engagements, live event coverage and social media takeovers, all laid out on her Work With Me page.
A Georgia girl with a classroom streak
She was raised in Crescent, Georgia ("You might have to google it," she writes), and was valedictorian of her high school class. She went on to Spelman College as a Gates Millennium Scholar, earned a master's degree and worked at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. Today she is an educator and a speaker, and the teacher shows in her work with people just starting out. She runs New Bloggers Club, a creator community on Instagram, and offers one-on-one content coaching, a free "Before You Pitch" checklist and a $49 pitch template with seven bonus tips on her coaching page.
Roots she traced herself
Questions about the history she had been taught, including the story of Eliza Pinckney and the indigo she was said to have "discovered," led Ray to trace her own Gullah Geechee roots. In February 2024, Shegeechee named her one of eight Geechee creators to follow.
Thursday Rose
Her newest project is Thursday Rose, a hair and beauty planner. Answer three questions and it builds a living calendar of trims, deep conditions and fresh styles timed for textured hair, so the work lands before the moments that matter. A directory of stylists who know textured hair is coming next. Thursday Rose is her idea, and she runs it with Cara Coley, who owns this site.
Writing is still where it all starts. She calls it her "creative calling," the thread that runs from those teenage letters to the editor to a hair calendar on a phone.
Highlights
Who is Karisma Ray?
Karisma Ray is an Atlanta, Georgia beauty and lifestyle blogger, the founder and editor of karismaray.com, the creator of Thursday Rose, and a Spelman College graduate and Gates Millennium Scholar.
What is Thursday Rose?
A hair and beauty planner created by Karisma Ray that builds a living calendar of trims, deep conditions and styles timed for textured hair.
Where is Karisma Ray from?
She was raised in Crescent, Georgia, and is based in Atlanta.
